September 7, 2005
I have some internet access here now.
It is a terrible story coming out of Houston with tens of thousands of displaced
people. The American Red Cross is doing everything possible to help
shelter, feed, and bring medical attention to each and every one of them.
There are so many stories coming out of here. Stories that nobody should
ever have to go through. Thousands of people are displaced, thousands of
people have lost loved ones, and thousands of people are looking for family
members.
We are slowly bringing families back
together. One by one we find a brother or a sister or a grandmother or
mother. It will take months to get everyone back together.
Our database is up and running now and that
is helping us locate kids that are missing.
The news media could not possibly tell this
whole story. There is no possible way to bring to the viewers of America
what is really going on in the shelters and outside of the shelters.
Thankfully there are thousands of
volunteers to help bring relief to these people.
It is going to take time for life to get
back to normal across the Gulf Coast States.
I will try to post updates from time to
time...
FROM THE ASTRODOME...
It is 1 a.m. here at Dome City,
Texas. Cards shuffle on the tables in the shelters "cafeteria" as
dozens of hurricane victims still are awake - unable to fall asleep in fear of
the nightmares that await them. A seven year old boy plays with a remote control
car that someone donated to him while another child colors in his coloring book
- bringing life to an otherwise dull piece of paper. A mother kneels by her cot
as she prays that God will take her family out of this hellhole and into the
Promised Land.
This is day eight or is it nine now? Actually this is day ten since the eye of
hurricane Katrina moved across Southeast Louisiana. An eye of calm that brought
terror and destruction that has disrupted the lives of over one million people.
Here at the Astrodome there are over twenty-thousand displayed grandmas and
grandpas, moms and dads, sisters and brothers. There are over twenty-thousand
people here looking for loved ones. Searching for missing family members who are
either at other shelters, with relatives, or lost to the storm itself. Katrina
did not care whether you were rich or poor, white or black, American or foreign.
She knew no boundaries as she tore her way across the Gulf of Mexico. As I write
this I see before me thousands of broken families and saddened hearts, but even
after everything these people have been through their Spirits remain strong. A
determination fills them - a determination to put their lifes back together
again. A determination that will surely see them through this - see them to a
better day and perhaps a better life. For some of them this is their second
chance in life. A chance to start over. To do better for themselves. For others
this is a sea of fear that they have been thrown upon. Lost and confused in the
waves of doubt and worry.
Many questions remain here tonight about how this could have happened in a
country as strong as America. How this could have happened in a land where
soldiers die on foreign land to set people FREE from despair and hopelessness.
Many questions remain as to whether more could have been done to protect these
people. Did the government do enough? Were mistakes made? Is this simply a case
where nature got the best of us? None of those questions matter now though,
although the questions are there in the back of everyones mind, but no - none of
that matters now as we enter another day of this siege by Mother Nature. What we
all feared terrorism would bring this nation has now arrived but it was not by
man that this death and destruction came. No this death and destruction came
from the sea. There is not a Homeland Security Color Code for something like
this.
It is 1 a.m. here at the Astrodome and cards shuffle, children play, and mothers
pray.
Beau Dodson
American Red Cross
Houston, Texas
1 a.m. September 7, 2005
Three of my team members - Lou, Becky, Donna
Artis, Beau, Larry - team members - there are
six of us on a team.
Setting up cots
Astrodome - Houston, Texas - shelter
Astrodome - thousands of people in this shelter
Astrodome
American Red Cross - Meeting time
-------
Right now I am shelter manager
in shelter B of the Reliant Arena Shelter Complex. We have three shelters
within that building. We now have four shelters on the complex
property. We have approximately 20000+ people using these shelters.
We have set up a sick ward for
those who are coming down with different illnesses. Right now things are
going smoothly.
Thursday, September 8, 2005
Long night at the Astrodome. We had
to move a shelter into another building. They are going to turn the
Reliant Arena into a service area. FEMA and other agencies are going to
set up shop in there. The people who are taking shelter here will be able
to go there for all of their needs. We are going to try and get people out
of the shelters as soon as possible. We are helping them find jobs and get
their kids into schools. The goal is to get them out within a month.
