Archive for the ‘Katrina’ Category
Monday, March 13th, 2006
[1]
Just in case you thought it couldn't get any worse:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and other federal responders failed to provide warnings and evacuation notices in languages besides English, resulting in the avoidable loss of life among Peruvian and Brazilian casino workers in Mississippi, the report found. In addition, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not suspend immigration enforcement to allow all disaster victims to access food, water and shelter -- and several victims who did come forward were placed in deportation proceedings. (Emphasis mine. More here [2].)
I'll be thrilled and relieved when all these zenophobes running our country - and running around our country - return to where ever they came from.
The new definition of mean-spirited obscene: FEMA.
[1] http://jaysennett.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/learn-english.JPG
[2] http://www.reconstructionwatch.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=101
Posted in Katrina | 3 Comments »
Thursday, November 10th, 2005
During Katrina I blogged (here [1] and here [2]) about the situation at Orleans Parish Prison. Conflicting stories, denials, etc., came out during the stalled evacuation of NOLA. Family and friends are still looking for people incarcerated in what is actually a very large jail. Why?It seems the Sheriff's Deparment misplaced 328 prisoners during the debacle that was the evacuation of OPP.We would welcome an explanation for your conclusion that there are no inmates missing from OPP. Your spokesperson, Ms. Renee Lapeyroldrie told us, however, that you have no complete lists of OPP evacuees and their current locations. It is our understanding that the only list of OPP evacuees that you or anyone else has is the one prepared by the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, which was recently updated on September 28. Having carefully compared that list to the list of OPP inmates just prior to the Hurricane, we have identified a total of 328 OPP prisoners who are missing from the DOC list, 118 of whom were housed in Templeman 3. We believe it is incumbent on your department to explain why there are so many names missing from the list of evacuated prisoners. (emphasis mine.)So wrote [3] Jamie Fellner, Director, U.S. Program, Human Rights Watch to Sheriff Marlin N. Gusman on October 8, 2005.Words like despicable and disgusting come to mind. But few Americans know about the OPP disaster. We have the media (liberal? conservative? gutless curs.) to thank for that.We also have a demoralized, beat-up and weary public to thank as well. Prisoners don't make our radar. Bring up the issue of queers in prison at any gay cocktail party and cries of "you are a such a downer!" ring out.I write about the people of OPP to keep a tiny story of people seemingly without hope alive. I write about the people of OPP to add my voice to a small group of people here and around the world demanding more humane and compassionate treatment of our prisoners. I write about the people of OPP for the families and friends outside. Mostly, though, I write about the people of OPP for me. I'm a patsy to my own super-fank filled ego. I'm a publisher! My yoga practice is awesome! I rock!All of which are true. Yet I can't help but feel that my freedom remains intertwined with their incarceration. That how bigots want to dispense with me is linked to the disposal of those 328 people. We're all part of an interdependent web. My freedom only exists in relation to the incarceration of people. To be freer, truly free, I need to free them as well.
[1] http://www.jaysennett.com/blog/2005/08/orleans_parish_prison_update.htm
[2] http://www.jaysennett.com/blog/2005/09/orleans_parish_prisoners_moved.htm
[3] http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/10/08/usdom11907.htm
Posted in Anti Assclownery, Katrina | 1 Comment »
Friday, October 7th, 2005
[1]
Clayton James Cubitt's Operation Eden [2] offers haunting images of the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast post-Katrina.
[1] http://jaysennett.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/the-back-of-the-bus.JPG
[2] http://operationeden.blogspot.com/
Posted in Katrina, Queer | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, September 20th, 2005
I still await deployment by the Red Cross.
The scope of need boggles the mind.
200,000 + survivors living in Red Cross shelters over 27 states.
500,000 + meals per day served by Red Cross volunteers and paid staff.
85,000+ volunteers serving the needs of Red Cross clients.
40,000+ additional volunteers needed to meet the immediate needs of survivors.
[Note: The Red Cross still provides services to survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing.]
The Red Cross responded to the aftermath of Katrina by changing their volunteer policies. Previously they only deployed long standing volunteers of one year of more to federal disasters. For Katrina they have trained, and are training, spontaneous volunteers. Since late August, the national office changed the training manual nine times to meet the changing needs of Katrina survivors.
