Red Monkey: Refuge

Refuge

September 2, 2005

Please spread the following as far and wide as possible so that the info gets to those who need it:
There is a property in Oklahoma ready to take in six or so folks from Katrina and they're getting a contractor lined up to convert the garage into a 22 person bunkhouse.
(courtesy WWdN)

The fact that this happens to be a rather well-known fantasy writer and her husband shouldn't be a big deal when hundreds and probably thousands of "regular folks" are also planning on doing the same thing, if they haven't already done so.

In fact, I'm thinking since so many folks are heading into Houston already, shouldn't there be a bunkhouse built in Crawford? We already know that there's puh-lenty of room out there from all the footage we've seen in the last few weeks.

In fact, since Bush seems to think that any time people need a helping hand, the private citizenry will help them out, that specifically Christians will help out those who truly need it, then don't you think it would be a nice gesture -- a concrete act of Christian (I'd say human) charity -- if he'd have a bunkhouse built on the far end of his property?

In fact, since Bush fired Mike Parker, former Republican Congressman from Mississippi, who had been the head of the Army Corps of Engineers and who had publicly criticized his commander-in-chief for cutting funds to projects that might have saved more of this region hit so hard by Katrina. And Parker does NOT claim that the proposed works he'd championed would have completely kept flooding at bay (so to speak), but he does insist that it wouldn't be as bad as it is now.

In fact, many experience firefighters, CERTs and even first responders are being asked to STAY AWAY at this time. According to Larry Dixon, "The high-level dispatch I saw today is, in as many words, "Nobody Goes In" during the continued and perhaps complete, evacuation of the Gulf Coast. The only aid people that are being specifically asked for at the moment, through my channels, are fast water rescue teams."

Part of me wants to scream at that -- we need as many rescue people there as possible, regardless of specialty, don't we?
The fact of the matter is, I don't know what we need there.
My "save the world" instinct and my pragmatic side are battling. But, if you send in someone who doesn't have experience with ... let's say just plain water rescue, will they really know how to keep themselves alive in that toxic soup that has become this region? Will they know that even a bruise might let some of that contaminated water mixed with death mixed with heavy metals mixed with more disease and bacteria and rotten nastiness into their system and kill those who are trying to help?
Again, I don't know.

I'd think at this point we'd want every available and willing person to be near the area and be quickly trained to help out.
But that would mean taking an experienced, veteran rescue worker whose help is desperately needed NOW away from the relief effort in order to teach others. Can we afford the time?
I don't know.

It's really easy to second guess and play armchair quarterback. But most of us don't know enough about relief efforts to do more than open our homes to those seeking refuge from a terrible tragedy.

I've read plenty of blogs supporting every decision Bush has made so far in regard to Katrina's wrath. I've read plenty condemning him. And I've ready plenty of conservative folks who are whining that the liberals a politicizing a natural disaster that no one could have predicted -- or at least politicizing it when "these people" could have evacuated and "chose" not to do so.

Let me say now, Bush is at least partially to blame for the extent of this disaster by his insistence on cutting levee proposals and wetland reclamation projects. His insistence that we did not need to spend money on citizens of the U.S. but instead pick up his Daddy's war has probably cost us a chunk of the coast. His insistence that the National Guard needs to be in Iraq instead of helping our nation here, at home, as they were meant to do, is probably costing us lives and is certainly costing us more damage to the affected region as it takes longer to fix breaches and pump cities dry.

For those of you who think that those who did not heed evacuation orders got what they deserved (sorry I was so mad I didn't save the link to that blog), do you understand how ridiculous that statement is? It borders on the superstitious.
It's a lot like someone saying that God is showing his displeasure with Bush for going into Iraq -- because the last time we went into Iraq (with Daddy Bush), Hurricane Andrew tried to destroy Florida.

Ultimately, I, personally do not know what the answers are. I'm sure that had the work requested to be done in New Orleans been done, things would be bad, but perhaps not so bad that people were told they would not be able to return to their city for months, if ever.

I'm sure scientists are, or will be, analyzing the data and figuring out what would have happened -- they have to do that to know how to better protect New Orleans (and other cities) in the future.

But right now, let's concentrate on the living who are displaced, discouraged and disenfranchised. Let's find them a place to stay for now, a place to live for the next few months. Let's find them some jobs to make up for the ones underwater. Let's help them have as normal a life as they can possibly have at the moment.

And, if any survivor of Katrina reads this and needs a place to stay -- if you can make it to Indiana, I can find a place for a couple of people. It's not much and the most concrete thing I can do now is send bottled water and supplies and money through good organizations out to that area. But the offer is still open, as I'm sure it is in many homes across the U.S.

I'm more concerned about the survivors right now. I think history will condemn the idiocy that made Katrina worse than it had to be. (After all, if the wetlands around New Orleans hadn't eroded away, the storm might have lost more of its force before it hit the city.)
My only concern is that we don't get so caught up in helping those in the present that we forget what bureaucratic mistakes contributed to the mess.

Meanwhile, if you want to give, consider giving to Church World Service -- they're a great organization and they generally stay LONG after everyone else has left -- trying to make sure that everyone is truly back on their feet and not just giving a short term fix.

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