This will be an incredible feat if we can pull it off. The original
thought was that these people would be there 4-6 months. I hope we can get
them into housing a lot sooner than that. Nobody wants to live in these
conditions for that long of a period of time. I believe we can pull it
off!
There were not as many sick people last
night. We still have a sick ward open. Hopefully we have got the
spread of illness quick enough to prevent an epidemic among the residents.
Hundreds of children were able to get on
school buses this morning! This is a big step forward in returning some
normalcy into the lives of the kids here at Dome City.
Things are going well...exhausted but in
good spirits. Everyone is in good spirits for that matter!
----
A lot of figures are being tossed around as
to how many people died in this hurricane. I believe that 8000-10000 seems
to be the realistic number. They may never find a lot of the bodies
though...especially in the Bayou areas.
--------------------------------------
Everyone here is being given free medical attention. We are all being given shots and antibiotics to prevent the spread of certain diseases. We have opened up a sick ward at the Reliant Arena. There were five shelters open here as of yesterday. We have brought that down to three today. The Reliant Center is the second largest shelter and the Dome is still the big one. There are three main buildings in this complex. Arena - Center - and Dome.
We had approximately 50 people sick as of yesterday - with diseases caused by the hurricane/people being in the water and so on.
We have hundreds of people that have been treated for injuries and other sickness brought on because they did not have their medications and so on.
We have a complete MASH UNIT set up here - hospital with pharmacy. We are able to give people all the medical treatment they could possibly need. Local hospitals have sent over doctors and nurses. Doctors and nurses have arrived here in Houston from around the world.
We believe that we have stopped the spread of disease here at the Dome. There will likely still be a few people get sick but we have nipped the biggest concerns in the bud. We are completely isolated those who are sick from the general shelter population.
We continue to work 12-16 hour days. This number if dependant on what is going on at any given time. There are no days off of course. We are still understaffed but it is not as bad as it was a few days ago.
The new plan is to get people out of here a lot quicker than we first thought possible. FEMA is giving out checks and so is the American Red Cross. We are able to help people find apartments and housing. I believe things are going well here and we are ahead of schedule.
--------------
Friday, September 9, 2005
WE HAVE MOVED OUT OVER 12.000 HURRICANE
VICTIMS IN THE PAST WEEK. THEY HAVE MOVED INTO NEW APARTMENTS - HOUSING -
AND BEEN REJOINED WITH FAMILY! THINGS ARE MOVING ALONG HERE. WE ARE
DOING EVERYTHING WE CAN TO GET THESE PEOPLE BACK TO NORMAL LIVES.
Friday Morning - 3 a.m.
I spoke with a gentleman this morning at 3 a.m. who was from New Orleans. Bishop John L Flowers. John is a 30 year
Veteran of the military. He is now a pastor/leader of five churches in the New Orleans area. He was beside his cot this morning awake...sitting there when I walked
by him. John stopped me and shook my hand - he introduced himself as the Bishop
and asked me if he could talk to me about FEMA and their plan to hand out the debit cards.
He told me that he had already received his money from the Red Cross. In the course of our conversation he recounted his rescue -
below is what he said
"I was on top of a hotel in New Orleans. Not a nice hotel but a run down one near the West Bank area. I took my family there for shelter
from the storm/ We went there before the storm hit. We were not able
to leave the city and I felt like we would be safe at this location. We
had been safe there before. Let me tell you that when Katrina hit the winds were ferocious but it wasn't the wind that did us in.
No it wasn't the winds. It was the water that got us. We were on the third
floor of that hotel. Plenty high enough...or so we thought. On Monday night
though we were told that we needed to move to a higher location within the hotel. They moved all of us to the seventh floor.
We didn't have any lights and we didn't have any running water. We watched the water below
us rise - at times the water was rising fast - as fast a six feet per hour. We were worried but thought things would be okay.
I guess they were not. On Tuesday the hotel told us that the water would not be going down. We knew we were in trouble.
