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| Independence Katrina Response 2005. |
 Delivery Journey to Baton Rouge Photos Along the way! Emails as a category 5 community response grows. |
Bob Scott, Tuesday Sept. 6, 2005 (Updated Sept. 10, 2005)
Motorhome and supplies delivered to Katrina victims
wow.......i'll
get what i can from here and neighbors. these people need our help - fast!! we
don't know how lucky we all are.
Email from an Independence Athletic Booster
A 27 foot motorhome was filled to capacity with critical supplies by friends and neighbors. It was delivered on Labor day (Sept 5th) to Baton Rouge to be a temporary home for Katrina Victims.
The trip was amazing. We encountered all manner of mechanical problems, lines for gasoline, acts of great compassion and saw just the tip of the devestation. People bent over backwards to help us successfully get us to our destination.
The supplies you pulled together from everywhere were urgently needed. The aid went directly where it was needed most.
Everything you've done was immensely appreciated and is being put to good use.
Long Version of the Journey
We really only spent a few minutes in Baton Rouge. For us, the trip was the amazing part. I will add photos from my daughter's camera sometime this weekend for anyone who wants to check back.
On Friday an email to a few folks got forwarded everywhere. I thought people would have some ideas on how to get our old camper to the Katrina area. Anybody know any drivers ? By Friday PM my daughter called to say she wanted to be a driver, my friends suggested it was pretty obvious I ought to go with her. That was great advice. They also started sending and calling to say they had things they wanted to donate, and so did their neighbors.
The staff at Valley Ford jumped in to begin making repairs. It was their immediate and total enthusiasm that made it clear this was actually going to happen. Now that it was real, it began developing a life of its own. People from the PTA, Boosters, Kiwanis, Indian Guides jumped on it and started making solid plans, organizing pickups and forwarding on news.
One of the most important issues was getting good information on affected cities from hotel chains; we guessed they'd figure out a way to contact their people. Even though Embassy Suites had no direct contact they knew for a fact that the Baton Rouge hotel was intact and operating. That was enough info to start making calls to local church numbers until somebody answered.
Somebody answered! We now had direct contact with folks in Baton Rouge at what has become one of the key distribution and staging centers. At the time, only a few hundred people were in the basement, but since then 5000 people have been placed in the convention center one block away. An update email was sent with the departure time set, leaving Sunday for sure, airline reservations done.
Saturday, a busy day, getting ready. A few folks dropped off stuff on the way to the Independence football game. I kept getting calls from people I didn't know saying they had things they'd drop off later. I had stuff to do, so I left a little note saying I was leaving for a few minutes. When I came back, there was a line of cars, which became a line of SUVs and pickups by late afternoon, backing in the driveway to drop off bags and bags of clothes and other supplies.
My neighbors and people pulling in helped pack the camper. The tires got rotated on the back dual axle to provide better loading and handling. It all came together. Maps, title, a CB radio and so on.
A few minor things came up. At some point a bracket holding up the tail pipe broke. Not a big deal cause we had plenty of coat hangers and tools and time to patch this up. I mean, what else could go wrong ?
| Left Sunday 6am, picked up my daughter in Indianapolis at noon, headed southwest for Baton Rouge. |
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100 miles into the trip, the camper engine blew out all the oil (a cracked motor mount created vibrations that caused the oil filter to blow off). The RV was covered everywhere with oil, which then caused a plume of smoke as it hit the hot exhaust. We didn't have to use the extinguisher, but we were certain we were done. Finished. We were making calls to friends like "know anybody in Lisbon Ill ?". |  Indiana I70, Mile Marker 30 |
We didn't see the fellow until he tapped me on the shoulder. The Indiana State Police took Erin up the road to the repair facilities. There, they helped Erin arrange a truck tow from a local company and somewhere in there they agreed to a very reasonable flat charge for the tow. That got us to a truck stop that was able to get our RV repaired and back on the road in two hours. TWO hours on a Labor Day holiday. Of course the two young men at the Brazil 70 AMBest Truck Stop wouldn't take a dime for their efforts (so we asked the girls from the restaurant at the truck stop to run over with these fellow's favorite pie after we left, which they were very happy to do.)
Brazil 70 Truck Stop, Brazil, Ill
The electrical system shorted out as we approached Benton, Ill, home of a 24 hour Walmart. Erin and I ended up designing and splicing up an alternate lighting system for the rear lights. It ran off the cigarette lighter and extended across the length of the camper. It worked, we continued on.
