Pearlington MS on CNN

Dear All,

First and foremost, thank you for your tremendous outpouring of support over the past few months as I relayed the dire needs in Pearlington, Mississippi. As many of you know, I have been advocating to get this story out to a much wider audience. Well, CNN responded. They have been with me in New York, Newnan, and Pearlington over the past couple of weeks. Please watch the story on Friday morning, December 23rd. This segment will air on CNN's morning show, "American Morning" with Soledad O'Brien, which airs from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM. I don't yet know the time frame for the segment. If I can narrow it down a bit, I will certainly let you know. Needless to say, there is much excitement in Pearlington as they await the telling of their story.

Thank you again for all you have done.

Continuing in Peace and Justice,

Angela

View the CNN Video Here


Tags: Pearlington MS

Thanksgiving Trip and Pictures of Pearlington MS

Check out these pictures of Pearlington taken by Angela at Thanksgiving!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=bquxt22h.aa18mzu9&x=0&y=-rkdrnf

Below is an update on the state of Pearlington, much more help is needed.

Dear All,
I have been home 1 week from spending Thanksgiving in Pearlington, Mississippi. It seems to take me about a week after I return home to be able to find the words to write about my experiences. While some things have changed, so much has not - and, therein, lies the difficulty of expression. The massive piles of garbage-riddled debris on the worst corner remain unchanged; coffins that dislodged during Katrina remain unburied; and, yes, there are those still living in tents 3 months after the storm. How can it be that in the wealthiest nation on the planet with an infrastructure and resources unparalled by any other country we still have people living in tents and squalor 3 months after Hurricane Katrina? I certainly do not have the answers; but, I assure you, I am seeking the answers from those who should have them. With that being said, let me tell you about Thanksgiving where Katrina made landfall.

I re-traced my route of September, flying into Atlanta and renting an SUV - actually, bizarrely, the exact same SUV. (How's that for kharma?!) At any rate, I again made my camp in the Old Train Depot in Bay St. Louis. While the Army Corp of Engineers is now gone, the wonderful doctors and nurses of the Loudoun Medical Group are still there administering free health care to all who walk through the door. They are truly an inspiration and a model for the greater medical community. It was great to see some of the same faces from my first "tour of duty" in The Zone. It was an odd reunion of sorts - again joining individuals with whom I had formed fast and solid bonds while working in extraordinary conditions and times. This time, however, there were some new faces as well - most notably, my niece, Emily, and her boyfriend, Joshua, who joined me to help in Pearlington on Thanksgiving. Ed, a college student from Rice University drove from Houston to help; and, Albert, who has been working in The Zone for the past 2 months, joined efforts in Pearlington as well. I was deeply touched by the selflessness of these young adults who chose to spend a holiday in a disaster zone when they could have been eating mom's turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie in the comfort of their own homes.

I found Thanksgiving Day to be somewhat surreal. There was a somber tone to it - a quietness of people and place - perhaps, a remembering of holidays past and friends lost. There was most definitely activity at the Old Train Depot. As many of you may have seen on TV, Rotary International and 2 other groups sponsored a county-wide Thanksgiving dinner on the grounds of the Depot. Roughly 3,000 people gathered. However, folks in Pearlington wanted to stay in Pearlington - with their friends and families. That is their community. Many extended family members came and took their relatives away for the holiday. It was a nice break for some. These people are still living in survival mode some 3 months after Katrina made landfall. The folks that were left were either elderly or alone, for the most part. So, on "Turkey Day," my helpers and I loaded-up 2 SUVs with 50 dinners and drove from FEMA trailer to FEMA trailer distributing a bit of holiday cheer. (FEMA coincidentally delivered a large load of trailers just prior to Thanksgiving - While these people lived in tents for almost 3 months, FEMA made certain the trailers arrived just before the 1st holiday post-Katrina.) I was struck by how many people were going along as though it were just another day - BJ mucking-out his elderly parents destroyed home, giving us a toothless grin of thanks for the turkey and stuffing in the styrofoam take-out box; Butch, Billy Ray, and the boys clearing-off a neighbor's debris-filled yard; the woman working inside her trailer, only the company of her dogs on Thanksgiving Day; and, the Vietnamese shrimpers on their battered boat heading-out to sea to cast their nets - all working or perhaps just getting-through the day, as every day.

