HungryBlues

Hungry Blues Has MOVED

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I'm Going to This

If you're in the Boston area, this event looks like an important opportunity to get some current information about life in New Orleans. A friend of mine who is a student at UMass sent me the announcement. Hope to see you there...

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN NEW ORLEANS?
COMMON GROUND COLLECTIVE at UMASS BOSTON

When: Thursday, May 11 from noon to 2:00 p.m.

Where: UMass Boston Wheatley Hall Student Lounge, Room 0148, 4th Floor


Please stop by for as little or as much time as you can!


Adjunct Dispute Resolution Professor Phil Woodbury, who has spent time working in post-Katrina New Orleans, will introduce the work of the Common Ground Collective. Also present will be a long-term Common Ground
volunteer and a lifelong resident of the 9th ward. They will speak about the storm, the failed government response, and Common Ground's work.

Common Ground's mission is to provide short term relief for victims of hurricane disasters in the gulf coast region, and long term support in rebuilding the communities affected in the New Orleans area. Common Ground is a community-initiated volunteer organization offering assistance, mutual aid and support. The work gives hope to communities by working with them, providing for their immediate needs and emphasizes people working together to rebuild their lives in sustainable ways.

Common Ground was founded by New Orleans residents immediately after Hurricane Katrina. Thousands of volunteers have been mobilized to provide hurricane relief and long term organizing in New Orleans and surrounding areas. In addition to providing water, food, clothing and other emergency services, Common Ground has established a free medical clinic with two satellite centers, helped gut and clean churches, houses, and schools, prevented bulldozing in areas of the 9th Ward, established an after-school program, and much more.


Please come with your curiosity and your questions. Learn more about Common Ground at www.commongroundrelief.org

Technorati Tags: activism, katrina, nola

Hunger Strike Calling for Blanco to Provide a Fair Election – Call to Join/Support evacuees

Tens of thousands of voters will be disenfranchised in the April 22nd
election in New Orleans, most of them Black. State officials know it, and
they know how to prevent it - by providing satellite voting for displaced
New Orleanians outside the state of Louisiana.  But despite large grassroots
efforts demanding satellite voting, the state has refused to take the
necessary measures for ensuring a valid election process and setting up
satellite voting. The only thing preventing this important election from
becoming a fair election is one signature by one person: Gov. Kathleen
Blanco.

Hillary Charlot and two other displaced survivors are set up below the steps
of the State Capitol.  They are taking part in a hunger strike to pressure
Governor K. Blanco to sign an executive order to postpone the election until
satellite voting can be put in place.  They will stay until Governor Blanco
takes appropriate action to ensure a fair election, or until the day of the
election.

Please Join Us

For the evacuees' voice to be effective, they need as much support as they
can get.  If you can, please join them in Baton Rouge today through the
scheduled 4/22 election date, either to participate in the hunger strike or
to stand in solidarity with them and the cause for a just election.

Contact James Rucker (415.505.9048 or james@colorofchange.org) if you have
questions or are able to provide help in any way.

Forward this to anyone you know who might be interested in participating in
or supporting the effort.

(Via Jordan Flaherty.)

VOICES FROM THE GULF COAST - Special Issue of Dollars & Sense Magazine

March 29, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Chris Sturr
or Amy Gluckman
617-447-2177

VOICES FROM THE GULF COAST

THE STORIES YOU HAVEN’T HEARD
ABOUT
HURRICANE KATRINA & GULF COAST RECONSTRUCTION

When Hurricane Katrina struck six months ago, the mainstream media was shocked to discover the scope of poverty in New Orleans. And that’s about as deep as the coverage has gone.

Dollars & Sense: The Magazine of Economic Justice has just released its 56-page special issue (March/April 2006) on Katrina. In it, you’ll discover how Katrina exposed—and has intensified—a whole range of unjust systems of racial and economic domination.

Did you know:

• When Katrina struck, the New Orleans jail housed about 6,800 prisoners, including violent felons but also plenty of people awaiting arraignment or trial, like a guy arrested for reading Tarot cards without a permit and homeless people arrested for begging or sleeping on the street. Prisoners were locked in first-floor cells as the water rose; some spent days standing in sewage-filled cells with little food or water. Meanwhile, the facility’s scant two-page evacuation plan was on “this guy’s computer” that got flooded.

But the story goes back much farther. The jail’s population has increased eightfold since the mid-1970s—while the city’s population has dropped. Why? Because the parish sheriff makes money for each prisoner he houses. As one sheriff commented, “fewer inmates translates into less revenue for the jail.” Locking up fewer New Orleanians would mean shrinking the sheriff’s fat patronage-based fiefdom.

• When Katrina struck, it devastated nearly the entire Mississippi coast, in some places for miles inland. Thousands lost their homes. But state and federal relief and reconstruction plans are doing little to help people rebuild their homes or find other housing. In Mississippi, Gov. Haley Barbour decided to spend the state’s entire $5.3 billion federal Katrina relief grant on retroactive flood insurance for otherwise insured homeowners—not a penny for renters, uninsured homeowners, or to repair public housing.

But the story goes back much farther. For years, redevelopment plans in coastal cities like Biloxi and Gulfport have been endangering low-income and black neighborhoods. “There are people here who’ll tell you that developers and local politicians have been trying to flood us out of existence, because with each piece of land, they haul in a bunch of red clay, which is semi-impervious, dump it in the wetlands to build up land on which to put a slab or a parking lot, then on the slab they put a building, a big ‘ole Wal-Mart or something,” says Mississippi historian and community organizer Derrick Evans.

• When Katrina struck, the flooding in New Orleans left behind a layer of toxic sediment—contaminants include arsenic and diesel-fuel substances—in neighborhoods throughout the city. The EPA has not begun any cleanup of the sediment. Government agencies are recommending that returnees wear protective gear like Tyvek suits when they work on their homes but, as environmental justice activist Monique Harden notes, “not one government agency provides this protective gear to people returning to the area.”

But the story goes back much farther. For years, low-income and black communities in Louisiana have faced the massive legal(!) dumping of toxic pollutants. In fact, the historic African-American community of Mossville, La., is the focus of the first-ever environmental human-rights lawsuit brought against the U.S. government, now pending before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States.

These are just some of the in-depth stories you’ll read in this special issue of Dollars & Sense. The issue includes:

• Repopulating New Orleans – How did San Francisco do what a top economist says New Orleans cannot?

• Gone to Mississippi – A journey along the state’s devastated coast

• Activist Perspectives on Katrina: Three Interviews

Mississippi historian and activist Derrick Evans – “Ground Zero of Someone Else’s Future”
East Biloxi community activist Jearlean Osborne – “The Storm of Life after Katrina”
Environmental justice activist Monique Harden – Katrina Hits Cancer Alley

• Down by Law – Orleans Parish Prison before and after Katrina

• Bringing Them All Back Home – Housing in New Orleans, six months later

• SPECIAL PULLOUT CENTERFOLD – Rogues’ Gallery of Katrina Profiteers / Map of the Katrina Diaspora / Roster of progressive Gulf Coast organizations

• And more!!!

Authors and editors available for interviews – contact Chris Sturr or Amy Gluckman at (617) 447-2177.


Founded in 1974, Dollars & Sense explains the workings of the U.S. and international economies and provides left perspectives on current economic affairs. It is edited and produced by a collective of economists, journalists, and activists who are committed to social justice and economic democracy. 

Blowed Away

Blowed Away, originally uploaded by BenTG.

