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Community Responses to Hurricane Katrina

The Communities Respond website presents a compilation of events, activities, and information that were organized by communities throughout the country to express their grief, empathy, and concern regarding Hurricane Katrina and its consequences. This information was sent to the Association for the Study and Development of Community (ASDC) from different sources across the country and therefore we cannot guarantee its accuracy. The information is organized according to the major settings in which one might organize a response or offer any assistance.

If you would like to tell us about what your community or organization is doing, please contact the project.

Steve Chase describes the efforts of his friend Marylee Orr on September 2, 2005 to the COMM-ORG listserv.

The Red Cross Is Great, But Here Is a Grassroots Alternative…

Dear Friends,

On Friday, I talked on the phone with my friend Marylee Orr, who lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Marylee is the director of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network--a coalition of over 100 grassroots citizens groups throughout the now devastated state of Louisiana. I got to know her on the Department of Environmental Studies' field studies trip to Louisiana last March when 13 of our students got up close and personal with environmental justice issues in "Cancer Alley." Marylee helped our students out a lot during our trip and I have been fast friends with her ever since.

Here is why I love her. Marylee hasn't been up late every night out for the last week out of aimless worry about the many victims and the environmental tragedy left in the wake of the hurricane and official mismanagement of both the disaster prevention and response efforts. She's been up late because she is working hard to do something about the situation. As she told me on the phone on Friday afternoon, the federal government is not really on the ground doing much yet and, in some of the hard hit parishes in the state, even the Red Cross is not much of a presence yet. In the time honored tradition of grassroots citizenship for the common good, this gutsy woman is using the local contacts with grassroots activists, local officials, and Louisiana faith communities she has built up over 20 years to help close the dramatic gap between the intense need of the people of the Louisiana and the official response so far.

Just this Thursday, LEAN members provided an airdrop of food, water, and medical supplies to the trapped residents of St. Bernard and Plaquemine Parishes, two of the most inundated areas in the state. Saturday, LEAN dropped more supplies for stranded people in Washington Parish. LEAN is also working hard now to raise more funds to allow local people, working with local government leaders to provide direct, immediate assistance with all the efficiency that comes from not being a bureaucrat or an outsider. I've already made a contribution to the Red Cross to offer some assistance to the hurricane victims in Louisiana, but I've decided to write a check for ten times that amount to the Louisiana Environmental Action Network in order to support people that I know have both the big hearts and the local knowledge needed to help meet the crying humanitarian needs in Louisiana. I also know that LEAN won't just leave the area when the immediate crisis is over. LEAN will also work to address the toxic cesspool and chemical contamination that will be left behind when the water finally recedes. I’m asking everyone I know to join me in contributing money directly to LEAN for their local efforts in disaster relief. Every penny will be used well. I would trust Marylee with my life and I know her effort will save lives. Please dig deep and give as much as you can to: LEAN, 162 Craydon Avenue, Baton Rouge, LA 70806.

At the very end of our phone call on Friday, Marylee thanked me for pledging money and for my offer to encourage other folks to contribute to LEAN's disaster relief efforts, but she also asked for one more thing. She said, "We need financial contributions from all our friends around the country for sure, but we could also really use your prayers. It means so much to know that people around the country care." For people who want to send good wishes as well as their checks, please write to Marylee's group at lean@leanweb.org. She likely won't have time to write back, but it will mean a lot to this hard working, non-sleeping group of local heroes to know that our hearts and prayers are with them.

An article from Jewish Week entitled “Devastated But Safe In Wake Of Katrina” was published September 8, 2005 and details some of the response of the Jewish community to the aftermath of the hurricane:

“They’re overwhelmed by the reception they are receiving from the Houston Jewish community,” Raynor said. “They used to be the helpers. One of the biggest challenges is to be OK with the fact that people want to help them.”

“The outpouring of love, concern, and support that has been expressed for the Jewish community of Greater New Orleans is overwhelming,” said Eric Stillman, executive director of the New Orleans federation. “From cities throughout the United States, other Jewish Federations, the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Government of the State of Israel, and the synagogue movements, we have received messages and offers of help.”