The Red Cross expects to have had over 1,000,000 face-to-face contacts with survivors.
Flexibility remains a value I struggle with. Yet stability arises from flexibility. Standing upright, I fall over when I force myself to remain rigid. When I relax and stay flexible and let my body sway with my breathing I remain upright.
The Red Cross' flexibility allows them to save lives.
My biggest epiphany: I cannot claim bragging rights for assisting survivors through a hardship deployment while letting my home responsibilities slip. I remain accountable to my family and my choices and my ethics.
I cannot let go of small things in lieu of greater glory. Tasks needing completion in the present call for action. Hardship deployments, no matter how wonderful and necessary and extraordinary, remain in the realm of the future.
How I do anything is how I do everything.
Posted in Anti Assclownery, Katrina, Truth | Comments Off
Saturday, September 10th, 2005
A fundamental personal tenet: in the times of catastrophe my primary goal is to offer practical assistance. In the case of Katrina survivors that means assisting in providing meals, water, shelter and other basic needs.
So I signed up for a two week hardship volunteer stint with the Red Cross. I don't know where they will send me.
I should be back before October 1, 2005. If I am able to use my cell phone, Ona Marae will post updates about my experiences / whereabouts during the next several weeks.
During my time in the Gulf Coast, Nick Kiddle and Ona Marae will share with you their words of wisdom. I feel grateful to them for agreeing to blog during my absence. I will do my best to have them continue when I return.
And sometime soon, when she has a free moment (!), Jennifer Gee, one of my most thoughtful commenters will blog here as well. My only request to her is that she discuss, among the many topics at which she is expert, what it means for to live a the B in LGBT.....
Thank you to the three of you. You'll be in my thoughts as I make my way down South. And a very big heartfelt thank you to the Divine Ms. H.
Posted in Anti Assclownery, Katrina, Writing | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, September 7th, 2005
Over this past week I have held my breath, in shock, disbelief, anger, sadness.
The Divine Ms. H and I visted New Orleans from December 26 to January 2, 2005. Between eating and strolling and eating some more, we watched the aftermath of the tsunami unfold. Shocking but distant.
So distant, in fact, that the lovely Ms. H and I, independently of each other, sought out job boards of various universities in NO. The Big Easy seemed like a place we might move to.
No more. Without a history there, I have no interest in revisiting another hurricane / governmental aftermath as a resident.
But I grieved this loss of something that never happened and struggled to contain my rage. Us, them, Bush, the Democrats, myself, everyone came under fire.
Posted in Anti Assclownery, Katrina | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, September 6th, 2005
State Corrections Department spokeswoman Pam Laborde said the prisoners in Jefferson and Orleans parishes will be housed in all of the state's correctional facilities except Washington Correctional Institute near Angie, which was damaged in Monday's storm.
Washington Correctional Institute also took in some Plaquemines Parish inmates evacuated before the storm, she said.(More here [1])
Here is a list of Institutions [2] I found via www.doc.Louisiana.gov [3]. Please also try the Inmate Locator Request [4] number at 225-342-9711. INSTITUTIONS ALLEN CORRECTIONAL CENTER ( ALC ) [5]3751 Lauderdale Woodyard RoadKinder, LA 70648Phone Number: (337) 639-2943AVOYELLES CORRECTIONAL CENTER ( AVC )1630 Prison RoadCottonport, LA 71327Phone Number: (318) 876-2891C. PAUL PHELPS CORRECTIONAL CENTER (CPPCC )
Physical Address:
Mailing Address:
Highway 27
Post Office Box 1056
Dequincy, LA 70633
DeQuincy, LA 70633
Phone Number: (337) 786-7963
DAVID WADE CORRECTIONAL CENTER ( DWCC ) Physical Address:
Mailing Address:
670 Bell Hill Road
Route 2, Box 75
Homer, LA 71040
Homer, LA 71040
Phone Number: (318) 927-0400
DIXON CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTE ( DCI ) [6] Physical Address:
Mailing Address:
Highway 68
Post Office Box 788
Jackson, LA 70748
Jackson, LA 70748
Phone Number: (225) 634-1200
ELAYN HUNT CORRECTIONAL CENTER ( EHCC ) [7] Physical Address:
Mailing Address:
Highway 74
Post Office Box 174
St. Gabriel, LA 70776
St. Gabriel, LA 70776
Phone Number: (225) 642-3306
FORCHT - WADE CORRECTIONAL CENTER ( FWCC )7990 Caddo DriveKeithville, LA 71047Phone Number: (318) 925-7100
J. Levy Dabadie Correctional Center (DCC)Camp Beauregard1453 15th StreetPineville, LA 71360Phone Number: (318) 640-0351LOUISIANA CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTE FOR WOMEN ( LCIW ) Physical Address:
Mailing Address:
Highway 74
Post Office Box 26
St. Gabriel, LA 70776
St. Gabriel, LA 70776
Phone Number: (225) 642-5529
LOUISIANA STATE PENITENTIARY ( LSP ) [8] Physical Address:
Mailing Address:
