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Helping after Hurricane Katrina: useful websites
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http://www.socialworkers.org/swdrf/letter.asp; (Assistance for Social Workers)
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http://www.CACRT.org or 202.425.6022.
REFLECTIONS: THE MANY FACES OF HURRICANE KATRINA
(Excerpts from this article appeared in the GWSCSW news
& views December 2005 issue.)
Tybe Diamond
Ernest Hemingway once said “the world breaks everyone and afterward many are
stronger at the broken places.” This will be true if as a society and as
individuals, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, we do not seek to forget, to numb
our senses, harden our hearts and return to cynical business as usual because
the problems are too overwhelming to cope with and the emotions are to
unbearable to live with. As individuals and as a nation we have a unique
opportunity to look at the roots of poverty, racism and the symptoms of
psychological catastrophe that weaken us as a nation and devastate those
vulnerable individuals who can become the objects of betrayal in this national
crisis.
Hurricane Katrina is the sixth-strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic
basin. Its storm surge breached the levee system that protected New Orleans and
most of the city was subsequently flooded. This and other major damage to the
coastal regions of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama made Katrina the most
destructive and costliest natural disaster in this country’s history. Hurricane
Rita followed in Katrina’s destructive path continuing the devastation.
The official death toll now stands at 1,302 and the damage from $70 to $130
billion. It is the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history. Over a
million people have been displaced. We have not seen such a humanitarian
disaster since the Great Depression. Bay Area Mercury News described that “not
since the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s or the end of the Civil War in the 1860’s have
so many Americans been on the move from a single event.” By early September,
people were being forcibly evacuated to neighboring states. CNN reported that
the disaster effected an area almost as large as the United Kingdom. Two weeks
after the storm, over half the States were involved in providing shelter for
evacuees. Three quarters of the evacuees have stayed within 250 miles of their
homes but tens of thousands have located more than 1,000 miles away.
The response of the American public has been unprecedented in volunteerism and
donations. Even the Humane Society received $15 million in donations within two
weeks after the hurricane occurred.
The issue of demographics has been raised in the media as news video and
photographs showed primarily black citizens stranded in New Orleans. The US
Census Bureau estimates the 2004 New Orleans population to be 20% white and
67.9% black. The poorest citizens in the city tended to live in the lowest parts
that are most vulnerable to flooding. The official Afro-American US institutions
have held many press conferences expressing anger and charging that the response
was slow because those most affected are poor. Critics say city, state and
federal officials didn’t bother to consider these citizens who cannot afford
private transportation for an evacuation. However, the greater amount of
criticism was directed at the slow reaction of the Bush administration to the
crisis. No meaningful help for thousands of people stranded at the city’s
Convention Center occurred until the fifth day of the flood. They went without
food, water, electricity and toilet facilities.
Polls revealed that a majority of African-Americans believed that racial bias
played a role in the indifference that the administration and FEMA showed. Jesse
Jackson compared the Superdome where 60,000 people were gathered for evacuation
to the hull of a slave ship. Shepard Smith of Fox News went off script and
described armed authorities not letting a growing crowd self evacuate the city
by foot.
There have been news reports of restrictions on the activity of the media. CNN
reported that a spokesperson for FEMA requested in an email to journalists that
they voluntarily refrain from taking photographs of the corpses present in the
city at that time. CNN filed a lawsuit and the next day the government said they
would no longer bar journalists access to their operation to recover the bodies.
Numerous reports by journalists continued, however, of threats from police for
taking photographs and photographic equipment being confiscated.
This was the backdrop of news reports coming in during the time 400 evacuees
arrived at the DC Armory. This writer, along with several others in our Society,
volunteered through the auspices of the Red Cross to work at the Armory. Others
worked at the Red Cross national call center in Virginia. My first impression
upon seeing the Armory, for the first time, was what a worn out, colorless
building it looked like on the outside. Upon entering the Armory I felt like I
was walking into a dark, windowless, chasm. It is somewhat larger than a
football field and totally devoid of any architectural nuance. I was relieved to
see a large open space to the outside. At least some light was coming in other
than the dull, yellow artificial light that lost all of its brightness as it
fell onto the dark walls with chipped paint that were badly in need of repair.
Around the room stations had been set up offering various social, educational,
vocational, legal and other services to meet basic needs. FEMA, the Red Cross,
DHS, including the Dept. of Mental Health Services and HUD had a large presence.
There was information about local jobs that were available at restaurants and
firms hiring manual labor. A library section had been created near a child care
section. Computers were set up for adults as well as for children with age
appropriate games on them. Many individuals had been given free cell phones by
Nextel and there were free Verizon wall phones to use to call out but no calls
could be received. There was a long table with information pertaining to church
services in the area. Many other volunteer organizations also had placed their
brochures on this table. Maps of the city and the transit system were readily
available. Plenty of food was always present for meals and snacks.
During the orientation session to the Red Cross we were told to walk around the
room and reach out to evacuees or “guests” as they were called. Everyone seemed
dwarfed
by the proportions of the drape room. There were probably no more than 75 people
in this cavernous hall. I learned that most of the evacuees were off on a
tourist trip around Washington organized by an outside group.
Earlier there had been a picnic and several Afro-American trail clubs had
brought horses and ponies to the Armory for the children to ride on the very
small grassy area outside. I talked with members of this club who were some of
the kindest people I’ve ever encountered. These clubs make themselves available
to special needs children when called upon but this time they came without being
asked “to give the kids a good time.” I enjoyed my visit with them and was eager
to learn about their services. I hated the racism I found inside myself that I
had been so “surprised” by these all black trail club members. Where I grew up
horse back riding was so expensive it was a recreation only upper class whites
could enjoy and cultivate.