A major Houston Jewish institution, United Orthodox Synagogues, ran a campaign to collect such items as clothing, toys and food, and the congregation tried to replace some of the Jewish texts that displaced members of New Orleans’ Jewish community lost to the floodwaters. Chabad emissaries in Houston, Memphis and other Southern cities arranged free apartments, meals and schooling for the evacuees.

With the High Holy Days approaching, Houston synagogues offered free membership and free enrollment in religious schools.

This article was written by Cindy Long, a member of the National Education Association detailing local school response to the aftermath of the hurricane. (http://www.nea.org/katrina/houston2.html)

Routine Is an Important Part of Healing
September 8, 2005
Houston, Texas

When he first arrived at Oak Creek, Sir Henry (left) clung to his older brother. By lunch, he was surrounded by new friends.

On the morning of his first day at Oak Creek Elementary in Houston, TX, Sir Henri was so withdrawn he could barely unwrap his arms from around his older brother, Isaiah. But by lunchtime, the kindergartner was smiling and laughing, surrounded by new friends and enjoying his chicken nuggets.

The children who evacuated New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina have been through an experience most kids will never have to endure, and though they've survived and are recovering, they are understandably traumatized, confused, and afraid. For the youngest Katrina evacuees, school is their refuge and provides a much-needed sense of normalcy.

"Routine is the most important thing for these children right now," said Oak Creek Elementary school counselor Bonnie Stover. "Many of the families who've come here have lost everything; it all just floated away. But for the children to go about the regular school day during this time, it's an important part of healing."

The goal for Stover and other staff at Oak Creek is to make the transition to this new school as easy as possible for the students and to get them back into a normal routine -- while keeping a sharp eye out for signs of stress or trauma.

"What do you think this student was feeling?" Burke-Neale asked Paige.

Paige replied that the new student was probably scared, and probably worried that his teacher might be mean. She thought he might also worry about "what color" the other students would be, and what they would be like. By assessing Paige's reading skills with this kind of story, Burke-Neale was allowing her to indirectly express her fears and anxieties about her own recent experiences.

Stover and Burke-Neale believe that educators should be careful about accentuating the disaster and singling out the evacuees as different from other students. At the same time, the children need to make new friends and know that they are welcomed.

It's a delicate balance, but parents who have registered their children at Oak Creek are grateful for the warm reception their children are receiving. "Some of the parents have said they didn't know if schools would want to take in their kids," Stover said. "They were worried they might not be welcome."

Having their children invited into classrooms where they'll be safe and nurtured from 8 to 3 every day puts parents' minds at ease and allows them to focus on the demands of finding work or emergency assistance.

"And when parents' fears are put to rest, their children feel more at ease," adds NEA member Sarah Warthen, a school counselor at Mary Marek Elementary School in the Alvin Independent School District, where 86 evacuated students have enrolled so far.

"These students are still dealing with the tremendous shock of being uprooted. They break down sometimes, and it can be overwhelming for them, so we're starting support groups where they can talk about it with each other," Warthen said. "We're focusing on helping them develop friendships. They've lost a sense of community, and we want to help rebuild that."

At Oak Creek Elementary, Sir Henri had already started building a community in his kindergarten class. He'd made a bunch of new friends by lunchtime, and even though he didn't know their names, his teacher knew he'd learn them in time. The Oak Creek staff all believe that the more names Sir
Henri remembers, the more hurricane troubles he will forget.

Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now Newsletter on September 13, 2005 helped “Katrina Survivors Find a Voice”.

The Houston ACORN Town Hall Meeting on Hurricane Katrina on Friday, September 9th united hurricane survivors and low and moderate income community members. Three hundred people, mostly hurricane survivors, attended the meeting at the Mount Calvary Lutheran Church, and pledged to build a survivors’ organization.

Texas ACORN President Toni McElroy told the crowd, "We're here tonight to hear your experiences, to get information to survivors, to hold elected officials accountable and to help rebuild the New Orleans community."

