From Texas, a First-Hand Account
Posted by Josh McConaha on September 9, 2005 at 01:57 PM
I was sent this message from Melissa Noriega, the wife of Texas State Representative Rick Noriega who is also a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army. Last week, Houston Mayor Bill White appointed him to run operations at the George R. Brown Convention Center (GRB as it's in the letter), which houses 4000 evacuees. Lt. Colonel Noriega just returned from a tour in Afghanistan, and while there his wife Melissa held his seat in the Texas legislature.
My husband, Rick Noriega, humble public servant and state rep extrordinaire, has managed once again to blow me even me away. You all really should see what God, Mayorbill and Col. Rick Noriega have wrought.
The GRB is organized, orderly and automated. When the folks arrive, we cheer and clap for them, whisk away their dirty clothes while they shower and get them squared away. The moms get queensized air mattresses and the single men cots, in different areas, separated by police and National Guard walking around being very present and very nice. Everyone gets a blanket and a pillow, and if they ask, they can have a second one. The sheets are clearly donated and the floor of the GRB is a sea of quilt squares and out-of-style stripes. The generous people of Houston reached into their linen closets and made up the visitors' beds.
There is a chow hall. It is set up with round tables and chairs in groups. There are handwashing stations set up everywhere, with the hand gel to kill germs--so far the group is pretty healthy.There are port-a-potties tucked away from everyone. There is bottled water everywhere. The guests (that's what they are called--NOT refugees or victims) sit down and eat, with plasticware and napkins. There is a schedule for meals, and lots of lines, so folks don't have to stand long.
Upstairs there is a ballroom set up with TWO FULL SIZE parks gym set ups for the children. With chopped rubber chips underneath. If parents need to leave the kiddos to do paperwork or med stuff, they get a wristband that matches the kids and the volunteers will watch them while they play with the toys donated, again by the wonderful people of Housotn.
The middle ballroom is a TV room, with CNN and Fox going--these folks are needing info and news. As I stood in the doorway, a woman pointed at the screen and began to cry. There was a volunteer holding a fat cheeked baby on her shoulder. The mother said she had been under the bridge up on the TV at that moment for 6 days, holding this fat baby until she thought she couldn't hold him one more minute. She said when she got to GRB, a vounteer held the baby until she could shower and put on fresh clothes. She said she waded out from her house to the bridge with her son and two others in a
laundry basket over her head while the water was up to her chin. She was terrifed that she would hit a hole and she and the three babies would all drown.
The third ballroom is a library, with carrels of books, games and activites and a reading area. They just set up a computer lab there, so anyone can check websites or their email. There are also some computers for the older kids. The Parks folks set up both the park room and the library and have done an amazing job with a VERY small crew.
There is a command center, where they are building automated programs to figure out how many beds are left, how many folks they have and who they are. CenterPoint (our Electric Utility and Rick's company) and Second Baptist executives, as well as the City of Houston, folks are front and center, with a smattering of Marathon Oil folks doing the IT stuff with a guy from a mangement consulting firm who is our brother-in-law, Jerry Weisenfelder. He was here all Sat nite automating the whole record system. Incredible.
Mayor White gave Rick what he needed and the authority to do it. Every hour a new challenge arises and they march through it--the Rodeo folks showed up to help, and they got handed the transportation needs--getting families back together, getting people to other locations--and anyone who has been to the Rodeo know what geniuses they are at moving people!
There is a hospital--with mobile vans for dental and X-ray. (Thanks to UT and Mike McKinney.) There is a full size pharmacy (thanks to CVS), with security and staff. All of it has been built in 48 hours.
The City of Houston, CenterPoint, all the hundreds of volunteers, Second Baptist (the "2nd" folks are VERY sharp--Pastor Young lent at least three command staff level folks who are incredible.) The George Brown staff are brilliant and handing hairy things, like med hazardous waste and moving huge groups of people with great competence and a lovely attitude. The fancy Hilton next door is washing the guest clothes and returning them, as well as washing soiled linens. LOTs of babies and very small children.
The fire dept. folk, HPD--all are performing at max with a great attitude. I haven't even begun to name all the groups and individuals that deserve kudos, but there is what amounts to a city under the roof of Houston's George Brown Convention Center, and your son-in-law has done an incredible, magnificent job. I am beyond proud of my husband, grateful to God for the attitude and help everyone has provided, impressed with the City folks and just downright amazed at what has been done so quickly and so well. Next--a school. That stuff starts tomorrow.