 

Blowed Away: Trouble in the Lowlands

Now showing at the Haley House Bakery Cafe

Artists/Writers/Activists Walter Clark, Benjamin Greenberg, Project HIP HOP Crew, L'Merchie Frazier, Lolita Parker, Jr and Amanda Savage present stories and images from the Gulf Coast.

Reception April 7, 2006, 5 pm to 8pm

Haley House Bakery Cafe, 2139 Washington Street - Dudley Square - Roxbury

Mon-Fri 7am - 4pm, Sat 9am - 4pm

For more information and directions, http://haleyhouse.org/cafe/directions.htm, 617 445-0900

Four of my photos are in this show—including the one, above, which was used for some of the publicity. Many thanks to Lolita Parker, Jr. for inviting me to be part of it. Also on display will be some of my Dollars & Sense blog entries (photos and text).

Gulf Coast Trip - January 22-29, 2006

This town has stood up in the face of things
Lots worse than a ninety mile wind
It's not bad storms I'm afraid of today
But the greed that our leaders walk in.

I'll walk along the Boardwalk rail
And feel and hear this ninety mile gale
I can hear the ocean mourn and groan
And I wonder about ships lost out in this storm.

So come on wind and blow out your brains
Blow like a Cyclone across the flat plains
This is just an echo of our world wide storm
That's ripping away our balls and our chains.

--Woody Guthrie, "Ninety Mile Wind" (1944)

This summer, I joined the Editorial Collective of Dollars & Sense, a national popular economics magazine, which has presented progressive analysis of current economic issues and trends for over thirty years. Since September I have been guest editing the March/April issue of the magazine, which we are devoting to economic issues in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

While New Orleans caught one edge of Hurricane Katrina, the storm hit the Gulf Coast of Mississippi head on, causing unfathomable destruction. Nonetheless news coverage of New Orleans has overshadowed, Mississippi. When the mainstream news media does report on Mississippi, we may hear about places like Waveland, Pass Christian, Gulfport, Bay St. Louis, and Biloxi, but we don't hear about the African Americans who live there. There are few images of Black Mississippians from the Gulf Coast and no discussion of their communities. Except for Waveland, all of these cities have African American populations that are larger than the national average of 12.3%. As of Census 2000, Pass Christian is 28.2% African American. Gulfport is 33.5% African American. In Bay St. Louis and Biloxi, the numbers are 16.6% and 19%, respectively.

As I have pursued writers who are local activists and survivors from the Gulf Coast region, I have been moved by the experiences of African American activists in Gulfport and Biloxi, whom I have had the opportunity to talk to. In Mississippi, as in New Orleans, the slow responses of FEMA and the Red Cross have harmed storm victims of many ethnicities and economic backgrounds. In both places, however, government inaction has especially harmed African Americans. At this writing, as recovery gets underway, white neighborhoods in Biloxi have been substantially cleaned up; on the other side of town, the African American neighborhood still looks like a bombed out war zone.

One of our writers for the March/April issue is an African American attorney, named Gayle. Gayle is in Gulfport, doing legal advocacy for Katrina survivors facing unfair, opportunistic evictions and other housing problems. She is also a hurricane survivor whose brother and two-year-old nephew died in the storm. Speaking with her on the phone has been overwhelming. In a number of our conversations, Gayle has connected me with other survivors who have lost loved ones or property or both and have first-hand experience of the unavailability of government disaster relief. They tell of FEMA trailers sitting unused in storage lots while survivors live in tents in winter weather; the outsourcing of jobs to corporate contractors; and price gouging on building materials.

The first time we spoke, Gayle expressed considerable gratitude that I cared enough to seek her out. There just hadn't been outside attention to the plights of people in her community, though it had been months since the storm hit. She was eager to write an article for Dollars & Sense, but she also said, urgently, "you have to come here... you just can't understand unless you see it... please come." When they heard about my conversations with Gayle and others from the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, the Dollars & Sense Collective agreed that in addition to publishing Gayle, we need to respond to her request.

Dollars & Sense is sending me to Gulfport and Biloxi, and to New Orleans, for eight days, from January 22 - 29. I will document my trip with still images, audio recordings, and video clips. While I am on the Gulf Coast, I will be posting to the Dollars & Sense blog, which we have just added to the Dollars & Sense website. To the extent that time and internet connections allow, I will provide regular updates and photos from my trip. In addition to the photos that you will find in Dollars & Sense blog posts, I will post a larger selection of my photos on my flckr account.

After I return from the South, I will write a report of what I saw there for the March/April issue of Dollars & Sense, and possibly for other publications. I will also get the word out about survivors' experiences in the Gulf by presenting my audio, photographs and video through the Dollars & Sense website and live presentations. As with the March/April issue as a whole, we hope the information I gather on this trip will be useful for activists. The communities I visit will be allowed full access to the audio recordings, photos, and video that I make of them. I will also make a list of the local organizations we have been working with, and of others I may learn about on my trip, that directly address the needs of Katrina survivors; Dollars & Sense will publish the list in the March/April issue and on our website, and I will distribute it at presentations about my trip.

Dollars & Sense is a small non-profit organization on a shoe string budget. This may be the first time that Dollars & Sense has sent someone to do investigative work. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to help us pay for the trip, you can make donations in $25 increments through our website, or send a check for any amount, with "Katrina Project" in the memo line, to Dollars & Sense, 29 Winter Street, Boston, MA 02108.

(Cross posted on the Dollars & Sense blog.)

The People’s Declaration: Survivors Assembly Demands

The People’s Declaration: Survivors Assembly Demands
Identified by survivors on December 9, 2005

We demand that the local, state and federal government make conditions possible for our immediate return. This includes the following:

The Nagin Administration must make temporary housing such as apartments, hotel rooms, trailers and public housing developments available for us while we rebuild our homes.

The government must put an end to price gouging, stop all evictions and make rents affordable.

Local residents must take the lead in rebuilding our communities and must be hired to do the rebuilding work.

There must be immediate debt relief for debt associated with this disaster.

Quality public education and childcare must be provided for our children.

Quality affordable health care and access to free prescriptions must be provided.

The government must immediately clean up air, water and soil to make it safe and healthy for people to return home.

We demand that the government provide funds for all families to be reunited and that the databases of FEMA, Red Cross and any organizations tracking our people be made public.

We demand accountability for and oversight of the over $50 billion of FEMA funds and the money raised by other organizations, foundations and funds in our name.

We demand representation on all boards that are making decisions about relief and reconstruction. We also demand that those most affected by Hurricane Katrina be part of every stage of the planning process.

We demand that no commercial Mardi Gras takes place until the suffering of the people is lifted.

We are calling for survivors and supporters to participate in a Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend 2006 conference and demonstration to make these demands heard!

Update: The People’s Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition (PHRF), From Outrage to Action: The People Must Decide

The People’s Assembly and The March for Human Rights brought over one thousand Hurricane Survivors and supporters of a survivor lead movement together for 3 days of planning and action.

Youth Speak Out

Held at Jackson State University, the Youth Speak Out evening in Thursday, December 8th was coordinated by area youth who put together a program that called for survivor’s to share their stories and included performances and testimony that spanned from; gospel music, urban and classic West African dance and drumming, poetry, to statements of solidarity. One survivor story came from Brandy who talked about the attempts of those displaced to New York City to fight off hotel eviction and homelessness.