17544 Tunica Trace
General Delivery
Angola, 70712
Angola, LA 70712
Phone Number: (225) 655-4411
Steve Hoyle Rehabilitation Center
1005 West Green St.
Tallulah, LA 71282
Phone Number: (318) 574-5740
WASHINGTON CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTE ( WCI ) [9]27268 Highway 21Angie, LA 70426Phone Number: (985) 986-5005WINN CORRECTIONAL CENTER ( WNC) [10] Physical Address:
Mailing Address:
180 CCA Blvd.
Highway 560, Gum Springs Rd.
Atlanta, LA 71483
Post Office Box 1260
Winnfield, LA 71483
Phone Number: (318) 628-3971
[1] http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/090105/sub_inmates001.shtml
[2] http://www.doc.louisiana.gov/Escapees/Institutions/institutions.htm
[3] http://www.doc.Louisiana.gov
[4] http://www.doc.louisiana.gov/inmate_locator_requests.htm
[5] http://www.wcc-corrections.com/index.html
[6] http://www.doc.louisiana.gov/dci
[7] http://www.corrections.state.la.us/ehcc
[8] http://www.corrections.state.la.us/LSP
[9] http://www.corrections.state.la.us/wci/
[10] http://www.correctionscorp.com/
Posted in Katrina | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, September 6th, 2005
Link: Katrina Disaster Relief Information for People with Disabilities [1].
Again, please trackback/cross post to get the word out.
And in an email I received from Olegario D. Cantos VII, Special Assistant to the Acting Assistant Attorney General Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of JusticeOne of the most immediate outcomes was an effort by Dr. Margaret Giannini, Director of the Office on Disability in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to communicate directly and quickly with Dr. Mark McClellan, Administrator of the Center for Medicaid and Medicare, regarding the need for Medicaid waivers to be accepted across state lines and to expedite Medicaid claims for individuals with disabilities who were displaced due to the hurricane. As a result, within a matter of hours, Dr. Giannini announced that there will be Medicaid waivers between the states housing hurricane survivors who were already receiving Medicaid to have their Medicaid accepted in their current location. In addition, Medicaid claims of new prospective enrollees will be expedited. If or to whatever extent an official statement is released about Medicaid, I will be sure to forward that information to you.
[1] http://www.sexsupport.org/katrina.html
Posted in Katrina | Comments Off
Tuesday, September 6th, 2005
Link: TDI's CEPIN Press Release Page [1].
Please cross-post widely.
Don't let people with disabilities fall through the cracks, again.
[1] http://www.tdi-online.org/tdi/emergencypreparedness/090205.htm
Posted in Katrina | Comments Off
Wednesday, August 31st, 2005
[September 9, 2005: UPDATE ~ Visit here [1] to learn what the Southern Center for Human Rights is doing to help loved ones get in contact with their incarcerated relatives.]
[2] Apparently a riot did break out at Orleans Parish Prison. Authorities decided not to evacuate the prison, which later flooded with water from the broken levees. I've learned that it stands in one of the lowest lying areas of New Orleans, near the Superdome. Whether they have evacuated the prison or not, I cannot tell.
Michelle Malkin presents [3] thorough info on the riot. At least as far as it is possible to keep abreast of some very troubling news. The ABC page she linked to is now dead. A quick search of the ABC website resulted in 0 hits.
As I learn more, I will post it here.
[4] [UPDATE: Prisoners being evacuated from Orleans Parish Prison, Wednesday, August 31, 2005. Glad to see the mayor decided to do the right thing.....finally.]