Don't ever try to sneak around in a camper full of bags of cloths and bottled water stacked next to the windows. Whenever we stopped, people wanted to know what we were up to. Sometimes we told them, sometimes we just wanted to get gas and move on. But here and there, each time we stopped, one or two people would hand us little donations. $5, $7 and $20. It helped. We had cash, but hadn't counted on everyone being cash only in Mississippi and Louisiana, nobody will accept a credit card. The bigger problem with that we kept getting all choked up. We couldn't say no, they really wanted to help. Yet some of the folks donating were clearly less fortunate than we were. It really makes you think about how fortunate we all are. So, we had lot to talk about as we traveled southwest into Missouri, Tenessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi.
Mississippi and South
We made up for lost time by driving into the AM. Stopped for a 2 hour nap, and got moving so we could be the first in the gas lines near Jackson.
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Distance from Baton Rouge
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Monday 3am, nap over. We got a huge break about 200-250 miles North of New Orleans/Baton Rouge when we stumbled on a gas station that had just had power restored. Because they hadn't had power they still had gas in their tanks from before the storm. From mid state down, only one station was open in each of the three larger cities we passed. Police were on hand to prevent problems and keep the lines moving, purchases were limited to $30 per customer. (fyi Gas in Miss was $2.79 per gallon, $2.71 in LA, but of course they didn't have any).
At the station, I spoke with an old man who said that somehow, nobody knew why, he had power the whole week, though the rest of the area was dark. He'd become the refridgerator man, as all his friends and neighbors put their refridgerators and freezers in their pickups and plugged in at his house. The line was only 10 cars long, and it was cool and 6am, hardly the time for tempers, however, one fellow and his wife tried to get twice the maximum amount of gas (they had stood in two separate lines). People at the pumps, and people in line were in their face. Not sure how that shook out, we skidaddled.
We stopped to top off again in Jackson (pop 425,000) at the only working gas station we knew about. 3 Police with a pretty obvious show of force (side arms, vests, rifles leaned up on the patrol cars) were helping to keep the line moving. Again, early in the A.M, we arrived when the station had just opened, the line was only one block long and snaked through a residential area. $40 per customer maximum. Total wait time was only 30-40 minutes, brisk really, even with doctors, badges, and a national guard vehicle allowed in at the front of the line.
Can't stop now...even if we wanted to!
We were almost back on schedule when we were making the turn onto the final freeway leg about 30 miles from our destination. We were hoping to get to the church by 2pm, so we would have 5 hours to get to Houston Airport for confirmed seats (all planes were booked for days). I had to stomp on the brakes when a truck in front of us slowed to avoid something. We were closer than comfort. We stopped to see our brake line had burst. We added brake fluid which poured out the bottom. This was not the place to be stuck, midway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, about 1.2 million miles from any kind of towing or service station. Cell phones are still not operating in this area.
 Required Equipment: |
Though we had no regular brakes, we still had the emergency brake. I was pretty sure given the vintage of the vehicle, that if we used the emergency brake it'd stop, but we'd never be able to release the break. We experimented some. First we cruised up to about 35mph and stomped on the brakes. Nothing. We easily rolled over a half mile, maybe a full mile. We tried one "click" of the emergency brake and it slowed us, but we couldn't release it. If we used any more we would have stopped permanently. We decided to drive VERY slowly, knowing that we had one shot for the brake. Inside Baton Rouge, we were on a freeway with 3-4 busy lanes. We had no turn signals, so changing lanes was more exhilarating then we wanted. Police had better things to do than enforce speed limits so traffic whizzed by at about 75mph in the city. There was a good break in the traffic which allowed us to cross over to the left side exit. We hit the exit ramp at 20 mph, made a sharp left turn and started down what turned out to be a rapid drop from the elevated freeway. The emergency break slowed us to 5-10 mph before it burned up. We were just about to go to plan B (actually plan Z at this point) which was to sacrifice the transmission by jamming it into park. Fortunately we hit a stretch of city street with no cars, people or red lights. The wheels were making an awful scheeching noise but other than that we were OK and not in any danger so we let it coast. |
An RV with 4 or 5 tons of extra momentum rolls very well down slight inclines. We literally coasted, for awhile, towards the Mississippi river, with no remaining brakes whatsoever, until we came to a little rise in the road near some parking meters. A group of Federal DEA agents were on the sidewalk putting on vests and assembling equipment. They watched us groan and creak to a stop.
