My experience at a Louisiana shelter. - Democratic Underground

JackDragna

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Fri Sep-02-05 02:40 AM
Original message

My experience at a Louisiana shelter.

Edited on Fri Sep-02-05 03:30 AM by JackDragna

I don't normally post personal things. I just need to do this. Please spare me this one moment.

I signed up to work in a shelter inside Baton Rouge on Wednesday night. The shelter was one of the ones taking in people after the mandatory evacuation order when the levees broke. I had been assigned to go there in a 12-hour shift to help set the place up.

The shelter in question was little more than a front hall and gymnasium/auditorium. It was set up to house around 200 people for the evacuation. By the time I arrived, there were easily 400 at the shelter. People were wandering around, wondering what to do, most with a dazed look on their faces. I and the rest of the personnel had to constantly remind people to sign in so we could have a head count and know how much food we'd ned in the future.

Almost as soon as I began work, I was overwhelmed. A woman in tears asked me if there was a way I could help her find out where her children were. They had been in a hospital in New Orleans and she didn't know where they had been taken. It took me fifteen minutes just to find someone who might have some idea of where to call, the woman in tow the whole time. Eventually, I got her the information she needed.

For the rest of the night, I was put to work getting people food and water. We gave out the food and water just about as fast as we could unpack it. Luckily, people's generosity in these times was significant, so we had plenty of meals to go around. What was hard was seeing all the children, all the elderly and other people who could barely feed themselves. A local church came and handed out food and helped us out as well. I'm not sure what we might have done without them.

The gymnasium where people would sleep for the night was jammed to the rafters. The few cots we had were taken by people who didn't need them, We had elderly people sleeping on gym bleachers and on the floor. We couldn't turn out the lights, on order of the local police, because they feared what people might do in the dark.

Last night, I helped fold and sort clothing and hand out things like soap and toothbrushes. We literally had so much clothing that we turned back donations. As people came to look for clothing, people talked to me about what had happened. I met people who had been airlifted from their homes. I met a woman who narrowly escaped death after a tornado tore the roof off her apartment. I met a woman who broke down several times because her sick relative had to be moved out of New Orleans and was now expected to die. I heard countless stories of people who had lost everything, who had talked to relatives who were calling from cell phones in attics Monday night due to rising water and didn't know what happened to said relatives. Many of them just talked to me because they needed someone who was there. I encountered a few who treated the help badly, but many more were grateful in a way I cannot describe to others without breaking down myself. I left tonight more from mental exhaustion than physical.

I have finally gotten back online myself after power was restored to where I live. I know there's plenty of links to aid sites here on DU, but if it will add anything to your impetus to help, then let me make my plea now. The media cannot possibly describe to you the enormous magnitude of the destruction here in Louisiana. We need every bit of support you can possibly muster. In many places in this state, the situation is beyond desperate. If I could get down on my knees and beg each of you personally to give what you could to the disaster relief efforts here, I would. Please do what you can for the people here.

Edited for spelling.