Survivor and ACORN member Joe Stafford testified about the loss of his father and said, "I just want the officials and everyone here to hear my side of the story. And my side of the story is that I think there could have been a better way to get us out of New Orleans." Stafford also wants a voice in the recovery and rebuilding process. "I want to know what they're gong to be doing with all that money."

Houston Mayor Bill White and other elected officials committed to work with ACORN to respond to several immediate issues raised by many survivors. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee opened her remarks by saying, "As a Federal official, I will first apologize to you -- we failed in our initial response to save lives." She committed to work on legislation for services for homeless children, Medicare and Medicaid recipients, and for one-year housing vouchers for Katrina survivors.

New Orleans ACORN member and Katrina survivor Dorothy Stukes urged participants to help build a survivor's organization, by joining, petitioning, door-knocking, and taking part in future actions: "If you're poor like we are, they're going to slam a door in your face. If we fight together, they can't turn a deaf ear to us." (Read more.) ACORN & City of Houston Distribute Food Cards

At the Town Hall meeting on Hurricane Katrina, Houston Mayor Bill White committed to address the severe needs of the families who are sheltering hurricane survivors—often groups of ten, fifteen, or more. On Monday, September 10th, Mayor White announced a partnership with ACORN and other community groups to distribute grocery cards to the families providing shelter. (Read more.) ACORN has already begun distributing the cards.

Although New Orleans ACORN's 9,000 members have been scattered around the country, they have already begun organizing, even as they struggle to meet basic needs. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and surrounding areas, survivors have held several community meetings to develop a short and long term agenda for recovery, and have joined with the Louisiana AFL-CIO have organize the Rebuild Our Region Coalition.

Scott Reed, National Director of Organizing for the People Improving Communities through Organizing (PICO) National Network reported on the grassroots efforts of PICO in the gulf coast on September 24, 2005 to the COMM-ORG listserv. (www.piconetwork.org)

Last week PICO families and congregations in Louisiana put out a new call for help. They asked leaders and organizers from across PICO National Network to come to Baton Rouge to support a massive effort to help now-scattered New Orleans families come together to have a voice in rebuilding their city. New Orleans has long been at the heart of PICO.

Since the mid-1980’s clergy, community leaders and organizers from New Orleans have deeply shaped the culture of our network. In so many ways PICO is a product of what we have collectively learned from New Orleans: the every day fluency with power, race and politics; the African-American church tradition; the unparalleled love of place and understanding of how important it is to sustaining strong families.

Thirty volunteer leaders and organizers from California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Florida, Michigan, New York and Colorado began arriving in Louisiana on Wednesday. We came with the understanding that with all the talk of creating a new New Orleans and "reconfiguring the demographics of the city" rebuilding is not just about jobs and homes but also a matter of creating hope, reconnecting community and rescuing one of the greatest cultural treasures in America, a vibrant African-American cultural center.

With another powerful hurricane striking the Gulf Coast, Louisiana faces overwhelming needs and limited capacity to rebuild itself. As we write this, water is once again pouring into the 9th Ward of New Orleans; families displaced by Katrina are yet again on the road searching for shelter. Before Katrina, Louisiana, one of the poorest states in the nation, failed to meet the basic needs of many of its citizens. Now hundreds of thousands of people are living in shelters, still awaiting urgent health care, counseling and the basic help they need to rebuild their lives.

As PICO leaders and staff have met with displaced families we have heard over and over that the same gross failure to protect families from Katrina continues to undermine relief efforts. Today at a church shelter in Baton Rouge we met with families who described living in a shelter without mental health services and health care for traumatized victims.

They told us of their anger at FEMA, Red Cross and others for repeatedly failing to keep promises to provide services and of failing to provide any answers of when temporary housing would be available. These are families from a community abandoned by the government before Katrina struck, left without the ability to get out of the city, sent to a shelter that could not protect, finally evacuated to place they could not chose and now living in a shelter without any answers about what comes next.