This is NOT a permanent solution for these folks--a shelter is not housing, but Houston has risen to the task and has been magnificent. Please remember that this will not be over tomorrow when the news cameras go away and everyone goes back to work. We will need to work this hard to get these folks hooked up with opportunites to work and live again.
Pray for everyone down here--God bless,
Melissa Noriega
Comments (17) «
Similar attitude here in Austin at our convention center. These people are our GUESTS. Low key but very present security. Our mayor has been very hands-on. Donations and kindness have been overwhelming. My city is making me very proud. This is the way it should be done.
Mark those that cause divisions and keep no company with them? Why? Because one wrong attitude will spoil the whole bunch. We know the Republicans are fast going to ruin by loving the so called GREAT ONES. Who was the first bad apple that brought about their down fall? Who first claimed most welefare recipients are no good? Like somehow it is their fault that they were born into proverty, uneducated, crude, unethical parents? Instead of giving everyone in proverty an education, birth control, parenting classes, social graces, what is ethical and what is not, we want to build up and give the very wealthy in our Nation the breaks? Do you think God will be pleased with this attitude? We shouldn't pick on the wealthy, and we should admire their accomplishments, etc.? But aren't the wealthy doing all right? Don't they continue to prosper? Then why are some trying to shift a great portion of the wealth to a few? Think on these things? Where does the power come from? Why does the powerful have it so good for a while and then it is gone and so are they? Then comes the GREAT WHITE JUDGE, HA HA. And no longer are you judged by what you have accomplished, and you no longer have the power to make people cow down to you? God is looking at you and he knows every mean and hateful thought and deed? What will you answer be? God says there will be weeping and gnashing
of teeth? That is how we know the Evangelist and preachers are misleading the people?
Well no one knows what it like to loose everything that you have. Your house, your home, your clothes, your transportation, your job and even loved ones. My family and I went to Neworleans to Mississippi. My Grandparents had worked all their lives to obtain the type of style of life. My Grandmother, mother, aunt, uncle, cousin and I were all in Mississippi. It was around 6:30am, we could already start to feel the begin of what we could never expect to have felt and be so lucky alive to tell. Around 8:30 the rain I've never seen so much come down at the same time, especially in Mississippi. It never floods there and the water was coming up and through the doors, we couldn't help but to watch. The wind was blowing so hard I myself couldn't hardly believe what was happening. Over there there's a total of 4 (what you would call houses) and the roofs were torn off of 2 and 1 had a tree land on it. The other one had a tree that was 85ft+ broken and only was being held up by a small branch. There was debris every where, you could hardly walk around, after the hurricane. There was a total of 15 tornados that passed through in mississippi. They say that the strongest place is the center of your home or the bathroom, well that is to be true. I ran to the bathroom,(the walls and floor began shaking.) We lost both of our homes (the one in Neworleans and Mississippi,) it really is an eye opener. Luckly my Uncle that lives in Houston came to our rescue. He had a generator, water, food, gas, and a chainsaw. There was so much work to be done and I do think that we are blessed to be alive. We couldn't stay at either homes, so decided to come back with my Uncle in Houston. They're (my Aunt and Uncle) very nice and caring but it's not the same. I want to be in my house, it's so different. I've lived in the same house for 22yrs and now I can't go home. I never would have guessed when we got a chance to go back to Neworleans, (when we left it was like we left civilization and went back to a 3rd world country.) Everything we know and have in this world we take for granted. Now on people need to start to appreciating what we have with our technology. Today as humans we abuse it, and wine and complain about things that really aren't important. Think about it, what would you do if........... ...................You didn't have: electricity, bathing water, drinking water, food, gas to run a generator? You couldn't use the toilet because there was no water to flush it with and had to dig a hole to poop in? You didn't have a roof on your house when it rained, everything inside would mildew and get soaked, you had to try for 4.5hrs to get a bbq pit started with wet twigs and paper to purify water to drink, You had to watch everything you ever had or known be ruined? Actually having your life be controlled by an event that you can't do anything about. Nothing you can do to stop it or prevent it. Just watch you life pass you by, as the pieces of dibris go flying by, your roof being ripped away and fly into the air. Sometimes having to run so a tree doesn't land on you. What would you do in this kind of situtation??? Tell me what would you do??
