Locals react to Gulf Coast crisis
By Meliqueica Meadows
Of the St. Louis American
Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast with a vengeance Monday. The Mississippi coast was devastated, and nearly 80 percent of New Orleans is under water. Estimates of the dead passed the 100 mark, and everyone agreed this number would continue to rise.
While the damage seems far away, many locals with ties to the Gulf Coast area struggled for information about loved ones or prepared to receive them as refugees.
“We’re still trying to figure out what to do,” said Ann Marr, director of human resources at World Wide Technology and a New Orleans native.
“I grew up and my family lived around Lake Pontchartrain, and I know how devastating the flooding can be,” Marr said. “When the water comes rushing in and the levee breaks, it can happen fast.”
Marr said members of her family still live near Lake Pontchartrain, but all were able to evacuate except for her brother who decided to remain behind. She had not spoken to him since Katrina hit land.
“You can’t reach anybody out there,” Marr said Tuesday. “That whole 504 area code is just completely unreachable. It’s just heartbreaking what’s going on down there.”
KMOX 1120 reporter and American columnist Carol Daniel also has family in New Orleans and has yet to hear of their safety. Daniel, like many, is still coming to terms with the devastation that has destroyed such a beautiful city.
“It’s a really historic-looking place with lots of architecture,” Daniel said. “You’re really struck by the above-ground cemeteries. And, of course, they’re above ground because (New Orleans) is below sea level.”
Even with the city’s location, few expected a tragedy of this magnitude. Many stayed behind in hopes of riding out the storm. Others were financially unable to evacuate. An estimated 23,000 refugess took cover in the Superdome; they will now be evacuated to Houston’s Astrodome.
“People with no vehicles, no money, and no credit cards,” Daniel said, “it’s not like they can catch a plane and fly to Memphis.”
Residents from the devastated areas who make it to safety will not be able to return to their homes any time soon.
“The difficult part is that, even if you make it out, it’s a waiting game,” Marr said. “You have to just sit and wait to see if your home survived.”
Becky James-Hatter, president and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri, is originally from Alexandria, Louisiana, located a few hours’ drive from New Orleans.
“Friends that lived in the area traveled three hours north to our hometown and are staying with my sister and her family,” James-Hatter said. “They just don’t know what to do. I talked to them, and they don’t know anything about their homes. They don’t know what they’re going to do about school.”
St. Louis residents who attend a school in the Gulf Coast region received an open invitation from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, which established a program to immediately enroll area students who attend colleges that have been closed by Hurricane Katrina.
UMSL will waive its application and late-registration fees for such students, work to place them in classes that will transfer credits to their home colleges, and possibly provide some scholarship aid to students in need. Students should call (314) 516-5451 for more information.
Leata Price-Land of the Platinum Group is preparing to receive a refugee family from New Orleans into her own home. She said St. Louis should brace for an influx of people who have lost everything.
“I want churches to step up and do what they used to do,” Price-Land said.
“If they could open their basements or help with clothing drives or just do something to assist the people that will be coming into the area with nothing, that would help.”
Disaster relief efforts are underway. Nelly’s 4Sho 4Kids foundation, working with several other groups, will collect relief supplies (preferably in their original packaging) at 1807-1809 Beltway (behind QuikTrip, off 170 and Page) this Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m., and on Monday from 8 a.m. to noon. It is also accpeting donations at any Bank of America location under 4Sho 4Kids Hurricane Relief Effort.
A local fundraiser and silent auction to benefit victims is scheduled for October 8 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Kappa Alpha Psi house on North Vandeventer. For more information, call Linda Gathright at (314) 867-4959.
Funds and supplies can also be donated to American Red Cross St. Louis, (314) 516-2800, and United Way of Greater St. Louis, (314) 421-0700.