Survivor Assembly

The Survivor’s General Assembly and Conference was held Friday, December 9th and took place at Anderson United Methodist Church. Survivors and support organizations from Houston, Chicago, Detroit, New York, South Carolina, California and Atlanta came together to share their stories and organizing efforts taking place in the areas where they currently reside. The day was full of workshops and information sharing, included a film that illuminated an example of the injustices that took place at Orleans Parish Prison. Approximately 450 delegates participated, including more than 150 hurricane survivors. By the end of the day the survivors put forth the People’s Declaration: Survivors Assembly Demands. These demands were read at the March for Human Rights (12/10/05) and at a rally held in Washington, DC (12/14/05) calling for FEMA to be held accountable for their lack of transparency in relief efforts. The demands are also being submitted to New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin to request and audience and significant representation by those most impacted by Hurricane Katrina on those commissions set up in New Orleans to address reconstruction and community redevelopment.

The demands will also be pursued with the mandate of the people by the work groups of the PHRF.

The established workgroups are as follows:

Arts, Culture and Story Collection, Economic Justice, Education, Environmental Health and Justice,

Finance and Fund Raising, Health Care, Legal, Media, Reconstruction, Safety Justice and Accountability

These work groups will be supported and monitored by The National Solidarity Caucus and Women’s Caucus.

The March for Justice

The March for Justice brought together approximately 1,500 participants who represented a diverse cross-section of New Orleans culture. Old school second-liners, musicians, students, blue collar workers, home owners, renters, grassroots relief workers and elders of the New Orleans community joined in chants and prayers to welcome their return to the city, demand support and justice in the rebuilding process and to share their stories of hardship and organizing since the storm.

The March ended at city hall where The People’s Declaration was announced.

The People’s Hurricane Fund will continue to do outreach among those displaced to highlight their voices and support organizing efforts that address the diverse needs that must be met to accomplish comprehensive reconstruction of communities and lives. Survivors Councils are being planned around the country for this purpose.

Honoring the work, commitment and spirit of Meg Perry

Saturday, November 10th, Common Ground volunteer, Meg Perry, 26, died in a bus accident in New Orleans. In Portland, Maine, Meg was a coordinator with the People's Free Space, a community group fighting social, ecological and political injustices. After Hurricane Katrina, Meg volunteered at Common Ground Collective (CGC), working on roof repairs, mentoring youth and coordinating a community garden.

The People’s Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition (PHRF) extends its deepest condolences to Meg’s family, friends and the Common Ground Collective. In memory of a woman that dedicated so much of herself to this cause PHRF would like to donate and participate In planting a sapling tree in Ms. Perry's honor, for the hope of a just and environmentally sound reconstruction of New Orleans.

To see Common Ground Collective’s tribute to Meg, please go to http://www.commongroundrelief.org/2005/12/meg_perry_1979_2005.html

2006

We look forward to strengthening the organizing efforts of survivors/evacuees throughout the country and connecting the work with supported actions in the areas where we are displaced and in those areas where these grassroots efforts are most needed, for a just and comprehensive redevelopment of New Orleans and the Gulf South.

Regular updates should be posted on the website. For more information contact

People’s Hurricane Relief Fund & Oversight Coalition

1.888.310.PHRF (7473)

info at communitylaborunited dot net

www.communitylaboruntied.net

Some Information On Locating Louisiana Prisoners Post Katrina

Critical Resistance has a fact sheet with much of the available information. Unfortunately, there is not a simple way to plug a person's name into a database and come up with his or her present location. Here are some resources from the fact sheet that may be helpful with some persistence:

HOW TO FIND AND CONTACT PRISONERS MOVED AFTER KATRINA:

* Local and state prisoners who were evacuated can be located by name on a list being assembled by a coalition of attorney’s groups in Louisiana. Attorneys are currently attempting to contact and interview every adult prisoner moved in the wake of Katrina, so this list will be updated. That list can be found at: http://www.lidab.com/Links%20to%20Displaced%20Inmates%20Lists.htm* [or try: http://tinyurl.com/dyxjk] and updates and further links can be found at: http://www.lacdlkatrinarelief.blogspot.com/

* The Department of Corrections (DOC) established hotlines to call for locating family members moved from Orleans’ area prisons and jails. They are: 225-342-3998 and 225-342-5935 and are supposed to be staffed from 7:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. Hunt Correctional Center, where many male prisoners from OPP may have been transferred, also set up a hotline: 225-352-5924. DOC staff will only tell family members where their loved one is located, and no other information (release date, case status, etc.). Family members should be allowed to give a message to their loved one.

* Youth who were in Bridge City Center for Youth (BCCY) were moved to Jetson Correctional Center and can be located by calling Jetson at 225-778-9000; ask for John Anderson, Michael Gaines, Ricky Wright, or Linda London. Demand the child be brought to the phone to speak immediately with their family member.

* Young people held at the Youth Study Center, Plaquemine Detention Center, St. Bernard Center, Terrebonne Detention Center, and Riverde Detention Center have been routed to placements in other parts of the state. Family members should call Perla at (225) 287-7988 or (225) 328-3607 (cell) or Stacey at (225) 287-7955 to find out where their child is located. Ask Perla for a phone number, call, and demand that they be permitted to speak to their child immediately on the phone.

* As of Friday, September 17th, a coalition of attorneys in Louisiana has been able to secure releases for nearly 500 prisoners held beyond their sentences – mostly people on parole violations and “municipal” charges. These people are being released with a delay, but should be cycling out in 24-72 hours. The attorneys state that this should be the beginning of a process of getting people out who were “overdue for release.” See http://www.lacdlkatrinarelief.blogspot.com/ for more information.

Also see the main page of the Louisiana Indigent Defense Assistance Board website.

~
*I corrected the url. –BG

Heartbreak

My writing for this blog has been lighter for a little while now. That's not the reason for my title, but in case you were wondering, these are some of the things I've been doing instead of writing lengthy posts:

• three weeks of work on that article in In These Times
• a follow up piece, currently in the works
• a contract research job
• a flurry of job applications and interviews
• shepherding a special issue of Dollars & Sense

Writing less means that though I'm still reading a lot of blogs, many things slip by that under other circumstances I'd be blogging as I saw them. One such thing was yet another amazing blog post by Clayton Cubitt, this one about going back to McKain Street in New Orleans, the spot now nestled under the I-10 highway ramp that is still home to the shotgun shack where his grandmother lived almost her whole life and where she raised his mother and his aunt. I'm not going to quote it, just go read it and check out the photograph. It's heartbreaking, but it is also gorgeously elegiac. The post is about a month old, but as far as I can see, only two other people have linked to it. It's got the timelessness of art, which means that telling you about it now is still timely.

There isn't really a neat way to write about the other kind of heartbreak my title refers to. I don't know how many people check the comments over here, but one byproduct of my urge to document underpublicized injustices is that others who are suffering similar circumstances occasionally write in with own experiences, sometimes because they are desperate for help or even just because no one else seems to care.

The single post that's gotten the most of these kinds of comments is More On The Prisoners From Orleans Parish Prison, posted at the end of September. In October, I got two comments from people who had loved ones in Orleans Parish Prison at the onset of Katrina. And then last night, I received three more comments (from two people).

It has been more frequent than not that when I've known small ways to help Katrina survivors who contact me here, it's been impossible to reach them with the information they might need. In one case, for example, Juana Bourgeois said she was looking for her friend Byron Joshua. Angela Wessels from the Southern Center for Human Rights helped me determine what prison Mr. Joshua was relocated to (turns out he is one of the Coleman 900), but I was not able to reach Juana to give her the information.

