Re: The Mississippi Gulf Coast

Thank you, Paulette, for keeping this in front of our eyes. It seems the media has forgotten the Mississippi Gulf Coast and only reports on New Orleans. We just got news last night that our community centers will stop receiving federal aid for the refugees we are keeping on March 1. The community centers cannot support these people on their own. Where are these people going to go- almost all are seniors or disabled or financially distressed.

My son is in the Air Force finishing up a tour at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama. One weekend he and a team of other USAF officers drove down to Bilouxi to help with hurricane relief at the request of the base commander at Keesan (sp?)AFB down there. He had spent his entire operating budget for the entire FY2006 on trash clean up on base alone. The guys arrived to help the community. My son was absolutely shocked at the devastation. He said for miles and miles and miles there was non-stop destruction. He was given an address to go clean out a house. He couldn't find the street because all the street signs had been torn down and there was no sign of them. He found some FEMA trailers and asked if anyone was local that could help him. They gave him directions and he found the street, but there weren't any houses on the street. They had all been swept away, with nothing but the concrete slabs, and sometimes not even that- just bare lots. My son said there was no way to tell where the address he had been given was. There wasn't a whole board or even a part of a board, only splinters of wood. There wasn't a toilet, a bathtub, a door, a door knob, nothing. Just trash, torn down trees, and baked on hard sludge that was a foot deep in some places.

He and his team decided to go help some people who were living in their homes. It was awful, he said. They chose one home, and couldn't believe anyone was living in these conditions. They guys got tired of doing this job and lost their enthusiasm in about two hours. He completely understood why these people weren't out there working and helping each other out. They were just overwhelmed. They thought their country had given up on them, and they were so glad to see the Air Force soldiers. They cleaned out one lady's house and the trash from her house alone was four black trash bags high and ran the entire length of the neighborhood block. Everything this lady owned was covered in black dried on sewer sludge and extremely hard to get off.

He met a family living in one of those little travel trailers FEMA gave. There was an 87 year old grandpa amonmg them who was wheelchair bound. These trailers aren't accessible, so the family had to carry grandpa up the steps into the trailer and leave the wheelchair outside. Once inside, grandpa was stuck where ever they put him. He couldn't take a bath or go to the bathroom or even get a drink without someone helping him. In this situation he was a complete invalid.

Everywhere my son went he heard the same thing: please tell people we are here. Please help us. We feel like we've been forgotten.

So thanks, Paulette.

Blessings,
-Donna Tweet