Amid the fear and chaos of the past three weeks we have also been awed by the commitment of families and congregations in Louisiana to come together to rebuild the state and return home to New Orleans. The ties that bind families to each other, to their faith communities and to place are powerful in this region. In so many ways and from so many people we have heard the common cry that despite everything "we’re going home."

PICO organizers and leaders visited St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Baton Rouge to meet with 300 Vietnamese families displaced from New Orleans. They told us that they wanted to return home to New Orleans, and that under the leadership of their pastor they were actively organizing to obtain materials and coordinate skilled craftsperson to rebuild their church and homes. We heard stories of people moving back to their water logged houses in order to not lose their jobs. The message of these families, who originally came to America as refugees, was that they want to go home to their jobs, churches and community but need federal help.

When asked to raise their hands if they intended to return to New Orleans, almost all those at St. Anthony’s and other shelters in Baton Rouge raised their hands.

Many families who want to rebuild tell the same story we heard from Mary of calling their insurance companies and being told that despite paying for homeowners insurance and hurricane coverage over many years they will not be compensated. Homeowners fear losing their homes to foreclosure and renters are afraid of being evicted from houses they lived in for 30 years. Although many families want to remain close to New Orleans, FEMA is not even asking families where they would like to live, but is instead moving forward with massive concentration of trailers far from public transportation and job opportunities.

The central lesson of the death and destruction in New Orleans is that without power people perish. We know that these disasters are man made; the Katrina autopsy will show a string of political decisions that exposed those without money and influence to catastrophic danger. So much of what we witnessed violated the cornerstone of human society that every life has intrinsic value. As PICO has responded to the aftermath of Katrina we have acted on the understanding that justice is not just a matter of putting the right policies in place or involving the community in planning. Doing right by those who died and lost everything means insuring that families have the power to define the agenda and control the outcome; it means equipping people to reorganize themselves for power at a time when everything that held together their families and communities has been upended.

On September 12 PICO brought the voices of New Orleans and Louisiana families and pastors to Washington, DC, holding a national press conference and obtaining commitments from members of Congress that displaced families would have a say in federal relief and recovery plans.

On October 4 PICO LIFT is holding a statewide action meeting in Baton Rouge to begin rebuilding Louisiana so that families can go home to their communities. PICO LIFT leaders are calling on Congress and local and state officials to work together with displaced families to make sure that all families receive immediate relief that protects their health and welfare. PICO LIFT is fighting for federal resources and policies that insure families the right to return to New Orleans, to project a vision for the future of their city and to receive the jobs and economic opportunities that come from rebuilding the city. PICO LIFT is talking with hundreds of displaced families to get their input into a comprehensive plan for relief and recovery.

PICO federations from around the nation are traveling to Baton Rouge to support Louisiana and take back the message that Congress should do right by the Katrina families and not finance the rebuilding of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast by cutting the safety net that so many families depend on at times of need. Across PICO we are asking "what are the levies that could break in our communities and who would be left on the roof tops."

In the early days after Katrina struck PICO encouraged people to make contributions to the Red Cross and others providing immediate rescue and relief; we also created a hotline for congregations to send resources to churches in Louisiana that are sheltering families. We continue to encourage direct support for sheltering communities.

For those who want to support efforts by Louisiana families to organize themselves to return home and have a voice in rebuilding the city and state, we have created a Rebuild Louisiana Fund. You can learn more or contribute to this fund by contacting John Baumann at jbaumann@piconetwork.org (501) 655-2801, 171 Santa Rosa Avenue, Oakland, CA 94610. You can also donate online at http://www.piconetwork.org/supportpico.asp (select Louisiana Interfaiths Together). All funds donated to the Rebuild Louisiana Fund will be used to support work by Louisiana Interfaiths Together to reach out to and organize families in the state to participate in relief and recovery decisions.

PICO National Network has worked since 1972 to give families and congregations a voice in decisions that affect their communities. With one million families, one thousand faith communities working in 150 cities and 18 states, PICO is one of the largest and most diverse grassroots community efforts in the United States.