On one of my posts, about the the class action suit brought by Katrina survivors against FEMA, got this wrenching comment from JeanMarie Arend:

I was filing for disability in La. at time of hurricanes Rita and Katrina. I relocated to MN. I still haven't got any housing or financial assistance. On Nov. 2 2005 it was inperative that I have a anterior cervical dysectamy and fushion with them putting in a steel rod. The vertabra affected are c-4,c=5,c=6. I suffer from partial paralysis in my arms and hands, as well as suffer from extreme headaches. Yet I am still homeless and penniless. The medical assistance I get from the state of MN. does not cover my teeth which due to the injury are broken off and abcessed. And the state of MN. allowed me 203.00$ per month which they are now taking away as of Dec. 2005, although just the healing on the surgery will be 1 and 1/2 years. I can not work and I can not get help from anywere. And yes I am filed with FEMA. They are sending me mail with my astranged husbands number on it although I have my own FEMA number I must use to refer to my case.I call them weekly and have been told 3x now to fax certian papers in which I do and yet they never get to my file.HELP ME PLEASE DISABLED IN MN> P.S. yes I refiled here in MN for my disability.

I emailed JeanMarie back immediately, but my message bounced. I think her comment is for real, since my sitemeter showed that she was writing from Minnesota and that she found HungryBlues by googling "free disaster relief for katrina victims with disabilities." I wanted to tell her that I have a friend in Minnesota who has formed a People's Hurricane Relief Fund Solidarity Group. One of the things that PHRF Solidarity Groups do is locate evacuees in their area and help them organize and obtain resources that they need.

Last night's messages were from Anicia Chatters, who is looking for a friend of hers who was in Orleans Parish Prison before Katrina, and Sherre Boteler, whose husband has been stuck in jail for 125 days, waiting for a trial for a crime she does not believe he committed.

my husband was in orleans parish jail also on a rape charge that he didnt do.....i have evidence that he was lied on and falsely arrested and still cant get help for him.....also my husband is very ill and they knew that and still left him there to die. he was also left out in the rain on the field at hunts [info]. it is all true! he has been to 3 prisons since hurricane and has been incarcrated now for 125 days just waiting to go to court.

The heartbreak is not that Ben Greenberg feels helpless to do anything for individuals who've contacted him. Rather, it's that these glimpses of individual tragedies is most of what we get to know about the lives of those worst affected by Hurricane Katrina and that each fragment of a story that we hear can be multiplied by thousands.

Sherre Boteler gets the last word:

you know what i dont understand about our "great mayor"...lol ray nagin....he's more worried about the city having mardi gras and hearing people parting in the streets than geting help for these men and women that they left to die in the wake of a cat. 5 hurricane. what a joke he is!! who gives a damn about mardi gras? and the city rebuilding for the partiers.... we want out family members back ! i have not sen my husband in 4 months. it took me 8 days to even find out that he was still alive after the hurricane. i lived from shelter to shelter all alone for 8 weeks with not even help from fema....because they are a joke too. the entire government is a joke! the "declartion of independence" says all men and women are to created equally. DOSENT THAT COUNT FOR THE ONES IN JAIL ALSO.....THEY SAVED THE ANIMALS BUT TREATED OUR HUSBANDS, MOTHERS, FATHERS, BROTHERS, AND SISTERS WORSE. WHO IS GONNA STAND UP AND BE MEN AND SAY THEY WERE WRONG....and now they are saying it may be another 6 months to a year before anyone even sees a court room. they say they lost their evidence on the cases they had well, i have proof of my husbands innocense and they still dont care. but they gonna have mardi gras! WHAT A JOKE! "I'LL NEVER GO BACK!"

Outrage To Action

Chris Clarke, December First is "Blog Against Racism" Day:

Intentions are all well and good, but more important are the assumptions from which those intentions spring. Garbage in, garbage out: bad information times good intentions equals bad results. And those results are the most important thing of all.

David Neiwert, New Orleans: racial cleansing?

Recall, if you will, the vicious outpouring of racial hatred by New Orleans' most noted white supremacist, David Duke, and his fellow white supremacists in the wake of the disaster. Recall how much of the mainstream media coverage -- rife with images of black looters and tales (later proven false) of shootings, rapes, and multiple murders -- fed that outpouring....

As it happens, much of what white supremacists want to see happen to the city is, in fact, what is happening....

[S]ure enugh, a couple of months ago, HUD administrator Alphonso Jackson made clear that the city's demographics were indeed going to be reordered in the rebuilding:

"Whether we like it or not, New Orleans is not going to be 500,000 people for a long time," he said. "New Orleans is not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again."

... Alphonso Jackson predicted New Orleans will slowly draw back as many as 375,000 people, but that only 35 to 40 percent of the post-Katrina population would be black.

Jackson said that's because the worst-hit areas were low-income black neighborhoods that may never fully be repopulated.

Prior to Katrina, the population was 67 percent black and 28 percent white.

People's Hurricane Relief Fund & Oversight Coalition:

Hurricane Survivors Assembly & March for Human Rights

Who: Representative Gulf Coast hurricane survivors and evacuees will converge will their allies in over 50 grassroots organizations which make up The People’s Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition and The Mississippi Distress Relief Coalition. Together, they will share, heal and develop plans for organizing to move forward in their struggle for justice after Katrina.

What: The Gulf South Youth Assembly, The Gulf South National Assembly and The March for Human Rights.

Why: This will be the first assembly that provides those most negatively impacted by Katrina and its aftermath a chance to participate in developing national solutions for their own futures. A declaration of the people will be drafted and presented to Congress in an upcoming hearing sponsored by Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, 11th District GA. These events will unite the movement of survivors, who continue to have their basic civil and human rights eroded away, as they build a sustainable and comprehensive plan for rebuilding their communities and lives.

Schedule:

December 8, 2005, Thursday
Business School of Jackson State University, 1300 Lynch St. Jackson, MS room 134
7-11 pm ~ Gulf Coast Youth Assembly: Youth speak out on Katrina

December 9, 2005, Friday
Anderson United Methodist Church, 6405 Hanging Moss Road
9am – 6pm ~ Survivor’s Assembly and Conference
8pm – 11pm ~ Rally and Cultural Program featuring Amira Baraka, Sonya Sanchez, Dead Prez and more

December 10, 2005, Saturday
Congo Square, North Rampart And St. Phillip Streets, New Orleans, LA
12:30 pm ~ Survivor’s March for Human Rights, Self Determination and The Right to Return.

For this story and more, please visit www.katrinainfonet.net, a project of the Katrina Information Network (KIN). KIN is an information and action clearinghouse. KIN shares expert viewpoints and action from the communities that have been devastated by Katrina, with up-to-the minute news and analysis.

Evictions On Hold; Notices To Be Mailed

A major victory for Katrina survivors who were renters before the storm.

All pending evictions are on hold until landlords send eviction notices to their tenants, according to a settlement struck Tuesday in federal court that ends a lawsuit brought by unions, activists and individual renters. Eviction hearings cannot take place until 45 days after those mailings are postmarked.

"No longer can landlords just rely on tacking notices on doors while the tenants don't know they're getting evicted," said Judith Browne, a lead attorney for the plaintiffs. "It's going to provide fair rules so that people can come and defend themselves and, ultimately, protect their property."

In an added twist, the Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed to supply court clerks, constables and justices of the peace with addresses of evacuees -- a first in litigation since Katrina, Browne said.

