Like everyone, I was amazed at the damage and destruction caused by hurricane Katrina and the hardship inflicted upon the inhabitants of the Gulf region. Before long, it became apparent that the assistance being offered these people was woefully inadequate without promise of short-term relief.

My first reaction was to get into a car, with or without friends and/or a trailer packed with stuff, go down and figure something out along the way. But I figured I/we would probably be ineffective and decided to wait and keep my ears open. On Wednesday Sep 7th, Phil Hagerty mentioned he had identified the Veterans For Peace group and their distribution set-up in the area. This bandwagon seemed like a no-brainer to jump onto.

By Thursday I started to approach neighbors about the event, tune the plan, and started raising funds. Early on, two big donations came in and Phil, Mary Ellen and I soon realized that we were shooting for two trucks, not just the one. It was clear early on that people were very supportive of our plan and were completely behind us. We received truly great support from so many people, it was awesome.

Phil, Mary Ellen and their family & friends spent the weekend getting trucks filled with stuff by parking them in Jersey supermarkets draped with big Relief Donations signs. By the end of the weekend the trucks were full and we were prepared to leave and make our trip.

On Monday morning my Mt. Airy neighbor Jeff Meade (ex co-worker of mine and current co-worker of Phil’s) picked me up and we headed to Jersey to meet up with Phil and Mary Ellen. When we got there, Channel 10 had been there filming for some time already and we were waiting for CN8’s live coverage timing to make our depart. Our trip had an ominous beginning with very loud engine noise in one truck and warning lights in the other. This was on the Jersey turnpike, long before we hit the Blue Ridge mountains. We stopped along the way to have a Ryder ‘technician’ review the problem. Nothing could be done unless we were willing to move our cargo to another truck. So on we went taking our chances and vowing never to rent another anything from Ryder.

The trip was pretty uneventful despite our trucks. Mostly due to our heavy cargo, we went as slow as 35 mph up the Blue Ridge Mountains and apparently the noise in the other truck was hard to take. Jeff and I got used to the flickering brake/water and oil lights and instead kept our eyes on the gauges. On the first day, we got as far as Trenton, Georgia. We picked this spot because it is roughly where Rte 59 starts which we’d have to travail in it’s entirety the next day.

When Phil checked in with the Veterans for Peace group during the day, it became apparent that gasoline was easy to get but the containers (needed to store fuel for generators) were is short supply. After we struck out at a couple of stores right off the highway, we realized that the further South we went, we’d have an increasingly harder time finding any. So we called upon an old friend and ex co-worker Jerry Miller who lives in the Tuscaloosa, AL area. He emptied the local WalMart of 5 gallon cans and met us at a highway rest stop with the cans.

Just before we arrived at camp, there was word of Cindy Sheehan being on-site along with Michael Moore folks and they were eager to meet us. All of us were quite annoyed upon hearing this and were united in our planned replies that despite our political convictions and agreement, we were there on a non-political mission. But luckily by the time we arrived, Cindy was gone as was all the hoopla we feared.

What we did not realize at the time is that the way the Vet for Peace (VFP) folks got there in the first place was because they were protesting in Crawford, TX just before the storm hit and they admirably decided to drive down to the New Orleans area to cook for people. But because they have members in the area that they were able to utilize for internet shipments, communications, etc. plus they owned buses to transport goods to people in need, their operation quickly grew to a full-scale relief effort. These folks worked tirelessly scouting for people in need and then following up with drops of goods and medical personnel to try and take care of people as best they could.

As we approached the camp grounds, in fact for many hours beforehand, the extend of the storm’s reach and level of destruction was evident and utterly amazing. As we drove South through Tennessee, more and more highway signs were blown over, trees were down, structures destroyed. Towards the end, even though it was not that close towards where the eye of the storm had been, it was hard imagine how we would have been able to have gotten through even just a few days earlier. So many trees were down that it was clear they must have used very large equipment to push trees out of the way rather than people with chainsaws. There were simply too many trees down for any other means of clean-up.

When we arrived at the camp ground [look for "Covington" in the middle of this map], it was dark and we were pretty tired. So rather than take our chances setting up camp in the dark, Jeff and I both opted to sleep in the cabs of the trucks while Phil and Mary Ellen pitched their tent. Even though it was dark, just looking at some of the camp ground’s more permanent structures, it became evident that more structures than not had been leveled or severely damaged in some way. What was also immediately apparent were the love bugs: insects that are about the size of fire flies that fly around in pairs. They were everywhere, in every pocket, under your shirt, everywhere. But since they do not bite or sting, I was able to ignore them and actually didn’t mind. We found out later that the campground people fumigated the place (to the chagrin of most the VFP people but to our delight) for mosquitoes; in fact, I don’t think I was bitten more than once or twice during the entire stay (certainly less than in Mt. Airy)

After we woke up and had the morning VFP meeting, everyone helped unload the trucks. Because we had pre-sorted everything into garbage cans and had brought empty boxes and tape, all our goods went straight from our trucks and into the various buses and delivery vehicles. For the next two days or so, all the volunteers were busy handing out the stuff that we had brought and it felt great having been able to make such a contribution. Mary Ellen took a trip to South Gulf Port, Jeff spent the day sorting through all the medical donations and set up an organized medical supply tent. When all the docs were leaving early the next day, they were shocked at how easy they were able to locate stuff and were able to bring things along they never would have been able to find. Phil and I took one of our trucks and drove to Baton Rouge, LA where a long-time VFP member (Brad Reilly) had received more than 100 boxes of donated goods via the Internet. He was the ship-to address listed on the VFP site. By the time we got back the day was pretty much shot.

