noah's day

From noah, at the Well. Posted with his permission.

This was my day today:

I worked with Katrina evacuees today. I work in the public affairs office of the City of Raleigh. On Monday, 397 evacuees were flown to RDU airport and brought to the former Nortel training facility in west Raleigh to be housed. On Saturday, I got a call from my boss to do some preliminary work for their eventual arrival. The police at the facility were told they'd be there between 1 a.m and 4 a.m. on Sunday morning. That window kept moving and finally got pushed back to Monday.

I arrived at the facility this morning and got a quick briefing from a lady with Wake County's public affairs office. I'd be working for her and helping her office. The down and dirty: 397 folks ranging from age two to age 97. Three planeloads of people arrived and two of them were from New Orleans. No one seemed to know where the other plane was from. The first floor of the facility was open to everyone. Offices were not being used to hold temporary quarters for employment security commission folks, red cross workers, hospital workers, grief counselors, wake county public school workers, and everything in between. The most disorganized, confused angry office? The one housing the FEMA folks.

Of the 397 there, I saw three white people and five hispanic people. The rest were black. The black folks were from Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, Nigeria and the US. My job was to be an escort for media reps working on their stories and I'd be fielding a few calls and helping return calls that were coming in from all over.

I am a former reporter and naturally, I fell right back into reporter mode on my first task. I ended up asking more questions than the print reporter I was escorting and she had to pull me aside and tell me to back off (she was asking the wrong questions....). I kept my mouth shut and hung back a little ways.

They had set up portable showers for the "intake" and apparently they were expecting a few more people to show up. The intake was being done by workers from a nearby hospital. The lead medic was telling his crew, "I know a lot of you have military experience, but remember: These people don't know where they are. They just got off the plane and we have to be very careful with them." When you arrived at the facility, you were asked to step over to the showers. Men and women had different facilities, naturally. If your clothes were soiled or too dirty to wear, you were asked to place them in a plastic bag for disposal. You were given a bar of soap and a towel. Hose yourself off and get dry. You were given a one-piece jumpsuit (blue, not an orange one) and some slippers.

Next, you enter the facility and you'd get an ID badge. It had your name, the location of the facility (901 Corporation PKWY/Raleigh) and your picture on it. It had a little lanyard, so you could wear it around your neck. You had to wear it at all times. If you needed clothes, there was a room with new clothes that Wake County had and some donated clothes from the Salvation Army. You also got a room assignment for you to sleep. The training facilities upstairs had been converted to "dorms" for people. They tried to match people up, so families slept together with other families and people were sorted by age and sex. There were cots and blankets and pillows for people.

I started talking to the evacuees and introducing myself...and I fell in love with everyone. These were the nicest people you'd ever want to be around in your life. Everyone had one of two names: "Brother" or "sister." I was expecting a lot of anger and really, I didn't see any. Everyone I spoke with responded with a smile. Everyone asked me how *I* was doing.

The first man I met was an Austrailian named Steven Hose. A big tall guy with a long pony tail, a scraggly beard and a "jagermeister" tattoo on his forearm, he had  come to New Orleans, liked the seediness and managed to get a job in the French Quarter working at a strip club doing a little of everything. Bouncer, bartender, doorman, handyman. When the storm hit, he lost everything...including his immigration stuff. His one concern was trying to get a message to his mom and dad that he was okay. At the time, there wasn't a phone bank with international dialing access set up, so I took his info and promised I'd try and call for him.

Next, I met a woman from Time Warner Cable who was hellbent and determined to help someone (goddammit). She had called FEMA (not knowing who to call) and introduced herself, said she was a rep from TWC and she wanted to help. The FEMA operator said, "Great. Lower my cable bill." She got in her car and drove over and was looking for a family to help. I got her into the facility past the police officers and she found a couple pretty quickly. Her church had pooled their money and bought a BUNCH of $100 gift cards to Target and Wal-Mart. She drove the family over to Target to get some toiletries and some clothes....but you know what this woman who had lost EVERYTHING she ever owned did?? She used her $100 gift card to buy stuff for everyone else. She bought a bunch of toys for the kids and clothes for the collection table. "I got my ass covered. I don' need no mo'."

Finally, realizing that some people just weren't going anywhere without their pets...they are starting to make some accomodations for people with dogs and cats. I met a man who smuggled a mini-pinscher in a suitcase. He was sprawled out on a cot with this TEENY little thing curled up in a ball between his legs. I introduced myself. This guy was about 70 with a full head of white hair and a great white beard that was shocking in contrast to his dark skin. In a cajun accent as thick as Justin Wilson's belly, he explained, "Ah couldn't leave dis heeyah little one anymo than I could have leff my children."

The local animal shelter and humane society set up a facility out behind the place for people who had animals as well. They had a couple of cats and about a dozen dogs. Most of them were in pretty good shape, but there was one dog that had blisters on his paws from walking in the water. Volunteers from the NC State vet school were checking them out and said the blisters weren't a serious problem and would heal with some salve. There was a schnauser (schnauzer?) that had even saved his owner when the floodwaters came. Once the water came in the first floor, his barks woke everyone up and let them know it was time to leave.