I wasn't really worried about myself - I can take care of me. I had my sick wife with me
though and my daughter along with my two granddaughters. My granddaughters are only 2 years old and 5 years old. I wasn't scared
myself though. I served in Vietnam. I stood face to face with Charley you
know. Now let me tell you that nobody can tell you what fear is until you stand face to face in the jungle with a man who could take your life. I met one of those men one night while trying to get to
Saigon. It was just him and me standing there and we both had our guns drawn. I knew that he must have had a family somewhere and he knew the same of me. I didn't want to kill him. I told him that if he went his way that I would go my way and we would neither be worse for it. He said I was crazy. I told him that crazy would be for me to shoot him on the spot with no questions asked. He let me pass and I let him pass. I knew that if I killed him that I would probably be taking the head of a household...and I didn't want to do that.
I had my own family and I thought about that. So no Sir...I wasn't really scared at that hotel in New Orleans. I have been through a lot in
my life and God has always taken care of me. God has always gotten me out
of even the worst situation.
We evacuated to the top of the hotel on Wednesday. I don't think we knew what
would happen on top of that hotel but we knew that is where we were supposed to
and told to go. We could see that helicopters were everywhere in the skies above us. Coast Guard
Helicopters and others that had no markings. It wasn't long before a Huey hovered above us and lowered down someone to rescue us. Now let me tell you that these little
harnesses are just that - they are little. I am a large man as you can see. I told the man to take my wife and my family first and then come back for me that I would be okay. He did and he got them off that rooftop and to
safety inside the helicopter. When he came back for me he told me to watch him and he crossed his hands to his chest. He told me to hold on for dear life and to not let go of this hold. I closed my eyes and I was
whisked up...up and away. I tell you (and he lowered his voice) I was scared
but I wouldn't tell anyone that. I thought that the harness would break and I just knew that I would fall all the way back down to the roof. As it was
I scraped my legs and injured my right one...that is why I am in the wheelchair now. I don't usually live out of a wheelchair.
I am not crippled just hurt.
They got us out of there. I thank God everyday that my family is safe and I am safe. God has been good to us.
I don't know the mans name who rescued us. He asked me when he first
lowered himself onto the roof if I knew who he was and I told him "I don't
care who you are just get us out of here" - and he smiled at that!
So here we are in this shelter. I have seen a few of my church family members - they are scattered about this building. They are all thankful for everything you are doing. I don't know what we would do if it wouldn't be for all these people trying to take care of us.
None of them say they are going back but many don't have families and they don't
know where they are going. I tell them that God will take care of them and
let him handle where they end up. God is good you know.
My son is coming today from Fort Bragg. He is going to take me and my family out of here.
My son he will take care of us. We are one of the lucky ones...we get to sleep in a real bed tonight. We will be okay. I won't go back to New Orleans. I will miss my friends. You always miss your
friends - and he lowered his head with a tear in his eye and said - you always
will miss your friends. Life will never be the same but it doesn't matter...I have my family and I have my
health and God will take care of us.. We will survive this. One good thing is that I will get to see my son more often. We will go fishing in the ocean when this is all done. I will get to see my
son and we will get to fish.
I think I will go to North Carolina. There is a church there that wants to do a revival and they have been asking me to come up there for years. Maybe now I will go...I think I will do that.
I have nothing to complain about...no I have nothing to complain about. I
am one of the lucky ones.
------------------------------------------
Saturday - September 10, 2005
HURRICANE OPHELIA MOVES TOWARDS THE
SOUTHEAST UNITED STATES
OUR NEXT HURRICANE
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Sometimes there are words that never should
have been uttered -
"Barbara Bush, who visited the
thousands of survivors, sleeping shoulder-to-shoulder in the Houston Astrodome,
said, "So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were
underprivileged anyway, so this -- this (she chuckles slightly) is working very
well for them."
---------------
We are going to start running a new program
through FEMA tomorrow. The people here are going to be offered 8 or 9
choices. The choices will include furnished houses and apartments all
across the United States. This should help move even more people out of
this area and allow them to get on with their lives.