For the most part, our camping experience and the weather were better than what I had expected. I have never sweat so much in my life though. By 8 am I had consumed a gallon of gatorade already and drowned two towels wiping the sweat off my forehead. It was a never ending cycle of drinking and sweating. By the end of the day, after gallons and gallons of fluids, you still didn't have to pee. It was hard to complain about the showers since they had hot running water coming from a shower head; this made up for the less than sanitary surroundings. By 3 am I would have the place to myself and was able to clean up before starting the drink/sweat cycle all over again the next morning.

After the trucks were unloaded, Jeff and I used the empty cargo areas to set up our cots to sleep. Since it had not rained there since the hurricane (and we suspected that it might at any time) and because we were never sure if we would end up sleeping in the camp the next day, this turned out to be the easiest/safest thing to do. Luckily I had brought a big bag of ear plugs. Since the we shared the camp with many of the clean-up crews as well as people who would be living there permanently until they found more permanent accommodations, there were many generators roaring throughout the day and especially at night. But the earplugs worked out great and I was able to sleep well for a few hours at night.

The next day Jeff went out with the medical team to the Algiers section of New Orleans. Phil and Mary Ellen went to Gulf Port [due East of New Orleans look for "Gulfport" on this map] and then headed for Biloxi, Miss (a few miles East of GulfPort). Jan stayed back at the camp to deal with the boxes that we picked up the previous day. But because the VFP group had just been evicted from their storage facility, we had to be creative and decided to sort everything at the camp rather than wait for a new storage facility to materialize. By the end of the day, all the new goods along with the leftovers from our haul, were sorted and ready to go out in the various buses the next morning. Just in case the rumored rain would materialize, we made sure all the susceptible good were lumped together and could have quickly been covered by the tarp I purchased earlier in the day. Throughout the day, I had to manage a group of increasingly weary volunteers calming them as various rumors hit the fan. It didn’t help that all the camp ground owners were toting their Bush/Cheney shirts while we were mostly clad in tie-dye shirts. It was evident in general, just by witnessing the sheer number of traffic accidents on the road, that people as a whole were not in their normal frame of minds.

During the day, I met a guy who had identified a community in Franklinton, LA that was badly hit. But because their immediate area had faired fairly well, they were not being serviced by most other relief organizations. Brad had been there earlier in the day and was adamant about their need for clothing, food and generators. That (wed) night I went on the mother of all shopping sprees filling up a caravan of carts with food, foil, bags, batteries, etc. at the local grocery store. One thing I will always remember is asking a fellow shopper for assistance in deciding what to buy. She was there with her kid and they looked as normal as anyone else in the store. She told me to purchase collared greens, sweet corn, peas, rice, and certain spices. Towards the end of our interaction, I asked her how she was holding up and how the storm had affected her personally. She then proceeded to tell me very she had lost her house along with all their belongings and that she would be headed towards Georgia in two days even though she wasn’t quite sure where she’d be staying once she got down there or what she would be doing. The matter-of-fact delivery of her amazing reality was surreal.

After two hours of shopping, I landed up with two receipts about 9 foot long each ! The next morning, Mary Ellen and I set out to deliver the goods while Phil was emptying the old storage facility and Jeff was in an off-site meeting with the medical team and VFP personnel. Mary Ellen and I picked up two generators and enough gas to run them for a week.

Click photos to enlarge

The team: Mary Ellen, Jeff, Jan, and Phil

Over the course of the weekend, we filled two trucks with donated goods.

Families stopped by in force to donate drinks, food, diapers and more.

Many folks added personal touches to their donations.

Bin Reuter behind the wheel of "truck #2"

Jan picking bugs as an alternative source of protein (when he got sick of beef jerky)

As we got closer, the devastation was visible from the highway.

"Love bugs" where everywhere. This is from an hour's worth of driving.

When we woke up, we found ourselves amidst many volunteers from different groups in a tent city just north of New Orleans.

It's not a dog, it's a... WOLF! Very sweet and pettable but man when it howled, everyone took note.

Unloading our trucks was a snap thanks to everything having been pre-sorted.

The trucks delivering our food for the next two days varied in sizes and shapes.

These two Biloxi, MS kids received some essentials as well as a toy.

Note that every item on the playground got washed away except Ronald.

Someone donated a box of flags that were swooped up.

Imagine this being your only grocery store within walking distance (Gulf Port, MS)

A make-shift medical center was set up in a mosque.

Bin Reuter describes fire flies to a Franklinton, LA kid and hears how his family and neighbors fared.

The trip back was mostly uneventful (except for our decrepit trucks making loud noises and several engine warning lights). The moon appearing during sun set was spectacular.