I returned to the hall that was virtually empty. The Red Cross had set up a
station in the middle of the room with a hand made sign hanging from the table
that read “Stress Management.” No one was there. I felt useless and disappointed
that there didn’t appear to be much for me to do. I approached various
non-mental health volunteers to let them know I was there should something arise
where I might be useful. I walked around the living quarters to see if any
residents might be in distress who wished to talk with me. This felt intrusive
and I left. There also was no one there.
The living quarters were divided by sheets from the public space. Within the
living quarters light drapes were hung to create separate sections for men,
women and families in the middle. The cots were placed fairly close together and
individuals left their belongings by their cots. Some cots were meticulously
kept ; others were sloppy.
As the day wore on I did eventually speak with one guest about his experience.
We had a long conversation and he seemed to be in good shape. He was relieved to
be out of the Superdome where there were increasingly difficult circumstances.
Air conditioning, electricity and running water all failed making for very
unsanitary and uncomfortable conditions. He was not the only evacuee to tell me
that he was glad to be at the Armory. He felt it was the “best set up in the
country.” He was a state welfare worker who had served in this role for many
years. He told me about his journey out in chest deep water.
He feared that he might walk onto one of the high voltage pumps which would have
killed him. He managed to convince his cousin to leave with him though this
relative had been very resistant. I was impressed with his courage, patience
with his cousin and his competence in figuring out where the pumps were in the
water in face of his mortal anxiety. He teared as he told me how many of his
“clients” didn’t seem to make it out. He looked for them at the Superdome but
couldn’t find them. He had worked with some for many years, “in and out of
homelessness and jobs…now we are all in this together.”
I spoke with Margo (“Maggie”) Silberstein, Ed.D. who is a clinical psychologist
in private practice in W DC and is a longtime board member of the Capital Area
Crisis Response Team (CACRT). She is a crisis trainer for CACRT which is the
local chapter of the National Organization for Victim Assistance. Periodically
NOVA sponsors 40 hour training that will provide certification in crisis
response. Once you have completed this training you are eligible to become a
member of CACRT and you will be called in on local crises first and then on
national ones.
We reviewed our experiences at the Armory together. Dr. Silberstein explained
there is “always a high level of frustration trying to get in there and do
something. You need to be very patient as often you spend lots of time trying to
be helpful and little time actually being helpful… this is very hard when you
see people suffering.” She wished that the Armory had arranged a more
comfortable seating arrangement where a small group could have sat and talked. I
share her view.
Judith Bernardi is a social worker who has her Ph.D in Medical Psychology with a
subspecialty in bioethics. She was called into 9/11and more recently spent 8
days in the disaster response centers of Biloxi, Gulfport and Picayune. She
ended up in the Biloxi free clinic that was set up to provide medical care for
evacuees. Dr. Bernardi mostly did triage with the elderly. Biloxi sustained
great destruction but the nearby towns in this Gulf Coast community were
completely destroyed. “It’s not about how many interventions you do; it’s simply
creating a comforting presence” -- in Dr. Bernardi’s words: “being there.” I
asked her what healing factors she observed that worked in a positive way for
these victims of such devastating trauma. Dr. Bernardi mentioned that many
people relied on their religion, the fact that they had no choice but to repair
and move on, and the need to do one thing at a time. “When there is no there
there how do you get started again? We need to help them identify the first
steps. For many there were the rituals of daily living: combing your hair and
brushing your teeth. Essentially you are assessing for basic needs. There’s
confusion; people become dismantled when they are not sure there are enough
resources. “
I also spoke to a social worker who was assisting at the Red Cross national call
center in northern Virginia. Volunteers there were separated into two groups
after the two hour basic orientation to the Red Cross. The non-mental health
volunteer group answered the phones and the mental health volunteer group
received 90 minutes of further training on how to help with the calls if
requested. This is the central call center for the country and all nature of
calls are received. Calls could entail anything from someone being trapped on a
rooftop to a father being dead. This Society member was very impressed with the
volunteers on the phone, many of whom were retirees who either lived in the area
or who flew in to work on the phones. Those coming from a distance spent long
days on the phones and lived here at their own expense. She described that what
the person was calling in for was almost secondary to how they sounded since
often they were frantic, feeling horror and the first task was to help them calm
down and focus.
This volunteer felt the center was very well organized but here, as with the
Armory, the mental health workers were not designated by a badge according to
the services they were there to provide. The Red Cross model expects the mental
health worker to blend into the environment and see where they might be needed –
in this case, identifying those who might need assistance with a tough call.
The “guest” I spoke with at the Armory who worked for the welfare department
getting people benefits in New Orleans told me “people are figuring out that
this isn’t going to go away quickly. This thing is not coming back together
unless we put it back together. We all need to cooperate and work at it.”
It is said that we live in the shelter of each other. Clearly this man
understands this probably better than most of us . In the landmark Harvard Study
of Adult Development, author and psychiatrist George Valiant, M.D. shares his
view that one of the ingredients in spiritual development is “altruism.“ Most
societies acknowledge the importance of altruism within the family as essential
in establishing strong relationships. It can also motivate cooperation within
larger groups and communities. In this global village in which we all live we
will need much more altruism to sustain our planet and the fellowship of man.
Our country is at a crossroads now in how we deal with this humanitarian crisis.
This will be a marathon and not a sprint. Volunteer opportunities exist in
abundance. Let our behavior match our rhetoric and truly let us not leave anyone
behind.