Monday, September 12, 2005
***BREAKING NEWS FROM HOUSTON***
When I first arrived in Houston, the Astrodome was totally empty of cots. Within 24 hours we had set up several thousand cots and moved in bus loads of storm victims. We were told that this would likely be a 4-5 month operation.
I can tell you that at our peak we had approximately 27,000 people! We now are down to about 4,000 people! The Red Cross announced today that the remaining storm victims will be moved into housing over the next five days. We are going to offer the evacuees 9 options to choose from. The options will include furnished houses and apartments across the United States. We will fly the families to their new towns and cities.
We started loading buses this afternoon to take people to the airport. The four largest shelters here in Houston will close down by this weekend!
This has been an incredible undertaking by local, state, and federal officials - alongside volunteer agencies.
This has been the largest and fastest shelter operation in U.S. History. Moving 27,000 people in and out of a facility in less than one month is nothing less than amazing!
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
OPHELIA MOVING TOWARDS THE CAROLINAS AS A MINIMAL HURRICANE
HURRICANE OPHELIA ON TUESDAY EVENING - PICKING UP SOME STRENGTH NOW
September, 14, 2005
OPHELIA HITS THE CAROLINAS - WINDS OVER 85
MPH - GUSTS TO 100
HURRICANE OPHELIA POUNDING THE COAST - NEARLY STATIONARY
Two of my buddies here at the shelter.
They were recently married :) - one month ago! They are trying to get into
an apartment or hotel here in Houston until they can go back to their home in
New Orleans. They own a house in that flooded city. They are the
sweetest people!
Pedro...Helen and me in one of the Houston Red Cross Shelters
The Reliant Center Shelter in Houston - next to the
Astro Dome
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Wow - what an operation! This has got to
be one of the greatest sheltering operations in the history of the United
States. We have moved over 24,000 people in and out of here in the past
couple of weeks! Just amazing! The logistics alone are mind
boggling. It has been a great feat that I am sure we will read about for
years to come.
I am totally exhausted and can't wait to
return home to see my family and friends. I am sure that my bed will feel
good once I get there!
There are months of recovery still ahead of
everyone. Many people will be rebuilding their homes along the Gulf Coast
and shelters will likely remain open for some time to come in many states.
Over 500,000 homes were destroyed or severely damaged by Hurricane
Katrina. An incredible number. Katrina is likely the worst natural
disaster in the history of this country.
Katrina Response - Gene Dailey Photograph
Red Cross - Gene Dailey Photograph
Red Cross - Mississippi - Gene Dailey Photograph
Slidell, Louisiana - Katrina Response American Red Cross - Gene Dailey
Photograph
Mississippi - Katrina Response - Gene Dailey Photograph
September 2005 - Hurricane Katrina - Mississippi -- Le Thi is comforted by Red
Cross worker Brian Fern of Muncie, Indiana. Le Thi and her husband Chau do not
want to leave their tent, but the area where they are living is unsafe and they
must leave. We reassure them that that they are welcome to stay at the local Red
Cross shelter. Photo by Johnny Perez.
Mississippi - Katrina Damage - Gene Dailey Photograph
Hurricane Katrina Damage - Gene Dailey Photograph
American Red Cross Responds - Katrina
When I get home I will post a bunch of
photographs from the Red Cross of the Katrina operation. The internet here
is really slow...
Friday, September 16, 2005
PRESIDENT BUSH SPEAKS TO THE NATION - WE
WILL REBUILD
In the
life of this nation, we have often been reminded that nature is an awesome
force, and that all life is fragile. We are the heirs of men and women who lived
through those first terrible winters at Jamestown and Plymouth
who rebuilt
Chicago after a great fire, and San Francisco after a great earthquake
who
reclaimed the prairie from the dust bowl of the 1930s. Every time, the people of
this land have come back from fire, flood, and storm to build anew and to
build better than what we had before. Americans have never left our destiny to
the whims of nature and we will not start now.