"FEMA will have to supply the addresses to the evictions courts in Orleans and Jefferson," Browne said. "They know where they are."

FEMA will make every effort to provide names and addresses of tenants, upon request by the courts, from its database within five business days, the settlement says. But clerks are not to share the information with anyone, the deal said, and the federal Privacy Act will protect that information.

The settlement, approved by U.S. District Court Judge Stanwood Duval Jr., resolves a lawsuit filed Nov. 10 against every parish and city official who deals with evictions in Orleans and Jefferson. The rules are good for one year from Tuesday.

"There won't be any eviction hearings next week or the week after, or for at least 45 days." said attorney Bill Quigley of the Loyola Law Clinic, which represented plaintiffs. "It is going to help every renter in the metropolitan area, and renters, by and large, are people who don't have a lot of money or resources."

Note the irony of the parts in bold. As I detailed in my article in In These Times, it took Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater much more time and quite a lot more trouble to reach a compromise where FEMA would attempt to reach evacuated voters with information about how they can vote in upcoming elections.

On October 5, Ater asked FEMA’s liaison to his office, Arvin Schultz, for FEMA’s list of evacuees. Schultz responded On October 14 to Ater’s requests with a terse e-mail, writing that FEMA “will not fund the outreach program. They will not let you have a copy of the FEMA applicant list. Sorry!!!” Two days later, Ater appealed to Deputy Federal Coordinating Officer Scott Wells, the top FEMA official in Louisiana. Ater’s appeal was rejected, this time with the rationale that releasing the list of evacuees would violate the Privacy Act of 1974.

Ater then went to Washington, D.C., to negotiate with FEMA and lobby Louisiana’s representatives and senators to push the agency to reverse its decision. He suggested a compromise: FEMA could take the voter rolls from him and mail the election materials itself to avoid disclosing the evacuees’ addresses. Though FEMA said it wanted to work with Ater, agency officials dragged their heels for nearly two weeks. FEMA Spokesman Butch Kinerney says the main problem was “mechanical questions” about the best method for reaching voters while protecting privacy.

On November 8, FEMA finally made a clear concession. The agency said it would pay to send a one-page flyer to all evacuees that would explain voting rights and include ways to contact Ater’s office. Yet, Ater still does not know when FEMA will mail the flyer.

FEMA would not agree to give the information to Ater to protect voting rights, and "mechanical questions" made reaching a compromise position a protracted and demanding process. Apparently protecting the property rights of New Orleans landlords makes FEMA feel comfortable sharing the personal information with numerous people—"clerks, constables and justices of the peace"—while to protect voting rights, FEMA would not share the information with even one, high ranking state official.

See also: Katrina Survivors Win Stay of Evictions

Postscript: On The Phone With FEMA

In my article that just came out on In These Times, there's a passage where I recount Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater's correspondence and negotiations with FEMA officials about obtaining the list of evacuees to reach them with voting information and getting funding for a Nationwide Voter Outreach and Education Campaign.

Here is a little more about all of that, not published in my article:

On November 9, I called FEMA’s media desk to ask some questions about the respective roles of Deputy Federal Coordinating Officer Scott Wells and Project Officer Arvin Schultz. Spokesman Randy Welch explained Well’s leadership role in Louisiana and that Project Officers, like Arvin Schultz, go around with local and state government officials to assess material damage and determine needs for funding.

“Does FEMA prioritize material damage to items like voting machines over other needs, like the Secretary of State’s voter education campaign?” I asked.

“I have to defer to whatever Butch Kinerney [another FEMA spokesperson] answered on that one, the last time you called us,” Welch said.

About ten minutes after we hung up, my cell phone rang again.

“It’s Randy Welch. I wasn’t sure you heard they resolved the voting issue,” he said, referring to the agreement FEMA finalized the day before, to mail voting information to evacuees on behalf of Al Ater.

“Yes, I did hear that,” I said.

But the “voting issue” is not resolved for Al Ater. The Secretary of State still thinks FEMA might pay for public service announcements on the radio, his spokesperson Jennifer Marusak said on November 11.

The other parts of the Voter Outreach and Education Campaign are not currently on the table, however, nor has Ater been invited back to Washington.

Voter Disenfranchisement By Attrition

Although it was election day in most places last week, it wasn't in New Orleans, and it ain't getting any better says my piece on In These Times:

Voter Disenfranchisement By Attrition
With Friends Like FEMA, Who Needs Jim Crow?

By Benjamin Greenberg

When Hurricane Katrina came ashore in New Orleans, it destroyed half the city’s voting precincts and scattered 300,000 of the city’s residents, most of them black, across the country. With citywide elections still scheduled in February and March for 20 key public offices—including mayor, criminal sheriff, civil sheriff and all city council members—restoring the city’s democratic capability might seem an urgent task to some, but not to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

(Read the rest.)

William Davis, Plaintiff In Class Action Against FEMA

William Davis is 52 years old. When Hurricane Katrina struck, he was living in Orleans Parish with his elderly mother. His brother was living with them on and off, but when they evacuated they lost touch. Their house was destroyed, and they have lost almost everything. Mr. Davis evacuated to Shreveport, Louisiana and applied for FEMA assistance. His application was denied without explanation, and he filed an appeal in mid-October. He has also applied for a FEMA trailer, but has not heard from FEMA since he applied two weeks ago. Since evacuating, he has been unable to find work in Shreveport. He has no money to be able to live in New Orleans, where work opportunities are available to him. He has been living by incurring credit card debt, although some of his cards have been cancelled. Mr. Davis has been sharing a hotel room with a friend who received FEMA assistance, but his friend’s mother will soon be moving to this hotel room at which time Mr. Davis will be without a place to live.

(From Part III of the Complaint.)

Pamela Jackson, Plaintiff In Class Action Against FEMA

Pamela Jackson is 37 years old and has seven children who live with her ex-husband. Hoping to regain custody of at least some of her children, Ms. Jackson saved for months and bought a trailer with room for her young children two weeks before Hurricane Katrina, with arrangements to move into it within a few weeks. When Ms. Jackson returned to New Orleans after having been evacuated, she learned that her trailer survived Hurricane Katrina with only minor, repairable damage. Ms. Jackson got the materials she needed to make the repairs, but when she returned to her trailer, it had been moved from its plot in the trailer park to an area where it is no longer connected to gas, electricity or plumbing. She had been evicted so that room could be made in the trailer park for FEMA trailers. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, Ms. Jackson had dreamed of the day when she would once again have a home with her kids. Ms. Jackson has been told, however, that if she does not soon remove her trailer from where it was subsequently placed, it would be destroyed. Ms. Jackson has nowhere to relocate her trailer because FEMA will not permit her to place her own trailer on the land that FEMA has leased for its trailers and the other trailer parks in the area have raised their rates beyond Ms. Jackson’s means. When Hurricane Katrina struck, Ms. Jackson was living in St. Bernard Parish, where she rented a room. Although she received $2358 from FEMA prior to returning to New Orleans, she was never told how the money could be used. She used it for clothing, food, and shelter, and currently has almost nothing remaining.

(From Part III of the Complaint.)

