Story last updated at 12:26 p.m. on October 5, 2005
Volunteers, victims are honored by chambers
By: Ellen Rogers | Oak Ridger Staff
Those who came to the Oak Ridge area in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and Rita were welcomed and the volunteers who aided them were honored at the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce Tuesday morning.
Bridgeman Communications & Graphics and the Anderson County and Oak Ridge chambers of commerce sponsored the joint chamber coffee event.
"One of the things this coffee highlights for me is that the lines between us are blurring, and the circles that unite us are growing," said Karen Bridgeman of Bridgeman Communications & Graphics.
Bridgeman introduced hurricane victims and current local residents Niki Mouille, a Pinkerton Government Services payroll specialist; Lisa Cazalet, Pinkerton Government Services business manager; and Henry Barraco, a retired jazz musician.
"It's fortunate that I ended up in Oak Ridge because I've decided to stay here for good," said Mouille, who had to flee Texas after she left her home in New Orleans.
Bridgeman presented the three newcomers with East Tennessee yellow mums with the instructions, "Plant them as you plant yourselves."
"This (hurricane relief) has been a remarkable effort for our Red Cross," she continued.
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Scott Fraker/Staff
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The Oak Ridge Chamber's weekly coffee was held Tuesday to honor those who have survived and helped with the recent hurricane events. In the back row from left are Red Cross volunteers Gwen Justice, Kathy Cramer, A.J. Cramer, Scott Chippendale, and Bill Williams. Front row from left are Gwen Cole, volunteer, Henry Barraco, Hurricane Katrina evacuee, and Tony Farris, Red Cross executive director.
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Bridgeman also noted that the United Way of Anderson County had stepped up to the cause, as well as countless community volunteers.
Also present at the event was the United Way's Turbo Turtle (in full turtle suit and shades), who encouraged attendees to participate in the Great Tennessee Turbo Rubber Turtle Race, set for Saturday, Oct. 15. Up to 8,000 green rubber turtles, each backed with a donation of $5, will float approximately 500 yards in the Clinch River.
The owner of the first turtle to become captured in the trap at the end will receive $5,000 in cash. The organization hopes to raise between $25,000 to $30,000 with the help of corporate sponsors. "Adoption papers" for the turtles are available throughout the community.
"We're very excited about this," said race co-chair Carol Smallridge. "There's a desperate need for the United Way for more money to be made, and this is a chance to do it."
Jackie Nichols, president of the Anderson County Chamber of Commerce, reminded the crowd that the fifth annual Clinch River Antiques Festival was set for this Friday and Saturday in downtown Clinton. The festival begins with a kick-off party at 6 p.m. Friday in the Hoskins/Lane Park on Market Street.
Story last updated at 12:31 p.m. on September 15, 2005
Scott Fraker/Staff
Disaster relief training
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - As floodwaters recede from the city's hard-hit east side, a grim scene of destruction has been revealed: Block after block of once-flooded neighborhoods are covered in a slimy, putrid muck and dotted with ruined cars, snapped utility poles and collapsed houses.
Although the cleanup will likely take months, Mayor Ray C. Nagin said the tourist-friendly French Quarter and central business district may reopen as early as Monday after the Environmental Protection Agency said the foul-smelling air in the city was not overly polluted.
Scott Chippendale, right, American Red Cross Appalachian Chapter volunteer disaster services chairman, instructs a group of volunteers Wednesday at the United Way of Anderson County offices. Anyone wishing to receive Red Cross training to provide assistance to Hurricane Katrina victims can contact the local Red Cross at (865) 483-5641 or visit the office at 908 Oak Ridge Turnpike. More information is available online at www.redcrossoakridge.org.
Nagin said he expects about 180,000 people to return to the city within a week or two, when power and sewer systems are restored. Some retailers should be operating by then, as well as two hospitals.
Meanwhile, the Coast Guard and other rescue teams continued searching for bodies by boat and helicopter in areas that were still under several feet of water. A few homes in the area bore spray-painted marks indicating that bodies were inside.
The body count in Louisiana climbed to 474 on Wednesday, and it was expected to rise further as state and federal officials went about the tedious task of collecting bodies and identifying them through DNA tests. The total death toll in five states reached 710.
"It's going to take months, maybe years," said Dr. Louis Cataldi, the coroner for Baton Rouge Parish. "This is not going away."
President Bush planned to make a prime-time address from New Orleans on Thursday to offer new federal spending for the monumental task of helping hurricane victims rebuild their lives.
The most obvious sign of progress has been the lights flickering back on. About 168,000 customers were still without power in the New Orleans area, mostly in places still flooded, but that number has gone down 10,000 in a day.
The Hibernia Corp., Louisiana's oldest bank, whose landmark building was once the city's tallest, turned on its lights at sunset Wednesday. The bank is well-known for the colors that light up the building's cupola during the holidays.