Around 11:30, I headed over to the cafeteria. I wanted to eat so I could go back to work for all the TV stations that were doing their noon live shots from the plant. The cafeteria was empty so I found a worker and explained my situation. Any chance you could find something for me? This woman put her hands on her hips and indignantly said, "HELLLL NO! BACK OF THE LINE!!!" Her co-worker pointed out that...I was the line. They both laughed and disappeared in the back. When they came back, they had a plate full of fries, a burger and some chicken fingers. I sat down at a table beside a couple of old cuban men playing cards. They both smiled, welcomed me, and when I started to eat, they pointed out how good the food had been at breakfast. It *was* pretty tasty. The executive chef for the cafeteria wandered by and I thanked him for the food.

"EVERYONE's gonna eat here. I don't have everything I need to do it right, but EVERYONE's gonna eat. These aren't refugees! These are Americans and Americans are going to eat!"

Everyone I spoke with about the response from the federal government wasn't surprised by the delay. One lady told me, "You're a fool if you are waiting for George Bush to rescue some poor black folks."

After lunch, I helped coordinate the live shots and then I went over to the employment security commission office. A number of local businesses had offered to get people jobs and even help them find places to stay and rides to work. Several people were explaining their skills and the ones who got jobs seemed fine with the idea of staying in Raleigh. One man told me that a family in Wake Forest had taken in 20 folks in one house.

After that, I went to the FEMA line. It was actually the FEMA/HUD/DMV and VA line. The first thing they needed to do was get people some official identification. The ID badges we made for them weren't going to be much good when they needed to cash a check.

Initially, they passed out numbers and would call people over an intercom. "Numbers 1-25 can now visit the FEMA office." But then buses started arriving. Turns out that Wal-Mart was giving away $100 gift cards too and had chartered buses to take people to a store so they could get supplies. One little old lady wearing a "NEW ORLEANS!!" hat kept asking me, "Is this the bus that takes people to Wal-Mart?" At some point, people realized that FEMA was more important than Wal-Mart...so they didn't want to get out of line. And then people realized that the buses going to Wal-Mart weren't going to be going all day...and then people returning from Wal-Mart figured they had a right to be in line.

Argh.

I quickly called the Joint Operations Office and told them what was going on. They quickly made arrangements for another day of Wal-Mart trips for the rest of the people (Wal-Mart had assumed that everyone had gotten a chance to go). How they are going to figure out who went today and who gets to go tomorrow ought to  be interesting. Next, the number system for the FEMA line was abandoned. Next in line was next in line. Arguments were quickly settled though...not by cops or workers, but by the evacuees themselves. "Calm down brother....ain't like you got somewhere to be."

There was an 80 year old woman in line who couldn't stand for very long. A young lady who had lived in the 9th Ward asked me if I'd get a chair. We both took  turns moving the chair down the line as it advanced. We started talking about politics. I gave my theory that the feds were being as inefficient as they possibly could so they could finally throw up their hands and say, "Fuck it. Just scrap the system." I told my stories about going through Hurricanes Fran and Floyd. The young lady and the old lady told me their hurricane stories as well. The old lady had been at a nursing home and the nuns, she said, split once the floodwaters came. She said she watched one lady just give up and die, choosing to drown rather than try and escape. At this point, she started to cry and we tried to comfort her. I mentioned that there were some grief counselors here and she ought to talk to them.

"I don't have time for grief," she said. She said she had just lost everything. She had lived in New Orleans her whole life. All of her family had lived there their entire life. Her friends and community and church were there and now it was gone. Then she got *pissed.*

"God's going to get George Bush. He's got to."

I personally don't believe in God, however, if there IS one, I'd like to second her motion.

That was the end of my shift and it was time for me to go. As I was leaving, I bumped into my australian friend. An international line was set up and he had gotten through to his mother and father. He had a note that he was getting ready to give to someone to hand to me.

"Tell [noah] that I talked to my mom and dad and I'm alright."

Comments

[barbara]

what a great and touching article. thank you for posting this...the
spirit of the people really comes through in this guy's writing and i
am very moved.

[Malcom Flot]

Where you making fun of my name P**?
Hi, P**
Noah is a niece nick name. Mine is Judah
Yes, everyone, I am the guy that was taken in the Raleigh Corporate Center Shelter.
We went back to New Orleans (only to check things out, and secure the property) to visit, and found our Rottweiller was still alive after all this time. As the waters started going down, he had plenty of fresh fish hoping around. There was also some voluntees from Barrington, IL (Doberman Rescue plus)who had been coming around and feeding him. His name is Puppy, and he now lives here in Raleigh, NC too.
We were placed in an apartment, that White Memorial Batist Church completly furnish with the necessities.
We are very greatful for all that everyone have done.
The sales at the North Carolina Highway Patrol and the NC State Surplus Property Sales had enable us to replace our automobiles with some dependables; I have even Towed a car to a Bus Driver in New Orleans.
The Apartment that we have been living in seems to be getting smaller and smaller every day, so with the help of Ursula Gray, a new Realtor with Coldwell Banker, HPW and Yvonne Fredenburg of a New York base Mortgage Co. we are going to a closing for a nice big home on a hill, that sits on an acrea of land, with an underground stream.

God and his people are truely Great!

Thanks for everything