These
trials have also reminded us that we are often stronger than we know with
the help of grace and one another. They remind us of a hope beyond all pain and
death a God who welcomes the lost to a house not made with hands. And they
remind us that we are tied together in this life, in this nation and that
the despair of any touches us all.
I know
that when you sit on the steps of a porch where a home once stood
or sleep
on a cot in a crowded shelter
it is hard to imagine a bright future. But
that future will come. The streets of Biloxi and Gulfport will again be filled
with lovely homes and the sound of children playing. The churches of Alabama
will have their broken steeples mended and their congregations whole. And here
in New Orleans, the street cars will once again rumble down St. Charles, and the
passionate soul of a great city will return.
In this
place, there is a custom for the funerals of jazz musicians. The funeral
procession parades slowly through the streets, followed by a band playing a
mournful dirge as it moves to the cemetery. Once the casket has been laid in
place, the band breaks into a joyful second line symbolizing the
triumph of the spirit over death. Tonight the Gulf Coast is still coming through
the dirge yet we will live to see the second line.
Thank
you, and may God bless America.
--------
***BREAKING NEWS***
THE DOME IS EMPTY TODAY! We now
have to finish getting people out of the Reliant Arena. We have about
2000-2500 more to go! Over 25,000 people have been placed into housing and
back with their families! Those numbers are for the Reliant Center Complex
only. Hundreds of thousands of people still remain homeless from Katrina.
Over 800 Red Cross Shelters remain open.
More than 2,000,000 people have spent at
least one night in shelters.
More than 9,000,000 meals have been served.
Many areas of the Gulf Coast remain
uninhabitable today. Hundreds of thousands of homes have been destroyed or
damaged.
BBC PHOTOGRAPHS
People on top of roofs in New Orleans
during the height
of the flooding
Coast Guard Rescues in New Orleans during the
flood
Family guards a loved one that passed away
during the
hurricane - New Orleans
Superdome - New Orleans during the flooding
Looting in New Orleans - Katrina
Flooding in New Orleans - tens of thousands of
people had to escape
the high water
Levee break in New Orleans - flooding the city
with water after Katrina
INCREDIBLE DAMAGE NUMBERS - HOMES DESTROYED OR DAMAGED
HOMES DAMAGED OR DESTROYED
SHELTER OPERATION NUMBERS
Saturday, September 17, 2005
My journey in Houston is about over.
They have consolidated the five shelters down to one! This has been an
amazing feat. Houston is only one part of a bigger story that is playing
out across the Southern United States. Tens of thousands of people remain
in shelters this afternoon across a number of states. The Houston project
has gone well but many people still need help. The Red Cross estimates
that we will need an additional 500 million dollars for the Katrina Relief
Operations. There are some towns and cities that still have not received
help from FEMA.
The Red Cross continues to provide relief
to a huge area. The shelters will remain open for at least three or four
more weeks (and possibly longer). President Bush would like to get
everyone out of shelters by the middle of October. This is an ambitious
goal.
I will be heading home soon. I am not
sure if I will go back out or not. I will wait and see how everything
looks next week.
It has been an incredible operation here in
Houston.
OPHELIA UPDATE
Hurricane Ophelia Hitting the Southeast Coast
on Thursday
Ophelia caused hundreds of millions of dollars
in damage as she skirted the coastline.
Sunday, September 18, 2005
SOON TO BE HURRICANE RITA - THE NEXT
STORM TO IMPACT THE UNITED STATES
The system is currently forming near the
Turk and Caicos Islands. Rita will likely increase in intensity over the
next couple of days. Rita could be a major hurricane by early next
week. Current forecast models indicate that Rita could hit Texas later
next week. Waters are very warm ahead of this tropical system.
Meanwhile Philippe has formed to the east
of the Lesser Antilles. I believe we are going to go through all of the
names this year. Alpha and Beta would be the next names in line after we
go through the rest of them.
I am concerned about Rita - she has the
potential to become a significant hurricane.
FORECAST PATH FOR RITA
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