| Heartbreaking Tales of Displaced
Family Members Haunt
Katrina
Survivors
Date:
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
By: Michael H. Cottman, BlackAmericaWeb.com
In what is being described as the largest displacement of Americans since the Civil War, thousands of black families in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were forced from their homes and separated by Hurricane Katrina. One woman says she can't locate her two-month-old son. Another mother says her seven-year-old son is lost. A son can't find his mother. A tearful young brother is missing his entire family.
These sad real-life tales are played out hundreds of times every day in Louisiana, Alabama and Texas other states where people are posting notes on walls, carrying photos of loved ones and waving signs hoping someone can help them find their families.
To that end, the BlackAmericaWeb Relief Fund has set up a photo blog to gather pictures from cameraphones, family portraits, school pictures and other images to help kin and friends reconnect. Misplaced evacuees who have photos of missing loved ones or family photos they'd like to share, and people who want to be found by people from whom they've become separated are encouraged to post their pictures.
More than 500,000 evacuees from Hurricane Katrina are on the moving across the nation to Michigan, New Mexico, Arizona and as far as Oregon and New York, according to USA Today. School officials, the newspaper said, in many states are enrolling more than 160,000 displaced children. But it will take weeks and perhaps months to re-connect families. And sadly, some may never see their loved ones again.
The Red Cross is caring for 142,000 storm victims at 487 shelters in at least 12 states, according to USA Today. Many churches and other private groups are pitching in to transport, house and feed evacuees. Many of Katrina's survivors are low-income black Americans. New Orleans was 67 percent black, and 35 percent of the city's blacks were living below the poverty line, U.S. Census Bureau figures from 2000 show, the newspaper reported.
"Now, we understand people are scattered out across the country, but we have an obligation to make sure that whether a veteran's benefit or an unemployment benefit or a Social Security benefit gets to these people," President George W. Bush said Tuesday.
BlackAmericaWeb.com and TJMS
Meet Families Helped by the BlackAmericaWeb.com Relief Fund
"And so we will have a strategy in place," Bush said, "and we're going to implement that strategy -- to find people who are in those shelters or in churches or in private homes -- and get them the benefit."
As thousands of black survivors from Hurricane Katrina were still trying to locate their families, Donna Brazile, political commentator and Democratic consultant, learned Tuesday that her 46-year-old sister was found alive in New Orleans after Brazile appealed for help on a CNN broadcast.
"This is one ordeal that is hard to describe," Brazile told BlackAmericaWeb.com Tuesday.
She said she is now trying to relocate her sister and several other family members to Baton Rouge, Louisiana where Brazile owns property.
Brazile said she was able to help save her sister because she had direct access to a national audience through CNN where she works as a political commentator.
"You have to go public and use the media to try to pinpoint the last point of contact," Brazile told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "The press may get there before the officials. But, my sister was rescued and I am feeling better."
Brazile, who was born in New Orleans and is one of nine children, said the Louisiana Fish and Wildlife Service sent a boat to the location she described on air and found Brazile's sister, Sheila, and five others alive.
She told CNN that her sister most likely would have died if she had not made her plea on CNN, saying her sister's last known location was in an assisted living shelter at a New Orleans YWCA.
"I want to find Sheila. I want to hear her say, 'Hey, Boo!' I want to hear from my sister," Brazile said to CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "Wolf, I can't tell you the logistical nightmare of not just trying to find people, but then, of course, once you find them, to get them into shelters and then also to make sure that they have some places to go."
"I'm begging friends to help adopt families," said Brazile, the former manager for the 2000 Gore-Lieberman campaign.
Brazile said her sister was in the assisted living shelter because brain surgery several years ago had "made her unable to take care of herself," she said.
According to CNN, Brazile said her 75-year-old father and four of her siblings had decided to weather out the storm.
All of her family has been rescued.
"As my father said to me just last night, that at nighttime, you can hear people crying, 'Help me. Help me.' And he said the sound at night of hearing people crying for help and you can't help people. He said it's just heartbreaking."
Brazile is one of the fortunate ones.
In Washington, D.C., about 400 evacuees arrived at the D.C. Armory Tuesday, as other cities like San Antonio, Houston, Detroit and Las Vegas offered to house an feed survivors.
But for thousands of black people, the separation of black families as a result of the Bush administration's slow response to addressing critical needs, has almost become too much to bear as tearful black evacuees from the South are now scattered across multiple states as far as Nevada.
In D.C., as the caravan of buses rolled into the D.C. Armory parking lot, some black hurricane survivors told reporters they were hoping their loved ones were on other buses heading to D.C.
Many displaced black Americans report having family members -- most of them elderly -- who are desperately ill and who have been separated from their medication.
In response to this nationwide crisis, Pfizer Inc. said Tuesday it is partnering with Walgreen's, Rite-Aid, Wal-Mart, Sam's Clubs, community pharmacies and Argus Health System to help victims of Hurricane Katrina easily obtain Pfizer medicines and healthcare products.
Pfizer officials said victims of Hurricane Katrina in need of medication can fill their prescriptions for Pfizer medicines at participating pharmacies starting Tuesday.
"Victims of Hurricane Katrina have immediate medical needs and through this pharmacy partnership program they can rapidly obtain needed Pfizer medicines," said Karen Katen, vice chairman of Pfizer. "Pfizer will help victims and their families obtain these medicines whether they have lost insurance or prescription records or have limited incomes because of this disaster."
In addition to the pharmacy partnership program, Pfizer is also providing medicines through several local hospitals and relief organizations. Many of these organizations are providing medical care in Texas at the Houston Astrodome and Dallas Reunion Arena and relief operations at hospitals affiliated with Louisiana State University.
Additionally, earlier this week, Pfizer announced donations of $2 million in immediate and long-term relief and pledged to make its products available to Hurricane Katrina victims.
Meanwhile, Brazile appeared on CNN late Tuesday and said she is grateful that her sister -- and several other family members -- were rescued and are safe.
"She had a hot meal and a hot shower and she's in great condition," Brazile said of her sister.
Brazile said she feels "a moral obligation" to help other families connect with their loved ones. And she acknowledged that she is one of the lucky ones.
"The people at the Superdome were my people … that could have been me," Brazile said on CNN. "I have a moral obligation to speak out and help people." |