DO YOU TRUST REPUBLICANS? CAN YOU BELIEVE ANYTHING THEY SAY? WHEN YOU HEAR A GOP SPEAK DO YOU THINK: WONDER WHAT THEY ARE GETTING AT NOW? WHAT WILL THAT KIND WORD COST ME? MANY HAVE PAID WITH THEIR LIFE AND STILL THE REPUBLICANS ARE CALLING FOR MORE BLOOD? I WOULD RATHER HAVE A VAMPIRE IN THE WHITEHOUSE?
By the way folks, the mayor of Houston is a DEMOCRAT. State Rep Rick Noriega (D)just returned from doing a tour of duty in Afghanistan.
Can you prove that the economy flurishes under a Democratic President or under a Democratic Congress and Senate? Can you prove that under any Republican President since Roosevelt that the economy flurished or the National debt was paid down? Can you prove that the middle class was larger under a Republican President or a Republican Congress and Senate? Or can you prove that the middleclass was larger under a Democratic President or a Democratic Congress and Senate? I think your investigation will prove that only the Democrats know what they are doing with the peoples taxes, the economy, the employment rate, the crime rate and the National debt control? Hang down your head Republicans and let the big boys take over and fix it! I wish we could get a study done and in the National News? The people need to know?
There's a survey from the Congressional Budget office that ranked the economic performance of all the 20th Century presidents. (5 Democrats, five Republicans)
The Democrats were ranked ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR and FIVE in terms of ceconomic performance.
I believe thou doth protest too much! What were the Statics for the Republicans? I can't recall a single Republican President that built up the middle class, this is the mark of a good economist. One who can build the middle class without stunting the groweth of the wealthy. And also take care of the poor and downtrodden? That is truly a Class blind economy!
It's the charity of others not the might of the the last great superpower that is clearly evident in this tragedy. Our flag flys yet again at half mast. Think about it.
How many times have we dealt with this situation since the Republcian Contract For America was rolled out on the steps of Congress a decade and a half ago?
When will our flag proudly wave again? Why have we come to accept so little from our government? Don't we deserve better? Don't our soldiers deserve a better homecoming than this?
Don't all our children and grandchildren deserve better than sitting in a makeshift shelter with soldiers watching their every move? This is America?
YOU ARE Wrong that say it was Republicans Contract With America that REFORMED Welfare? DID YOU NOT HEAR any of Clinton's speeches on the Campaign trail? CLINTON SAID, you will not know Welfare as you know it today? The big argument between the Republican Majority and the Great Democrats is the republicans wanted to cut off the unwed mothers, the disable,and the uneducated, immediatly and Clinton wanted to GIVE them Two years of education and child care so they can pull themselves up and out of proverty and generation after generation of Welfare. It worked they came off welfare like flies off vinigar. That disagreement ended with the Government being shut down and the Republicans looking hard hearted like they are? I wish Christians knew what the Bible said they should be like and Republicans knew how exceedingly sinful their sinful ways are?
It seems to me that there is a war going on. On one side are the Tories, the people that sided with George III, although they are called neocons today. Their real goal is the power to loot the United States and enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of us. Their tools are fundamentalist Christianity, personal attacks on the messenger to derail the message, election fraud, and the big lie (say the opposite of what you are doing and accuse your oppopents of doing it). Whether it was racism, classism, simple incompetence, or, more likely, a combination of the three is no longer relevant.
Where is the Democratic leadership? This is no time to worry about alienating the swing states. This is a time to stand up, to be moral, to provide a vision of some alternative. Given the way Bush's numbers are sinking, I believe that a lot of the country would follow a leadership that stood for something. Even something simple like competance and respect for the common person.
Sure they would have to take a raft of trouble. Sure the Democrats have a lot to overcome. Sure the New Deal is dying. Any viable candidate is going to have to be able to talk Jesus, raise taxes on the rich, be nimble of tongue, smart, educated, and not afraid to take a stand and then not afraid to defend it or back down, based on the facts. Someone who realizes that the Tories will go for the jugular and show no mercy. Preferably someone from the South or the Midwest.
Forgive me, I ramble. It is hard to see what Americans have had to endure at the hands of the people who are supposed to protect them.
True Story;
This was reported on the local NBC afilliate in Huntington, WV., WSAZ news. I'm quoting from memory what was spoken of.
