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Here's something I found when I consulted my local paper to see what is going on here. It indicates that something completely unreported is going on. That is the Rev Masters cited here is one of the leaders in President Bush's faith-based initiative. Seems it has ben mobilized.

Restaurant owner follows heart, takes in evacuees By Scott McCabe Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Saturday, September 10, 2005

WEST PALM BEACH — Jenetha Smith felt helpless watching the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina with so many people stranded with no place to go and seemingly no help on the way.

"I wanted to just reach through the TV screen and pull everybody out to help them," said Smith, who runs the World Famous Restaurant, with her mother Yvonne Peterman. "We cried for days. It was so overwhelming."

The only way to stop crying, she decided, was to help at least two families, get them out of the dreary shelters and find them a permanent place to stay.

So she made a phone call to County Commissioner Addie Greene. That led to more phone calls and eventually to Bishop Thomas Masters, who was in Houston volunteering at the Astrodome.

Several evacuees were willing to move to Palm Beach County, Masters told her, including one young mother from New Orleans who saved her two toddlers by putting them on an inflated inner tube and pushing them through chest-deep water to the Superdome.

Now, the young mother had nowhere to go.

Meanwhile, phone calls started to pour back Smith's way, from churches, businesses, apartments and other people who wanted to help. Smith had to learn how to set up a non-profit.

Late Thursday night, 12 evacuees arrived with Masters at the restaurant where shortly after midnight they got their first hot meal in nearly two weeks. They were black and white and young and ready to start a new life.

The survivors began talking about what they came through — including one story of a man in New Orleans who shot his wife and daughter before taking his own life.

On Friday, the 12 rested, too tired to attend the afternoon press conference at the restaurant.

But they have a new family waiting for them. Smith and her helpers plan to provide housing and health care for one year.

"We're going to keep them," said her mother, Peterman. "They're babies."

An account has been set up at Washington Mutual for the African-American Hurricane Relief Fund, and contributions can be deposited during normal business hours. Smith is also accepting food, water, baby care, first aid, and personal hygiene items at the restaurant, 417 Northwood Road. For more information, contact Smith at (561) 833-3377.

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