After the meals were delivered, we headed over to the Earl's tent. I and my 4 helpers had been invited to join Toby, Yvette, and the kids for Thanksgiving dinner. The FEMA trailers are small, so they had created a dining room underneath a donated tent. They dug through the rubble of what had been the site of so many holidays past and salvaged some dining room chairs for the occasion. Using their limited resources, they went to WalMart and bought a roaster, so they could cook a turkey for their guests. Underneath that old, battered tent, Yvette had laid a table fit for a king - aluminum containers filled with turkey, oyster stuffing, melartons with shrimp and crab, rolls, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumkin and apple pies for dessert. A church group had come through and donated turkeys and supplies for Thanksgiving dinner. Yvette stretched her "Thanksgiving in a box" farther than anyone could have imagined. It was the most beautiful spread I think I have ever seen. We gathered round and Toby, in his deep Southern bass drawled, "Angela, would you say grace?" Truthfully, I don't really recall much of what I choked-out in prayer that day other than I know I thanked God for bringing the Earl family through the storm. The thing is - they're still in the storm of survival each and every day in the muck and mud of Pearlington. And, yet, they are truly thankful to be alive and together.
While most of the country crowded into shopping malls the day after Thanksgiving, Josh, Emily, and Ed built hand rails on FEMA trailers for the elderly, re-organized the clinic supplies; and Josh even cleaned-out the bathrooms at the clinic while I bought supplies and transported Randy to and from the clinic (and purchased his meds thanks to donations from some of you.) On Saturday, also thanks to the donations of some of you, we went to Big Lots and WalMart in Slidell, LA and bought pots and pans, blankets and towels, sheets, drinking glasses, soups and stews, and flatware to get 3 elderly gentlemen, 1 couple, and 1 family the bare necessities for their FEMA trailers. Just as we were about to deliver the goods, the heavens opened and the rain returned to Pearlington, Mississippi. Katrina removed all the grass and topsoil when she blew through; and, on November 26th, what was left was churned into a thick, black butter of mud, muck, and mold. We were covered in it by day's end. While we could leave and clean-off, the people of Pearlington were left to live-in that toxic stew. However, one little creature was not left behind - not this time.

I met a little rat terrier puppy during my first tour of duty in Pearlington. He survived Katrina and had been "rescued" by a neighbor who had him tethered in the front yard 24-7. The little fella's water and food bowls were always empty; and, on that Saturday when the heavens opened, we found him outside, shivering, filthy, and cold. Without going into too much detail, suffice it to say that little Zeke now has a new home. Many of you have emailed me asking how you can help. I will be returning next week to Pearlington for the Christmas holiday. Thanks to the generostiy of management at LifeBrands in New York City and the continued interest of Suzanne and Reggie Lybrand in Newnan, GA, another truck loaded with Christmas gifts for children and adults as well as food will roll into Pearlington. Needless to say, there are still long-term needs and issues for this tiny "forgotten" hamlet deep in the Mississippi pines. Since my return home, I have (as promised) been walking the halls of high places - and, I have gotten a response. I can not give much detail at this moment; but, there are some things in the works that will potentially be able to truly help the people of Pearlington long-term. And, I hope - expose and prevent this type of neglect from ever happening again. I will update you in the days ahead as I can. If you wish to donate money for the Christmas trip, you may send donations to me at:

Angela Cole
PO Box 115
Tivoli, NY 12583

I assure you each and every penny will go directly toward supplies for the people of Pearlington and I will follow-up with you and tell you exactly what your donation purchased. One of my very special friends in Pearlington is "Preacher Man." He is an elderly, retired Black man whose hunched-over shoulders have no doubt borne the weight of the world throughout his 80 some-odd years on this earth. When we went to visit Preacher Man at Thanksgiving, he looked-up, closed his eyes, and began to sing. From his deep, gravely, tired voice flowed the words, "Oh, Lord, come to me, Oh, Lord come to me" and he sang and he sang - verse after verse. Even the birds stopped singing and gave the stage to the elder patriarch. I can not promise that I'm going back with the Lord God Almighty; however, I can promise that I am returning with real reinforcements this time. I have not forgotten and neither have so many of you. I will let you know the outcome as soon as I can.

In Peace and Justice,
Angela J. Cole, MPH, RN


Tags: Pearlington MS

New Orleans Staggers On

My trip to New Orleans last month was pretty grim, the damage to the infrastructure of the city, the staggering personal losses, are going to be hard to overcome. Some pictures are included. The trash and debris is just everywhere, totally pervasive. Here Esplanade Avenue becomes a dumping ground for nearby residents.
Its true the French Quarter was spared but the shops are clearly struggling, the restauraunts have little staff, and the customers are mainly bored looking contractors eager to get back home to their families. Seeing an actual hummer at Checkpoint Charlies was kind of amusing. He is demonstrating the now popular habit of parking official vehicles on the sidewalk - a practice that was certainly not tolerated before Katrina.

The New London Canal break caused dramatic devastation in Lakeview. Here the residents are around, attempting to gut houses and salvage anything they can find. That wont be much for the people who lived at this house.

A lot of people are driving by looking at these sites since they are close to the canal break. I wonder if the GreyLine tours will come through.

The St Roch market looks like it will be closed for a while yet. I dont think they have any customers, merchandise, employees, or a neighborhood, so getting back in business will be a challenge. How does a city recover from an erasure of the components of a city?

This house is very typical of severely damaged properties. In lower income areas the residents have had difficulty returning to examine their property and the stillness is eerie.

This abandoned building was seen in St Bernard, not far from the New Orleans border. We did see people returning to their properties in St Bernard, we even saw some with trailers set up in their driveways. Clearly people are living in the middle of this disaster zone and are trying to go on with their lives, surrounded by the untouched devastation.


Tags: New Orleans

The Dying City

Despite the alarming drop off in news coverage of the Katrina story, the news media does seem to "get it" for the most part, the question is, will it matter? Todays editorial in the
New York Times makes it clear what the stakes are, and that our citys fate is in the hands of our political leaders, who dont really seem to care.

Tags: New Orleans

Trip to Biloxi MS

We finally got down south at Thanksgiving and have all sorts of updates, most of it pretty grim. Spent most of the time in New Orleans, but went over to Biloxi for the day. The trip was quite memorable. As we drove east from New Orleans, on the highway thru the 9th ward, thru NO east, across the rebuilt one sided Twin Spans, into Slidell, into Mississippi, into Gulfport, there was devastation as far as the eye can see. Gulfport was certainly a post-apocalyptic war zone, complete with razor wire across the railroad tracks and bored looking troops guarding entry towards the beach. During a pass through downtown Gulfport I felt like I was on a movie set, with the glass blown out empty buildings a carefully created set. Traveling down Pass Road into Biloxi finally we reached some regular looking commerce, and were able to cross the tracks and cut over to the beach road. We also saw the first signs of rebuilding, where a couple of roofs were being laid amid the sea of blue tarps. Many buildings in the first blocks from the beach are simply wiped off the map. Here is a formerly 3 story apartment building right on the beach. Word has it that several tenants rushed out onto the stairwell and swam inland as the building collapsed behind it. No known deaths at this location, a true miracle. At least Biloxi has a hint of life to it, which is more than I can say for most places we visited.