The new West Virginia govenor, Joe Manchin III(D), had to threaten to pull out and bring back several large military cargo planes (C-130's ?) from their national guard because they were setting and not being used after they flew down to help! They couldn't get loaded with the supplies the Feds had promised would be there!!!!!!
Now to me, it's a damn shame that the govenor would have to threaten to bring those planes back because the Bush administration was too damn slow to act and let people starve and die.
I thought it was another damn shame that Canadas military helicopters were there rescuing folks after the flood, and not any of our military helicopters (besides the Coast Guard) there to help! This went on not for one day but several! Thank you Canada for thinking of us.
The Washington post had a good article yesterday titled "Goodbye "Brownie"!" which I thought was very appropriate. However from what I read, Brown was about to point the finger towards Bush for the bungling of FEMA. The way he talked, he almost did in the interviews right after he jumped ship.
There's an old saying, and it needs to be remembered;
"Confuscious say, The fish rots from the head down".
Which literally means the one who is in charge at the top is where the corruption begins, not anywhere on down the totem pole! You can sure believe it here. The problem is that even though Bush is now saying he's accepting responsibility for what happened, he's saying to other people afterwards that he is happy with the responce? The truth is not in this bastard, his family, nor the GOP! After Barbra Bush said what she did about those poor folks in Houston that it was a step up for them, I knew where Bush Jr got his education, directly from his parents. I dont have nothing for her now either and wont miss her when she's gone.
Keep in mind that the GOP is going to use this to cloud the fact that they're still going to cut Medicade by something like $12 Billion now that more are needing it. They'd rather kick folks off the services who need help than to raise any taxes. In my opinion, the ones who would vote for this ought to be tarred, featherd, and ran out of town on a rail. And that's to good for them, more like drawn and quartered. After what I've seen, I have nothing for the GOP (wouldn't wipe my butt with them), or any republican especially after I've seen some come on here and try to take up for Bush and the republican party over this.
To the lurking republicans who I know will read this, you better think about getting out of that party before it's too late. Keep it up and your soul will sure enough be aimed toward Hell no matter how much you proclaim your a Christian. You think GOD don't know the difference and what your doing?
Will Matney, Ohio
As a Canadian citizen, I am very proud of the fact that our men and women in uniform were able to help the wonderful people of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. They might be red staters, but they are humans after all.
The word from FEMA and the SBA everyone is overlooking is, “QUALIFY”. I would like to the process the victims of Hurricane Katrina applying for help documented, especially those who have bad credit. They don’t fathom the red tape they are about to face.
I went through Tropical Storm Allison. FEMA first required me to apply for a low interest loan with the SBA. Why? This was a lengthy process. Once I was declined a loan, I then had to submit the paper work to FEMA and ended up only receiving approximately $500.00. This process took over six months.
The money the victims have received from charitable organizations or insurance will be deducted from any amount they receive from FEMA IF THEY QUALIFY for help. Please look at the disclaimer on the SBA web site. I found it quiet interesting.
Can anyone say Hurrican Andrew? Republicans claim to be tough on security-related issues but in reality they can't manage anything. What if the Katrina disaster had been a terrorist attack? Pretty sure that no one would have had two weeks notice then. Hurricans strike the East and Gulf Coast every year and are a common event yet Bushy still can't get his act together. If Bush can't control New Orleans, when how in the HELL is he suppose to handle Iraq?
DonL, YOU ARE THE PROBLEM? There you go falling in with the talking points of Republicans?"Democrats don't stand for anything,"
You are badly mistaken, please STOP NOW READ DEMOCRATS PLATFORM, and then tell me what we stand for. We have have stood for Civil Rights since the Civil War! We were the first people that understood the Word Of God and what God means when he said: MAN BECOME A LIVING SOUL WHEN HE BREATHED THE BREATH OF LIFE! If the Black Human Race doesn't have a soul then that makes God a Lier. AND WE ALL KNOW BETTER THAN THAT, right? We have always believed in the Working Families, who do you think got Child Labor laws and Union Standards for the common man that the wealthy Republicans were working 14 to 16 hours a day for one small amount of pay? Who do you think put in Job regulations like vacation, health care, family leave, and min. wage? I could go on and on but I want you to learn what you are missing if you aren't a Democrat or what a wicket Party you belong to if you are a Republican?
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