[Peace] a smaller picture

[Susan Parenti]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Elizabeth Simpson <elizacorps at yahoo.com>
> Date: September 8, 2005 1:06:07 PM CDT
> To: sdas <sdas at ojctech.com>
> Subject: [Sdas] a smaller picture
>
>
>
> > "From: Lisa Moore
> > Date: Sat, 3 Sep 2005 10:13:40 -0700 (PDT)
> > Subject: [fireandink] a survivor's story: Katrina in
> > New Orleans
> >
> > i heard from my aunt last night that my cousin
> > Denise
> > made it out of New Orleans; she's at her brother's
> > in
> > Baton Rouge. from what she told me:
> >
> > her mother, a licensed practical nurse, was called
> > in
> > to work on Sunday night at Memorial Hospital
> > (historically known as Baptist Hospital to those of
> > us
> > from N.O.). Denise decided to stay with her mother,
> > her niece and grandniece (who is 2 years old); she
> > figured they'd be safe at the hospital. they went to
> > Baptist, and had to wait hours to b e assigned a
> > room
> > to sleep in; after they were finally assigned a
> > room,
> > two white nurses suddenly arrived after the cut-off
> > time (time to be assigned a room), and D! enise and
> > her
> > family were booted out; their room was given up to
> > the
> > new nurses. Denise was furious, and rather than stay
> > at Baptist, decided to walk home (several blocks
> > away)
> > to ride out the storm at her mother's apartment. her
> > mother stayed at the hospital.
> >
> > she described it as the scariest time in her life. 3
> > of the rooms in the apartment (there are only 4)
> > caved
> > in. ceilings caved in, walls caved in. she huddled
> > under a mattress in the hall. she thought she would
> > die from either the storm or a heart attack. after
> > the
> > storm passed, she went back to Baptist to seek
> > shelter
> > (this was Monday). it was also scary at Baptist; the
> > electricity was out, they were running on
> > generators,
> > there was no air conditioning. Tuesday the levees
> > broke, and water began rising. they moved patients
> > upstairs, s! aw boats pass by on what used to be
> > streets. they were told that they would be
> > evacuated,
> > that buses were coming. then they were told they
> > would
> > have to walk to the nearest intersection, Napoleon
> > and
> > S. Claiborne, to await the buses. they waded out in
> > hip-deep water, only to stand at the intersection,
> > on
> > the neutral ground (what y'all call the median) for
> > 3
> > 1/2 hours. the buses came and took them to the
> > Ernest
> > Morial Convention Center. (yes, the convention
> > center
> > you've all seen on TV.)
> >
> > Denise said she thought she was in hell. they were
> > there for 2 days, with no water, no food. no
> > shelter.
> > Denise, her mother (63 years old), her niece (21
> > years
> > old), and 2-year-old grandniece. when they arrived,
> > there were already thousands of people there. they
> > were told that buses were coming. police ! drove by,
> > windows rolled up, thumbs up signs. national guard
> > trucks rolled by, completely empty, soldiers wit h
> > guns
> > cocked and aimed at them. nobody stopped to drop off
> > water. a helicopter dropped a load of water, but all
> > the bottles exploded on impact due to the height of
> > the helicopter.
> >
> > the first day (Wednesday) 4 people died next to her.
> > the second day (Thursday) 6 people died next to her.
> > Denise told me the people around her all thought
> > they
> > had been sent there to die. again, nobody stopped.
> > the
> > only buses that came were full; they dropped off
> > more
> > and more people, but nobody was being picked up and
> > taken away. they found out that those being dropped
> > off had been rescued from rooftops and attics; they
> > got off the buses delirious from lack of water and
> > food. completely dehydrated. the crowd tried to keep
> &! gt; them all in one area; Denise said the new arrivals
> > had
> > mostly lost their minds. they had gone crazy.
> >
> > inside the convention center, the place was one huge
> > bathroom. in order to shit, you had to stand in
> > other
> > people' s shit. the floors were black and slick with
> > shit. most people stayed outside because the smell
> > was
> > so bad. but outside wasn't much better: between the
> > heat, the humidity, the lack of water, the old and
> > very young dying from dehydration... and there was
> > no
> > place to lay down, not even room on the sidewalk.
> > they
> > slept outside Wednesday night, under an overpass.
> >
> > Denise said yes, there were young men with guns
> > there.
> > but they organized the crowd. they went to Canal
> > Street and "looted," and brought back food and water
> > for the old people and the babies, because nobody
> > had
> > eaten in d! ays. when the police rolled down windows
> > and
> > yelled out "the buses are coming," the young men
> > with
> > guns organized the crowd in order: old people in
> > front, women and children next, men in the back.
> > just
> > so that when the buses came, there would be
> > priorities
> > of who got out first.
> >
> > Denise said the fights she saw between the young men
> > with guns were fist fights. she saw them put their
> > guns down and fight rather than shoot up the crowd.
> > but she said that there were a handful of people
> > shot
> > in the convention center; their bodies were left
> > inside, along with other dead babies and old people.
> >
> > Denise said the people thought there were being sent
> > there to die. lots of people being dropped off,
> > nobody
> > being picked up. cops passing by, speeding off.
> > national guard rolling by with guns aimed at them.
> > and> yes, a few men shot at the police, because at a
> > certain point all the people thought the cops were
> > coming to hurt them, to kill them all. she saw a
> > young
> > man who had stolen a car speed past, cops in
> > pursuit;
> > he crashed the car, got out and ran, and the cops
> > shot
> > him in the back. in front of the whole crowd. she
> > saw
> > many groups of people decide that they were going to
> > walk across the bridge to the west bank, and those
> > same groups would return, saying that they were met
> > at
> > the top of th e bridge by armed police ordering them
> > to
> > turn around, that they weren't allowed to leave.
> >
> > so they all believed they were sent there to die.
> >
> > Denise's niece found a pay phone, and kept trying to
> > call her mother's boyfriend in Baton Rouge, and
> > finally got through and told him where they were.
> > the
> > boyfrie! nd, and Denise's brother, drove down from
> > Baton
> > Rouge and came and got them. they had to bribe a few
> > cops, and talk a few into letting them into the city
> > ("come on, man, my 2-year-old niece is at the
> > Convention Center!"), then they took back roads to
> > get
> > to them.
> >
> > after arriving at my other cousin's apartment in
> > Baton
> > Rouge, they saw the images on TV, and couldn't
> > believe
> > how the media was portraying the people of New
> > Orleans. she kept repeating to me on the phone last
> > night: make sure you tell everybody that they left
> > us
> > there to die. nobody came. those young men with guns
> > were protecting us. if it wasn't for them, we
> > wouldn't
> > have had the little water and food they had found.
> >
> > that's Denise Moore's story.
> >
> > Lisa C. Moore"
>
> Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace/attachments/20050908/3948e6c5/attachment.htm