[1] http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/4761.php
[2] http://jaysennett.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/orleans_parish_prison.jpg
[3] http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003438.htm
[4] http://jaysennett.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/orleans_parish_prisoners.jpg
Posted in Katrina | 16 Comments »
Wednesday, August 31st, 2005
[1] Why do we feel compelled to judge others living in dire conditions?
Do we honestly believe we would behave differently when faced with the exact same conditions?
And since the majority of images I have seen on CNN of the so-called "looters" appear African-American, I should reword my previous question.
Do we white folks honestly believe we would behave differently if we had spent the last 36 hours on our roofs, only to wade through petrochemically laden flood water to arrive at a Walgreens and say, "gosh, I need water. I don't know when I will get fresh water again. And who knows about food. But I don't steal!"
Right.
And what of the quick and long decisions, regret, guilt? Drowned in a flood of media hysteria and convenient forgetting and ratings everyone loots with a gleeful heart. But we forget that as long as rampant poverty exists people will meet their needs in whatever manner possible.
Does anyone really feel better about themselves watching people who have lost everything lose a little more by stealing? And if we really cared about looting, should not our tax dollars have been getting EVERYONE out of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama who could not get out on their own? Then recovery personnel could spend money on cleaning up the area, instead of saving people and stopping those damp, thieving, pesky, hungry, people.
Yes, I know about the computers and the TVs. But food will spoil. Experts claim New Orleans won't have full electrical capacity until September. At the earliest. I won't even mention the mold growth problem and whatever environmental damage occurs because of the brackish, polluted water from Lake Pontchartrain swallowing up the inventory of corporate convenience. Inventory they can write-off as part of their insurance claim
My short-term solution. Walgreens and Rite-Aid, Target, Walmart. All of them need to donate everything from their stores.
"We ask the police to let victims of this terrible tragedy pass through our doors unimpeded. Walgreens (or Target. WalMart, etc.) is officially donating all items in our stores to the victims of this terrible, terrible situation. We stand with them in their time of need and pray for their health and the recovery of everyone during this horrible time." Then they provide the addresses of all stores donating items.
My long term solution requires more work on our parts.
If, as Socrates claimed, the mark of a moral society can be found in how it treats its most dispossed members, then we have failed. We have failed the poor and the elderly and the children left behind to suffer in the wake of Katrina. We have failed our own children as they watch us get hopped up on hysteria and anger over trivial items like televisions and food and water.
Ultimately we have failed ourselves. We choose to fall prey to our baser instincts. From our armchairs we moralize about situations we thankfully may never have to experience. In so doing we visit a wrath upon the survivors Katrina could never have accomplished.
We also foster the seeds of hatred in our heart. We loot from our compassion to feed our fear. In the end, we are the biggest losers of all.
[1] http://jaysennett.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/armchair_moralists_2.jpg
Posted in Anti Assclownery, Katrina, Truth | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, August 30th, 2005
[1]
[1] http://jaysennett.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/what_can_i_say.jpg
Posted in Katrina, Weblogs | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, August 30th, 2005
Here is the Katrina wiki [1]. The wiki functions like a clearinghouse of information and provides links for support and relief, numbers to locate missing persons and other stuff.
Slidell, LA is currently covered in water. For more information check out this Slidell Hurricane Damage Blog [2].Calling the devastation “total”, [State Senator Tom] Schedler said, only slabs remain where dozens of houses were blown down and several feet of water remain in the Slidell Memorial Hospital on Gause Boulevard as well as throughout the old town area off U.S. 11. The BBC News has this heartwrenching [3], but sadly, not surprising, story of Carolyn Moore. She and her husband lost their home last year in Hurricane Charley. Without insurance at the time, she has been unable to repair her home. She and her husband continue to live in temporary village put up by FEMA. "There are no homes available for rent and what are available is way beyond my own or my husband's income. I'm 60, he will be 65, and I don't think they really care if you are in the street or not.
"There's over 2,000 people in this park and there's no one here that really has anywhere to go."
[snip]
Mrs Moore said she felt for those people affected by Hurricane Katrina.
"I hate to see them go through what we've gone through. It's devastating, it's heartbreaking, it makes me cry.
"They [the authorities] say 'we're standing by to get in there to help these people'. That will go on for maybe a few days and then all of a sudden you are left hanging.