Mary Pat Van Tino, Plaintiff In Class Action Against FEMA

Mary Pat Van Tino is 67 years old. When Hurricane Katrina struck, she was living in her house in Orleans Parish. Her house has been severely damaged, the roof is gone, there is water damage everywhere and rooms have been sealed off. Mold, which is especially detrimental and dangerous to Ms. Van Tino as a result of her emphysema, has developed. Since she had no money, she had no choice other than to take shelter in what remains of her house. Although she stayed in her house during the hurricane, Ms. Van Tino was forced to leave upon the breach of the levees, at which time she evacuated to California. In California, she was able to stay with various friends, but each only for a few days at a time. On September 1, 2005, Ms. Van Tino started calling FEMA. It took her a week, calling at all times, including the middle of the night, before she was able to reach a FEMA worker. Although the system said to “press 1” for English, the FEMA worker she talked to barely spoke English. Before returning to New Orleans, Ms. Van Tino tried to access her FEMA application on-line. She first tried to get on using a Macintosh computer. Upon learning that the system did not permit access through a Macintosh, Ms. Van Tino, who has a Masters Degree, tried to get on by using a PC. Unable to access the information, she went to a series of friends, including a computer expert, but all of their efforts failed. After eight weeks of moving from house to house and living off the generosity of others, Ms. Van Tino, decided to return to New Orleans. When she went to the DRC in New Orleans, she learned that the FEMA worker with whom she previously had spoken on the phone had entered her information incorrectly. She was told that she could make the changes and appeal, a process that would take at least a month, but that FEMA had no more money and so she would receive no assistance.

(From Part III of the Complaint.)

Keiva Melissa Colomb, Plaintiff In Class Action Against FEMA

Plaintiff Keiva Melissa Colomb was a resident of Orleans Parish when Hurricane Katrina struck. Her apartment was completely destroyed and she was evacuated to Texas, exhausting her savings getting there. On August 30, 2005, she called FEMA’s 800 number throughout the day to apply for benefits, but was unable to get through. Finally, at 2 am, Ms. Colomb reached a FEMA worker and was able to register. In San Antonio, prior to receiving FEMA housing assistance, Ms. Colomb found an apartment she could afford with the help of a roommate, another victim of Hurricane Katrina. Three weeks after Ms. Colomb called FEMA, $2,358 appeared in her bank account. However, she received no information regarding how the money was to be used, and when she tried to call FEMA, Ms. Colomb was unable to get through. Having lost most, if not all, of her possessions in the storm, she used the $2,358 for rent and to replace the bare necessities that she had lost: a toothbrush, towels, sheets, pots, food, a mattress and other essentials. Through word of mouth she heard that she could get assistance from FEMA for up to a year and was counting on it to make ends meet and to stay in her apartment. Yet, weeks later, when Ms. Colomb was finally able to talk to a FEMA representative, she was told for the first time that the money she previously received was solely for rental assistance, and that the only way she could get additional assistance was to prove through receipts that she spent all of the money on rent.

(From Part III of the Complaint.)

"If we're so smart and have all the answers, how come the movement is so small?"

Last month, I posted about Wade Rathke's self-seving, racist attack on Curtis Muhammad, Community Labor United, and the People's Hurricane Relief Fund. Though I posted Open Letter to the Labor Movement, an important response from a group of activists, I never got around to the further commentary I had promised. In the meantime, one of the signers of the Open Letter, Marsha Steinberg, has written a response of her own, much stronger than anything I could have done, in the wake of a supposed apology from Rathke to Muhammad. Immediately following Marsha's comments is the "apology" from Rathke, to which she is responding.

Marsha Steinberg to Wade Rathke:

Your apology to Curtis Muhammad again badly misses the point!

It is not personal attacks that are the most relevant although I personally doubt your explanation of "being over the top" because Chalabi was a liar and a thief, facts which I am sure you knew when you wrote the piece. It is the attack on CLU and The People's Hurricane Relief Fund ("couldn't organize a two car funeral") that deserve an apology. I personally believe that the attack was done in a personal fit over the fact that a coalition of community based, African American led, groups without staff or union money had out organized you and you felt free, as a white male, to attack them without fear of rebuke. How could they have accomplished some thing that you hadn't; specifically getting recognition in the national progressive movement here and in Europe as the legitimate voice of the poor backs of New Orleans which you think of as your personal turf. The arrogance and racism of the comments continue to send me "over the top".

As a SEIU staffer I see the same syndrome every day. White, mostly male, leadership at the top, feel free to plan for the lives of the membership of a union that is overwhelmingly poor, mostly female, people of color. They remain convinced that in every situation they know better than the members themselves and the field staff, what the members need and should care about. Only they know how to plan and build for the future. Again, what racist crap!

At some point the continued top down approach of the ACORNS and SEIUs will either have to be abandoned and genuine leadership be allowed to emerge and be nurtured with real education, training and sharing of the members resources or this country will continue it’s descent into fascism and barbarism.

I call on all white progressive activists to see this approach for what it is and understand that we must be prepared to relinquish the privilege and the right to lead that has come to us from a racist and classist country built on the labor of those without power or privilege. We must ask ourselves: if we're so smart and have all the answers, how come the movement is so small? We must accept the right of community-based groups to lead and speak for themselves. We must share our skills and resources generously. We must call racism when we see it. “If not us, who? If not now, when?”

Still today, white areas of New Orleans have electricity at least part of the day while the adjacent black areas have none. Whites are returning to the city while black males convicted of no crime are held hidden in jails throughout the South. Wade, why don't you write an over the top piece about that?

I came to labor as a long time community organizer because with a dues base, that's where all the money is. I was actually shocked to see the disregard for the members’ priorities and the 'we know what's best' attitudes.

I call on organized labor to examine its practices openly and honestly and to share the resources with community folks and their organizations. Rhetorically we say that our members and the community are the same people. Let's make that real. Let's admit that labor does not have the right to pick the leadership of community based organizations or expect them to follow labor's lead without true coalitions of equals. One start would be to post this message on your blog which I doubt you will do. Let's have an open dialogue about the nature of our organizations and labor's obligation to freely share resources and relinquish leadership.

In the meantime, I will send your "apology" around to my lists with my response.

Looking forward to an honest dialogue.

Wade Rathke's "apology" to Curtis Muhammad:

Posted by: Wade Rathke - November 3, 2005 02:38:04

When I wrote these comments a month ago, I was searching for a way to grieve for my city. It is amazing to find how few people really care about what happens to New Orleans on one hand and the level of opportunism from many folks who couldn’t find the city without a map. I still feel that way.

Nonetheless, there were 3-4 comments we received from people several weeks after the blog ran either posted to the blog or sent to me directly. All the ones to me I answered.

Their message was that the treatment of Curtis Muhammad was wrong. They took particular umbrage at the metaphorical comparison with Chalabi.

Chalabi after years in exile returned in hopes of running Iraq. Though that has not worked out exactly as he – and some of his supporters -- dreamed, he has been a constant presence in the political life of the country since the occupation. He in fact is now a member of the ruling government with a significant position in the coalition arrangements and a base in various sides of the religious power blocs.

Feelings about Chalabi are obviously intense. My point was lost here and insult was taken, where observation and metaphor were meant. I am very sorry for all of that. My train was going one way and ended up on a side track. Reading the piece again one is reminded of how dangerous a form of communication these unfiltered, unedited blogs can be. There is a lesson for me to remember there, but my lesson should not have been at the expense of others, and I’m deeply sorry it occurred. I played with fire, and I got burned.

Curtis also contacted me directly by e-mail indicating his unhappiness with the piece. I sent him back an email offering to get together with him and straighten it out directly. I did not receive a reply.

I did see Curtis while I was visiting the October 29th rally in Baton Rouge on the capitol steps. I walked over to visit with him. He was still understandably not happy about all of this. He asked for a public apology.

