Biloxi

A friend/dive buddy of mine decided to load up his truck with camping equipment, scuba gear for salvage work, and tools and chainsaws and head to Mississippi to help in the Katrina relief effort. Below is his narrative from Gulfport for those interested in a first-hand account of conditions down there, not filtered by the news or the administration.

Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 6:39 PM
Subject: Hurricane Katrina news from Gulfport, MS

Greetings from Gulfport Mississippi, specifically one mile north of highway 10 on state route 49.

My first day here has been a real experience. It's hard to tell where to start, my day started at sunrise after spending the night in my truck in a church parking lot. Jumping ahead my accommodations now are much better, we are in an impromptu distribution center in a empty
supermarket. Semis bring in donations all day which are sorted then reloaded and distributed to sites around Gulfport and Biloxi.

Early this morning as I was finding my way around I ended up in a devastated neighborhood, nothing but foundations left. I came across a church group, seven guys from Michigan, unloading supplies from a bus. I pitched in and ended up loading and unloading the bus three more times today.

It is hard, hot work but very rewarding, the people we are delivering supplies to are in dire need and very appreciative. I have dealt with crying grandmothers and laughing babies. We just finished loading the bus and will make a run first thing tomorrow morning to the projects in Biloxi.

That is the positive side, on the negative things are very disorganized and I have collected some real horror stories about the FEMA bureaucracy. That and there are so many military and police officers from surrounding states that everyone is lost and no one knows what is happening. In spite of that almost everyone just pitches in an does what needs to be done. We talk to each other and help each other out. The Army filled our bus with diesel today, we finally found the right officer!

The church group has made me family and we are camped out under a store awning here at the distribution center, other than the trucks and police cars parading through it is great. Lots of company, food and water, we even appropriated donated foam pads and sleeping bags, we have coolers, generators, a grill and occasional Internet access when Sprint is not over loaded. The one thing we really need is hot showers, our hygiene is not the best right now.

Some random thoughts, I may never drink bottled water again, it is everywhere and heavy to load! Your donations are getting through, we see it all; MRE's, tons of diapers and baby food and bags of donated mixed can goods, lots of bulk stuff, most seems to be from private organizations. The distribution is not efficient, trucks misdirected, too much time spent waiting for decisions, etc. But after just a day here we are becoming the experts and learning our way around. That will change, there is talk of us moving to a distribution center in Downtown Biloxi tomorrow.

I still think there is some diving work that I can do to help out, I have been passing fliers out to police and rescue workers I have met and they all assure me they will call if they find the need.

Well I will close for now. I tried to send pictures but Sprint can't deal with it tonight, service is really strained down here.