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September 20, 2005
San Antonio Katrina Relief Update
An Alert Reader emails the following about her recent experiences working with evacuees in San Antonio:
Anyway, I went out to building 1536 and put in my first 12 hour shift on Friday 9/9 and was back out there on Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues. I took my husband out there on Saturday and he painted with some of the little kids. IWell, no wonder they aren't letting the press in there. This does not surprise me I hate to say. When I went down to volunteer it was chaos. I don't think I would let Mrs. C go back by herself either.
guess that I should have mentioned that they put me in the daycare/play area the first day and I worked there every day after that. Very difficult and trying conditions. Horrible problems with the older kids completely unsupervised and beating the crap out of the little ones, parents taking off and leaving the children for 12 hours or more and stumbling in drunk at 1am and us still sitting there with the poor little things, child protective services
taking away another two children from a Mom who was really messed up and then her coming after the volunteers and threatening us-one way to lose good volunteers! We were unable to get security on many occasions, even when I was really scared and begging, violent children going through withdrawals (can you believe it?) volunteers who only stayed an hour before leaving in horror, hungry, dirty children that no-one bathed or fed or pottied
unless we did it, no hand-washing facilities or clean-up area and lots of these children had really bad diarrea and vomiting. Pee and poo everywhere! Absolutely no help from the powers that be, except inane rules like "we
would really like it if you would wear a white t-shirt tomorrow so that we can all be uniform in appearance"
And we would pick up these poor little kids and they would just hang onto us, they had to be peeled off our necks. Lots of love and affection and they really wanted our protection. But the big kids made life hell, so I tossed them out one night and they went over to the bed area and started pegging us with rocks. I was the last one out on Monday night and was told that no-one could walk me to my car, that security couldn't leave their posts; this was
after the admin people had told me that one of the mothers was looking for me to beat me up (the one who had her kids removed by CPS) I kid you not, I was scared to death and it sure was a long walk to my car at midnight. Tuesday was worse, if you can imagine and every day we were so short handed, 30 kids or more and only 2 or 3 volunteers, then if we had to take a child to the porta-potties outside then we were a man down until the person
came back. Crazy. My husband said no more, that if the Red Cross can't provide secure parking and an escort to the cars and keep us from being threatened by the "clients" then he says I can't go back.
Perhaps all of this has some relevance to a request by a reader to discuss the private vs. the public sector and civil-military relations. Things would of course be much more organized if the military ran such facilities, but I think people know that. I don't think that's a great idea though, because the military needs to be focused on fighting abroad, not inwardly focused here in the US. Also, I'm just not a big fan of active duty military activity (aside from training of course) domestically. I think posse comitatus was a good idea.
In the end, a clear hierarchy and chain of command, as offered by the military, would alleviate a number of these friction-type problems in relief efforts. But I'm not sure that's possible because of the multitude of agencies involved. I have little faith in the average bureaucrat to be Johnny-on-the-Spot in getting anything done. It's not always their faults either. Institutions breed complacency and risk-aversion. These two traits lead to problems in chaotic and rapidly changing environments.
Thoughts, readers?
Posted by Chester at September 20, 2005 8:43 PM
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Comments
This is truly a shame. They need some sort of service that has dealt with the poor before. That is what these folks are. They have been living in the projects. Poverty. Poor education. Lack of moral guidance. Lack of stable family (no dad, mom busy trying to keep the wheels form falling off).
Good people wanting to help need to be managed appropriately for the saftey of all involved and the succss of the mission.
Posted by: Amen at September 21, 2005 8:54 AM
What a nightmare, Chester! I've been too busy with other things to have time to volunteer, though I wanted to. Now I'm happy I did not! With my mouth, I'd have been beaten to a pulp! At least the incoming evacuees are Texans! What a difference that will make. We aren't a corrupt 3rd world country of liberalism as NO is...if this isn't proof positive on how liberalism is destroying our country, nothing does!
Posted by: DagneyT at September 21, 2005 2:33 PM
I wonder why they are not using National Guard Armories. If they did, there would be security.
Otherwise volunteers should bring cell phones and call 911. It is the only way to get the attention of relief managers. Otherwise the volunteers will be ignored. Many local mayors get a summary of 911 calls made to their police department every morning, so they can see what happened the night before. In addition, the volunteers should call the local Mayor and City Councilors where the shelter is located and make a serious and sincere complaint (no shouting or hysterics.)
Once 911 is called and police are on the scene, police have an obligation to call in protective services. Whether the police will do it is another question. Arrest of violent evacuees might also make the shelters more orderly.
Things will get worse with Rita. I hope the coastal towns are moving their vehicles to high ground so we will not be seeing hundreds of destroyed buses. Same goes for any other movable heavy equipment.
Posted by: rich at September 21, 2005 5:29 PM
Rich,
Calling 911 is an interesting technique I would not have considered. Probably more effective and better results than calling the local newspaper. Good call.
Posted by: Chester at September 21, 2005 7:51 PM
I have been volunteering at Camp Dawson in Preston County, WV, where 319 evacuees were initially housed. It is a National Guard camp. I believe the presence of WV state police and National Guard MPs has helped us tremendously. We have a much smaller population than what is in San Antonio, obviously, but I have found the children to be well-behaved and respectful. They started school at a local elementary/middle school this week, and since I've been working the midnight shift, I have gotten them up to catch the bus. They have not complained, have gotten right out of bed, gotten dressed, and gone to the bus with no trouble. Even the younger teen-agers who are there with their parents are no trouble.
Now, that's not to say there are no problems with the population. In fact, the local paper blared that 45% have criminal records, without specifying 45% of what number. The evacuees were fingerprinted upon arrival and fingerprints were sent to the FBI. The 45% figure is evidently a result of that. But I don't know who was fingerprinted (i.e., were children included?). I know some have been involved in drugs (I did speak with one young man who has spent time in prison for selling cocaine), and two men have been arrested for sexual assault and intimidating a witness; and two illegal aliens were discovered. But I would say on the whole, they are a well-behaved group. The older folks among them, particularly, are quite religious, and several are spotted saying grace before having their meals. They are pretty much a microcosm of our society, I would say.
Posted by: Janice at September 21, 2005 7:52 PM
This is a story about dealing with the professional poor. The same thing happened during the Loma Prieta earthquake relief effort years ago as another example.
These folks know how to play the game. They are better at the media game than Al Quaida. They know the ins and outs of the social welfare system and how to play one agency off on another.
It does not appear that the Red Cross has developed its capabilities for handling such folks in the last 15+ years. Perhaps they are too oriented on the social worker and psychiatric mentality and need to change to some sort of tough love approach.
Stories like those of the 'Alert Reader' need to get out there and start a more productive dialog about how we can best minimize the professional poor.
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