I meant no harm to Curtis and in my ham handed and inarticulate way, I thought I had expressed that even in the piece. Obviously I failed, therefore I agree with Curtis that an apology is warranted, and here he has it, because I am sincerely sorry for any inadvertent insult I have given him and any offense he has felt. None was meant, but to the degree some was taken, that’s on me, and I hope over time perhaps he will come to accept my apology, because he certainly has it here, exactly where the offense was rendered.

This post-Katrina syndrome is real. There is no question that I am "over the top" these days, and more than one person has pointed it out to me. My boiling point is very low. My judgment is not as sound as it sometimes needs to be. I bet I am not the only one in the same situation. All of which makes this even more regrettable. Untoward comments, like mine, blurted out thoughtless to the full impact, are perhaps felt more deeply and taken more hurtfully than normal times would allow.

Thurmond Price, Plaintiff In Class Action Against FEMA

Plaintiff Thurmond Price was a resident of Orleans Parish whose home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Mr. Price has diabetes and a serious heart condition. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Price was living by himself in a shared house. He had no relation to the other people who lived in the house. In early September, Mr. Price applied with FEMA for Temporary Housing Assistance. Mr. Price was denied housing assistance because someone else living in the same shared apartment had applied for housing assistance. He is currently living by himself in the Red Cross Shelter in Baker, Louisiana.

(From Part III of the Complaint.)

Billy Smith, Plaintiff In Class Action Against FEMA

Plaintiff Billy Smith was a resident of Orleans Parish when Hurricane Katrina struck and destroyed his home. He rented a room in a building where six other men also lived and shared a phone number. On September 2, 2005, Mr. Smith applied with FEMA for Temporary Housing Assistance. The FEMA worker told him that his application would be frozen because someone else had applied for benefits with the same phone number. Within the week, Mr. Smith called FEMA again to check the status of his application and was accused of making multiple applications. At about the end of September, Mr. Smith received a packet of information from FEMA, which stated that he needed to fill out an SBA loan to receive FEMA benefits, which he submitted the next day. Mr. Smith has since been told by FEMA that his application is still “pending.” He is currently living at the Red Cross Shelter in Baker, Louisiana.

(From Part III of the Complaint.)

John Hubbard, Plaintiff In Class Action Against FEMA

Plaintiff John Hubbard was a resident of Orleans Parish when Hurricane Katrina struck. His pre-disaster home, in which he lived with his sister and her four daughters, was destroyed. Mr. Hubbard is disabled and illiterate, and therefore applied for housing assistance directly with a FEMA representative at the River Center Shelter in Baton Rouge. To date, he has not received any Temporary Housing Assistance or any further information from FEMA regarding his request for housing assistance.

(From Part III of the Complaint.)

Calvin Davis, Jr., Plaintiff In Class Action Against FEMA

Plaintiff Calvin Davis, Jr. has not received any Temporary Housing Assistance from FEMA even though he applied 2 months ago. Mr. Davis was a resident of Orleans Parish. On August 29, 2005, he was evacuated and brought to the River Center shelter in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he lived for the next six weeks. On approximately September 5, 2005, Mr. Davis registered with FEMA for Temporary Housing Assistance. FEMA workers at the River Center shelter told Mr. Davis that he would receive a check for $2,358 in rental assistance. Approximately one month later, Mr. Davis went to the DRC near the shelter, where he was told that his rental assistance was still “pending.” On October 14, 2005, the River Center shelter closed and Mr. Davis was moved to the Red Cross shelter in Baker, Louisiana. When he is able to get through to FEMA’s 800 number, he is simply told that his application is still “pending.” Mr. Davis still has not received his housing assistance from FEMA.

(From Part III of the Complaint.)

Florence Jackson, Plaintiff In Class Action Against FEMA

Plaintiff Florence Jackson has not received any Temporary Housing Assistance from FEMA even though she applied over 2 months ago. Ms. Jackson is 62 years old, and was a resident of Orleans Parish, where she lived with her 42-year old son, who suffers from epileptic seizures and cerebral palsy. Ms. Jackson has a herniated disk and sciatica. Both Ms. Jackson and her son are on disability. Like countless others, their home was rendered uninhabitable by Hurricane Katrina. Ms. Jackson and her son had no way to evacuate from New Orleans. She and her son were stranded in their apartment as the storm roared through New Orleans. After the storm, they watched the water rise, saw people on the interstate dying, and watched futilely as rescue workers ignored their cries for help. It was not until five days later, on September 2, 2005, that the government evacuated Ms. Jackson and her son by helicopter. They left their home with only the clothing on their back, and some essential paperwork that Ms. Jackson was able to quickly pull together. Left on a crowded, open field with little or no security, Ms. Jackson found a piece of cardboard to sit on and another evacuee generously gave up his cot for her son. While her son slept, Ms. Jackson watched, guarding herself and her son. She and her son were eventually herded onto a bus, and taken to the airport where, wet and physically exhausted, they waited for further direction. Later, when people were lined up for a plane, Ms. Jackson found a chair for her son, who was no longer able to walk, and pushed him inch by inch along the line until they finally boarded a flight – destination unknown. Ms. Jackson and her son were flown to San Antonio, Texas and then taken to the Kelly USA DRC, where they waited standing in line for 7 hours to register. They were told if they left the line for any reason, they would not be registered. Ms. Jackson waited, all the while praying that her son would not have an epileptic seizure. Finally, Ms. Jackson and her son were taken to the Kelly USA shelter where, for the first time in days, they were able to get out of their wet clothes. There, Ms. Jackson was diagnosed with pneumonia and an intestinal virus, brought on by the wet clothes and the exposure to germs during the evacuation. It was not until September 5, 2005 – a week after Hurricane Katrina had made landfall – that the Kelly USA DRC was equipped with telephones and computers. Using those phones, Ms. Jackson was able to register for FEMA assistance. Since then, Ms. Jackson has repeatedly called FEMA to inquire about rental assistance and each time is told that her application for housing assistance is “pending.”

(From Part III of the Complaint.)

Beatrice B. McWaters, Plaintiff In Class Action Against FEMA

Plaintiff Beatrice B. McWaters has not received any Temporary Housing Assistance from FEMA even though she applied 2 months ago. Ms. McWaters was a resident of Orleans Parish when Hurricane Katrina struck. She and her brother lived in a home that her mother owned, and paid her approximately $1,000 per month in rent. Her mother is 93 years old, and her brother is 61 years old and disabled. Her pre-disaster home is now uninhabitable. On approximately September 2, 2005, Ms. McWaters went to the Kelly USA shelter in San Antonio, Texas to apply for FEMA benefits. On October 10, Ms. McWaters was told by a FEMA worker that she, her brother, and her mother had all claimed to be owners of the same residence and that there was the appearance of fraud. Ms. McWaters tried to clear up the misunderstanding over the phone with the FEMA worker without success. The next day, October 11, she returned to the Kelly USA shelter and attempted to clarify the situation in person. On October 26, Ms. McWaters received a call from FEMA and was told that she, her mother, and her brother all had been suspended or eliminated from the FEMA system. Then, on approximately November 2, Ms. McWaters received a call from a FEMA worker telling her that she could get a trailer in New Orleans. Ms. McWaters explained that, by doctor’s orders, she was unable to travel. The FEMA worker told her it would be noted in the file. The FEMA worker did not offer her rental assistance. To date, neither Ms. McWaters, her brother, or her mother have received any housing assistance from FEMA.

(From Part III of the Complaint.)

