Katrina - Communities working together |
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September 28th, 2005 - 11:01AM |
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Photo: Greg Beals/International Rescue Committee Louisiana native Lisa David, now the IRC's regional refugee resettlement director in Dallas, traveled back to her home state to join an IRC team supporting local relief efforts for people displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Wednesday, September 7 Today I attended a community planning meeting in Lafayette hosted by the United Way. It is amazing to see the number of area communities, organizations and religious groups that are working to meet the needs of evacuees. The Red Cross representatives announce that there are currently 50,000 evacuees in their shelters in Louisiana and between 85,000 and 100,000 in Red Cross shelters in other states. Of course, as is clear at the meeting and I’ve seen first hand – there are numerous other shelter sites not being coordinated by the Red Cross. I also visit the Heymann Center which is serving as a special needs center in the area. There are a lot of elderly evacuees here but staff report they are having fairly good luck reuniting them with their families, both locally and across the country. Their current need: more volunteers to help at their “information center” – computers and phones used to help locate and reconnect the families. Both today and yesterday it has been difficult to get on the highway without finding yourself in the middle of military convoys. There are lots of personnel and heavy equipment on the move. On a more personal note, there is a little more news about Anita’s father today. She has connected with an aunt in Illinois (her father’s sister) who was able to locate Anita and her children through the Red Cross database. Her aunt has received information that her father is in Washington . . . but so far it is unclear if that means Washington, Louisiana; Washington, DC or somewhere in Washington state. Anita is trying to make calls to get more information, but it still takes a lot of patience with the phones still very unpredictable. Posted By: Kathleen Sands | Hurricane Katrina Permalink |