Louisiana Interfaiths Together (PICO LIFT) is a state wide umbrella for six PICO federations: All Congregations Together-New Orleans, Working Interfaith Network-Baton Rouge, Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Org.-Houma Thibodaux, Congregations Organizing People for Equity-Lafayette, Delta Interfaith Network-Lake Providence, Hope Ministries-Point Coupee Parish.

Articles:

The National Center on School Engagement has a special issue devoted to improving education of homeless and highly mobile students. (http://www.schoolengagement.org/
newsletter/September05ncsenews.html#articles)

The New York Times published the article “Across Nation, Storm Victims Crowd Schools” by Sam Dillon on September 7, 2005 providing some food for thought regarding the implications of educating displaced people.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/07/national/nationalspecial/07child.html)

USA Today published an article on September 13, 2005 discussing how “Culture gaps could inhibit counseling of Katrina victims”.
(http://www.mercksource.com/pp/us/cns/cns_news_article.jspzQzidzEz449121)

The Washington Post published an article on September 13, 2005 discussing the struggle that mental health experts are facing as they forecast Katrina's psychological impacts.
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/12/AR2005091201445.html)

The article below details the response of a local coalition in Jackson County, Mississippi, directly affected by Hurricane Katrina. The coalition describes their efforts and offers first hand advice on what communities and coalitions can do to assist the survivors and evacuees.

September 22, 2005
Jackson County Coalition Helps Restore Community from Katrina

Using their unique role in the community and a hands-on coalition approach, the Jackson County Children’s Coalition in Gautier, Miss., is leading a major relief effort to ensure that families receive the help they need to survive the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Jackson County Coalition leaders know about Katrina’s destruction first-hand. The group’s headquarters is located two miles from a beach in Mississippi’s Gulf Coast region, where strong winds destroyed homes and entire buildings. While the coalition’s offices suffered only minimal damage, two of its employees were personally touched, losing their homes in the disaster. “Everybody here has been touched in some form or fashion by Katrina,” explained Jim Yancey, Executive Director of the coalition. “Jackson County has a population of 130,000 and the Saturday after Katrina hit we had 100,000 people homeless in our county.”

One of the toughest challenges for the Katrina relief effort is the many forms of assistance being funneled in from different directions and no one to organize these services. Coalition leaders thought that they were in an ideal position to speed up the delivery of relief services by using their organizational, outreach and leadership skills that they’ve learned throughout the years working at a coalition. Now, they go into the community and organize people into action.

“We tell people to coordinate with other agencies, think outside the box and find new ways to do things more efficiently. We know from our training that it’s important to get people who never talk to work together,” Yancey said.

Yancey noted that learning about the coalition logic model through CADCA’s trainings was the knowledge they used to organize people in the community.

They also launched a Good Samaritan Project, where coalition staff, volunteers and youth leaders go door-to-door delivering ice, water, food, medical supplies, first-aid kits, cleaning utensils and other essential items to families in need. They also help families clean their homes of any debris leftover from the hurricane. This hands-on approach has proved successful because of the coalition’s numerous relationships in the community. “Coalitions are in a unique position to help because of the rapport they’ve already built in their communities and with volunteers,” Yancey said.

There are a number of specific things coalitions can do to help in their communities, Yancey noted. For example, coalitions can:

• Talk to members of their communities and find out what their specific needs are. They can communicate that to their contacts to make it easier for funding and donations to reach families. This will eliminate the risk of fraud, which has been occurring on the Internet through bogus Web sites claiming to be relief organizations.
• Reach out to government officials in their communities and stress the importance of collaboration and partnerships.
• Coalitions can partner with other community organizations to develop efficient ways of aiding their community.

Despite the challenges of Katrina, the Jackson County Children’s Coalition has not stopped their drug prevention efforts, even launching an ecstasy prevention effort in local colleges this coming weekend. “We’re going to keep our drug prevention efforts going, but we’re going to use a lot of the CADCA training that we’ve done and apply it to relief efforts here in the community,” Yancey said. “We just see ourselves as part of the community and we attempt to address whatever the needs that are out there.”

To learn more about the Jackson County Children’s Coalition, visit www.jccsc.org.