Katrina Victims File Class Action Against FEMA

Thursday's NY Times reports that 13 plaintiffs have joined in a class action suit against FEMA.

The complaint, to be filed on Thursday in Federal District Court in New Orleans, states that the agency has "failed to fulfill its mandate" in providing housing assistance to the storm's victims. . . .

The complaint charges FEMA with imposing "retroactively inconsistent rules," in Mr. Hayward's case and others. It also asserts that the agency has been inexcusably slow in processing applications and has unfairly denied claims from large families and unrelated individuals sharing the same address. The plaintiffs are not seeking damages, but immediate assistance (emphasis added).

FindLaw has a scanned copy of the complaint [PDF]. I have obtained a copy of the complaint in MS Word and will be posting the stories of each of the plaintiffs as they are told in the legal document.

The preliminary statement is also worth reading:

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT
“This is a national disgrace. FEMA has been here three days, yet there is no command and control. We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can’t bail out the city of New Orleans.”

Terry Ebbert, New Orleans Homeland Security Chief, September 1, 2005

1. The federal agency charged by statute to care for Americans who are victims of natural disasters, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”), failed to fulfill its mandate before, during and after Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. As a result, more than two months after the tragedy, thousands of Americans continue to be victimized, this time by bureaucratic inaction, indifference and incompetence. FEMA has failed to provide temporary housing assistance to these disaster victims in violation of the plain requirements of federal law. The poor and vulnerable – including children, the elderly, and the disabled – are suffering the most.

2. As of this late date, FEMA has:

• Failed to provide any temporary housing assistance to certain individuals and families, including those with disabilities, who applied for help as much as two months ago;
• Failed to provide basic information to disaster victims regarding the scope and conditions of the available temporary housing assistance, including how they can continue to receive financial assistance beyond the initial three month period;
• Denied temporary housing assistance to individuals who lived at the same address, but in a separate home as another, unrelated, person who also applied for housing assistance;
• Refused to provide additional temporary housing assistance to families that, because of their size, were entitled to more than the standard amount of housing assistance;
• Required disaster victims to apply for Small Business Administration (“SBA”) loans as a condition for obtaining FEMA temporary housing assistance; and
• Imposed retroactively inconsistent rules regarding funds some victims have already received.

3. There is no excuse for these failures by FEMA, which demand redress and relief. The dimensions of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath were neither unpredictable nor unexpected. Indeed, FEMA itself participated in emergency preparedness drills predicated on a storm of precisely this dimension and magnitude, striking exactly where it hit, and leaving this many people in need of temporary housing.

4. Many more fortunate individuals (some of whom were, themselves, victims of Hurricane Katrina) provided aid to those less fortunate. But extraordinary individual acts of generosity are no substitute for government action; nor are they a defense for government inaction.

5. Our government has shown itself capable, in a short amount of time, of deploying and housing more than one hundred thousand troops, in the arid deserts of Iraq, in an area devoid of electricity, to help the Iraqi people. It was able, virtually overnight, to send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims halfway around the world. No less should be extended to its own people, on their home soil, in the wake of a national disaster.

6. This action, therefore, is brought by 13 named plaintiffs, on their own behalf and on behalf of a class of people similarly situated, seeking an order that FEMA obey the laws put into place to address the problems associated with this kind of tragedy, and provide temporary housing assistance to those victims eligible to receive it. Plaintiffs seek injunctive and declaratory relief, requiring defendants to provide housing assistance to eligible applicants and develop and implement procedures to communicate and implement the statutory relief that victims of Hurricane Katrina are entitled to, including, but not limited to:

• The immediate distribution of temporary housing assistance to all victims who have applied for and are eligible for such assistance;
• The provision of immediate safe housing (trailers or otherwise) for those victims who remain in shelters, tents or makeshift housing;
• The creation of guidelines for registration, eligibility, and receipt of temporary housing assistance that are clear, understandable, and take into account the mental and physical limitations of the applicants, including the elimination of burdensome and complex requirements such as requiring victims to fill out SBA loan applications;
• The creation and/or maintenance of additional disaster recovery centers (“DRCs”) and FEMA’s 800 number, staffed with a sufficient number of employees capable of assisting victims in their efforts to apply for, understand, and obtain FEMA benefits;
• The development and distribution of communication methods to reach victims lacking knowledge of or access to computers or phones;
• The development and distribution of guidelines that clearly detail how to obtain continued financial assistance beyond the initial three month period;
• The development and distribution of guidelines for the granting of adjustments to take into consideration family size and other factors, including pre-Katrina housing arrangements;
• The elimination of unfair, retroactive rules regarding the use of funds already received; and
• The suspension of FEMA’s policy of allowing and/or promoting the eviction of residents from trailer parks and the destruction of their trailers to make room for FEMA trailers.

7. Relief is sought because it appears that, absent judicial oversight, the victimization will continue.

Sheriff Illegally Withholding Records on Orleans Parish Prison, ACLU Lawsuit Charges

Sheriff Illegally Withholding Records on Orleans Parish Prison, ACLU Lawsuit Charges

ACLU of Louisiana to Testify Before New Orleans City Council on Wednesday


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 10, 2005


BATON ROUGE, LA -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana today filed a lawsuit charging that Orleans Parish Prison officials are violating state law by refusing to turn over public records that would shine light on why prisoners were abandoned when Hurricane Katrina struck.

"The public deserves to know the truth about what really happened inside Orleans Parish Prison," said Joe Cook, Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana. "We need to know why Orleans Parish Prison fell into complete chaos while surrounding parishes managed to evacuate guards and prisoners to safety. Only then can we prevent this from happening again."

The ACLU of Louisiana filed public records requests with Sheriff Marlin N. Gusman and other state officials on September 22. After two weeks without a response, the ACLU sent a follow-up letter to Sheriff Gusman on October 5. To this day, Orleans Parish Prison has not provided a single document pursuant to the requests.

Specifically, the ACLU asked for:

• All documents pertaining to any deaths that have occurred on the premises of the prison since August 26, 2005;
• All documents pertaining to the collection of dead bodies from the premises of the prison, and the disposition of those bodies; and
• All documents pertaining to any evacuation plans that were in effect at the prison as of August 26.

The national ACLU, which represents the prisoners under a longstanding class-action lawsuit over prison conditions, filed similar requests under the federal Freedom of Information Act with the U.S. Marshals, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Justice.

According to eyewitness accounts, the Orleans Parish Prison fell into chaos in the five days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. As the water rose in the prison buildings, deputies deserted en masse, leaving behind prisoners in locked cells. Prisoners broke windows and either leapt out or set fire to pieces of clothing and held them outside the windows to signal to rescuers. The prisoners spent days without power, food or water, some standing in sewage-tainted water up to their chests or necks.

Attorneys from the ACLU of Louisiana will appear before the New Orleans City Council on November 16 to present statements from prisoners who were abandoned at Orleans Parish Prison. The statements were obtained through questionnaires distributed to the prisoners.

The national ACLU filed a separate motion on behalf of the prisoners in September in U.S. District Court, charging that no evacuation plans were in place at the time Katrina struck. The motion cites reports that Sheriff Gusman did not seek state assistance until midnight on August 29, days after other parish prisons had already called for help. On October 19, the judge in that case ordered Sheriff Gusman to provide a copy of the current evacuation plan.


For more information on the federal lawsuit, and copies of the original state and federal public records requests, go to: <http://www.aclu.org/Prisons/Prisons.cfm?ID=19178&c=121> .