"They will say 'go here, go there, try this, do that' and you do all that, just for them to look at you and go 'you need more money than we can give you'.
"And what do you do? Where do you go, how do you live your life?
"How do you pick up now and try to start again, when you have nothing to start with?"
[1] http://katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
[2] http://slidell.weblogswork.com/
[3] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4198422.stm
Posted in Katrina, Weblogs | Comments Off
Tuesday, August 30th, 2005
(Link [1])Looters filled industrial-sized garbage cans with clothing and jewelry and floated them down the street on bits of plywood and insulation as National Guard lumbered by.
Mike Franklin stood on the trolley tracks and watched the spectacle unfold.
"To be honest with you, people who are oppressed all their lives, man, it's an opportunity to get back at society," he said.And the worst quote (from the same link):At a Walgreen's drug store in the French Quarter, people were running out with grocery baskets and coolers full of soft drinks, chips and diapers.
When police finally showed up, a young boy stood in the door screaming, "86! 86!" — the radio code for police — and the crowd scattered.
Denise Bollinger, a tourist from Philadelphia, stood outside and snapped pictures in amazement.
"It's downtown Baghdad," the housewife said. "It's insane. I've wanted to come here for 10 years. I thought this was a sophisticated city. I guess not."I guess Denise would comport herself differently when faced with the prospect of no food, water, electricity, and, well, death.
[Note to self: As I read the emerging looting reports I feel like the news wants me to think of this situation as though I were in a zoo. Like "wow, look at the natives in their nattturralll habitat!!!!" Despicable.]
[1] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050830/ap_on_re_us/katrina_looting
Posted in Katrina, Racism | Comments Off
Tuesday, August 30th, 2005
By my estimation the big lefty blogs (Wonkette [1], Alas, A Blog [2], Majikthise [3]) remain silent about Katrina. Only Bitch, Ph. D. [4] makes mention of Katrina.
[UPDATE 4:16 PM 08/30/05: I stand corrected! Elise writes, "Actually, Ezra Klein, Digby, Atrios, Echidne of the Snakes and Kevin Drum all posted information on Katrina pretty quickly - and those are all pretty major liberal blogs!"]
The big righty blogs (Michelle Malkin [5], Confederate Yankee [6]) have been blogging for some time about relief efforts, the break in the levee and a bunch of other stuff.
Instapundit [7] makes a small mention of a day dedicated to raising money for the relief efforts. (Thursday) Boing Boing [8] (neither of which I would describe as particularly left, more curiosity shop) has before and after the levee break shots of NO.
Only one blog, and a conservative one at that, makes mention of the fate of the prisoners housed at Orleans Parish Prison. Last I heard Orleans Parish was under water. I did a google search on "Katrina" and "Orleans Parish Prison." Nothing.
Michelle Malkin made a swipe at looters. Maybe she can survive without water or food while waste infested water rose up around her. But me, left without water or electricity, I'd steal Diet Pepsi and Ho-Hos, too.
As for my dear, dear, liberal blogs, who knows. Are we waiting for something to say? Someone to respond to?
And what about those 6000+prisoners?
[UPDATE: The looting photos are coming across the wire now. The fact that three photos show seemingly African-American people -one with a bucket of beer - speaks volumes to me. Visual politics and poverty intersect ending in racism. Never mind that the 20% of the people left behind are the poorest of the poor and/or living with chronic illness and/or impairments that making driving in a car for 22 hours to escape Katrina impossible.
The story of the poor people of Mississippi and Alabama and Louisiana taking the physical hits to their bodiesremains, and will continue to remain, under the rug. Ignored. Just like the prisoners in Orleans Parish Prison.
But in the end does anybody really give a shit if a grocery store loses beer and soda and water and food to people stranded and starving and dying?]
[1] http://jaysennett.comwww.wonkette.com
[2] http://www.amptoons.com/blog
[3] http://www.majikthise.typepad.com/
[4] http://bitchphd.blogspot.com/2005/08/helping-those-in-need.html
[5] http://www.michellemalkin.com/
[6] http://jaysennett.comwww.confederateyankee.mu.nu
[7] http://instapundit.com/archives/025232.php
[8] http://www.boingboing.net/2005/08/30/katrina_media_evacua.html
Posted in Katrina, Weblogs | 6 Comments »