About 40 to 50 percent of the city was still flooded, down from 80 percent after Katrina hit, as pumps worked to siphon off 8 billion gallons a day.
In Baton Rouge Wednesday, Gov. Kathleen Blanco echoed Bush's words from a day earlier, taking responsibility for missteps in the immediate response to Katrina.
"We all know that there were failures at every level of government: state, federal and local," Blanco told lawmakers in a special meeting of the Louisiana Legislature. "The buck stops here, and as your governor, I take full responsibility."
Also Wednesday, the state attorney general's office said all of its investigators have been pulled from other tasks to work on the Medicaid Fraud Unit, the team whose work led to negligent homicide charges against the husband-and-wife owners of a Chalmette nursing home where 34 elderly residents died during the storm.
Kris Wartelle, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Charles Foti, said the office has been besieged with allegations of neglect that may have led to injuries or deaths at other nursing homes and hospitals.
Recovery efforts continued in Mississippi, where Gov. Haley Barbour said officials would offer some evacuees room aboard a small cruise ship moored off the Gulf coast.
Barbour called the lack of temporary housing for evacuees the state's largest problem, but he did not provide a timetable or other details about the 490-passenger vessel.
"This is a small solution," Barbour told a news conference. "We are going to look at base camps and modular cities, if you will. But I just want to say to you we are not where we need to be on temporary housing."
He said about 2,000 travel trailers and mobile homes are en route to storm-damaged areas of Mississippi but most are still in staging areas, and fewer than 250 were ready for occupancy.
In Washington, Senate Republicans scuttled an attempt by Sen. Hillary Clinton to establish an independent, bipartisan panel patterned after the 9/11 Commission to investigate what went wrong with the government's response to the hurricane.
Separately, a Senate committee opened a hearing on the disaster, with the panel's Republican chairwoman saying that changes instituted after Sept. 11 in the government's emergency-preparedness failed their first major test during Katrina.
Story last updated at 12:27 p.m. on September 14, 2005
Red Cross Seeking Volunteers
By: Donna Smith | Oak Ridger Staff
donna.smith@oakridger.com
Locally, 14 volunteers from the local chapter of the American Red Cross are helping victims of Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast states. Nationally, the Red Cross is seeking 40,000 more volunteers to help in the ongoing relief effort.
People wishing to go on "national assignment" to the states affected by
Katrina need initial Red Cross training and then more detailed training. According to Tony Farris, manager of the local Appalachian Chapter of the Red Cross, 373 people in Oak Ridge and other areas of Anderson County have completed the initial training since Katrina hit.
The more intensive training, the Family Services and Providing Emergency Assistance courses, will be offered today and again from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the United Way of Anderson County offices, 161 Robertsville Road. People must preregister by calling 483-5641 or sending e-mail to redcrosscourse@comcast.net. The courses are limited to 30 people in each class.
The prerequisite for the Family Services Course is either prior attendance at one of the group training sessions or taking the online Red Cross course, Introduction to Disaster Services, at http://www2.redcross.org/flash/course01_v01/ before taking the Family Services Course. There is no cost for any of these training courses. More courses can be found at the Appalachian Chapter Web site, www.redcrossoakridge.org.
Farris said more volunteers from this chapter have been sent to the disaster areas this time than any other disaster he's encountered while working for the Red Cross.
On Aug. 30, the first three people drove from Oak Ridge to Mobile, Ala., to provide mass care and sheltering service, he stated. On Sept. 7, a licensed practical nurse was assigned to Tampa, Fla. to provide disaster health services. On Sept. 9, 10 volunteers were assigned to do family services casework for Katrina evacuees in Atlanta.
Work with Katrina victims has been draining, emotionally and physically, for everyone involved, he indicated.
In addition to the many Katrina victims who have come to the Oak Ridge area seeking temporary or permanent refuge, 13 others were treated at Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge after being flown in from the hurricane-ravaged states to McGhee Tyson Airport. Some were treated and released, he said, while others were admitted. Some had major physical problems, he said, while others needed a place to slow down from the emotional and physical turmoil they had endured.
Recalling the victims' stories, Farris said one of those hospitalized at Methodist Medical Center had been taken by bus from the Superdome in New Orleans to the Astrodome in Texas. He was riding the bus in which a fellow survivor grew agitated and struggled with the bus driver, causing a crash that killed one survivor.
That survivor was sitting next to the person brought to Methodist Medical, Farris said.
Farris said he thought one of the Katrina evacuees is still being hospitalized.
He said the Red Cross is actively recruiting area people to help who have taken the initial Red Cross courses, Introduction to American Red Cross Disaster Services and Mass Care and Shelter Operations. The volunteers must also be at least 18, have a valid driver's license, an e-mail account, be in good health, and be able to go on assignment for 10 days or longer.
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