I have to admit I was actually pretty relieved to be stopped, and not really sure where we landed. I opened my door to ask the agents where we were. I looked up. We were parked directly in front of the First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The agents had set up shop in the basement of the church. Behind them, about 100 foot away, were the volenteers we came to see.
Heading home
We had maybe 10 minutes to turn around and get out. 
It is 275 miles to Houston and we had less than 4 hours before the
planes left. I handed over the title, Erin took some pictures in the basement,
we grabbed our bags and got outta there. A young man from Fort Worth Texas had decided a few days earlier to help.
Various groups had told him to send a check, but he had four kids and no money. Like a lot of people there,
he wasn't so good at following directions from central command. So his wife packed
him up a lunch and he drove 800 miles to Baton Rouge several days earlier figuring he'd
find somebody who needed help. He had been working at the distribution center for 2 or 3 days and it
was time to return home. He drove 80-90 miles an hour, though he did make us stop one time to show us what a
"WhatABurger" was.
Departed sometime after 3pm for 6:54pm flight.
We made it to the Houston Airport with a good 10-12 minutes to spare.
The security staff microwaved my shoes
and found a little knife thingy in my bag. With all this extra time to kill before running to the plane, they suggested throwing it in my sleeping bag and
checking that as baggage (Are you nuts??), which all got done in under a minute. I've never been anyplace where the
airlines (Continental) and security worked together like that. Erin was on a separate plane to Indy, made hers too. Mine was a stretch 737, full of families, kids here and there.
Didn't bother me that the plane was packed, fell asleep when I hit the seat.
9/7/05 Update. The news reported that Cleveland, Cincinnatti, Columbus are ready to
place families in apartments and schools. However, FEMA, for now, has cancelled any
transfer of families from the area, deciding they would prefer to be closer
to home when reconstruction occurs. Not sure if anybody asked the families if they
prefer stadium seats and cots to apartments and schools, but that's the plan. Anyone moving here was doing so on their own.
9/9/05 Update. On again! P.D. reports 500 families due to arrive Ohio this weekend...maybe.
Citys are still standing by with open arms. Ready even if uncertain. Nice to see Cleveland with its own issues rallying to help.
Funny thing though. I remember thinking it was odd that there was virtually nobody at the
baggage claim, a couple of dozen people, maybe. But, it was late, I got my bag and
caught a cab home and didn't think about it. This morning, I heard on the news, and recalled
tidbits of conversations I heard at the gate, that many of the families on the plane were
moving to Cleveland from Houston. That may not be a surprise,
but now, the next day I realized these families must not have arrived with any bags.
I've talked to several of you since we returned. All of us have learned a few things and enjoyed doing what each of us could do to help.
Thank you for everything. There were a lot of Thank You and God Bless You's for what you've done. Volenteers were excited by the delivery and asked about the people in "Independence Ohio".
Thank you for one of the most memorable and rewarding experiences in our lives.
The Scott Family
Updates
Monday, midnight : Home again.
Tuesday 9/6 update: I never thought it would move again, except the church folks somehow are getting the camper, with all supplies still in it, to the middle of New Orleans tomorrow (wednesday).
The items in the camper could be used most anywhere, but they've decided to drag it into New Orleans where there is the greatest need. (clothes, pampers, food, water, bleach, etc). They said they found room to add a huge amount of shoes that came from somewhere else. The camper was seriously overloaded before (springs bent the wrong way). Guess they figured something out.
Wednesday 9/7 update: The breaks are fixed, camper under it's own power enroute to
New Orleans. Will look for it on TV!
But first, It's time to have a little fun with my
car insurance agent before I cancel the policy... Oh rats, he figured it out right away!
Told me I'd have to get boat insurance instead.
Personal Lessons
(The Army, after a week, was running several large convoys, hundreds of vehicles, maybe a full third of the freeway traffic in some areas. They were delivering BIG stuff like warter tankers, huge generators, and their own self-contained units. But, we also saw trucks full of Army equipment and small convoys driving OUT of the area for unknown reasons)
We all heard the fairytale about not "interfering"; just send a check, leave this to the professionals. Hogwash. Pure bunk. I don't know what Emergency Response, or Resource Management means, but I do remember my gramma, a teacher, saying we are all expected to "be a good neighbor", "united we stand or divided we fall". I don't think those rules have changed, why did I think they had ?
