Red Cross chaos in Baldwin County, AL. (Coastal Alabama)

[trof]

I posted this earlier today.
Now on TV I see that it's even worse than I feared.
Channel 5 report follows this.

Note: Baldwin County, Alabama is the largest county in land area east of the Mississippi. About 75 miles, north to south; 35 miles east to west.

An hour ago I was in a big farmer's market in the town of Loxley, 20 miles north of here. A nice looking woman about my age (60s) approached me.

"Pardon, me. I'm from Louisiana. Do you know where the Loxley Civic Center is? I'm trying to register with the Red Cross."
"I'm sorry, I don't. I thought there was a Red Cross Center down the road in Robertsdale."
"There was, but they were dismantling it when we got there. They told us to go to Daphne (on the other side of the county, about 25 miles away.) In Daphne, they were closing and told us the center was now in Loxley and sent us here."

I took her to one of the market's workers. She gave the woman directions to the civic center (town hall).

I saw there were two others with her. We chatted for a few minutes. They are from New Orleans and are staying with her sister in Fairhope, on Mobile Bay. They've been here since the Sunday before Katrina hit. They have nothing left to go back to in New Orleans. They've been trying for the last 3 days to register with the Red Cross, mainly to try and locate loved ones they were separated from. I wished them well.

It's been two full weeks since Katrina hit.
Where is the Red Cross?
Would they mind just staying still long enough to be located?
Thank you.
trof



Channel 5 WKRG
Frustrations Growing
Debbie Williams
News 5
Monday, September 12, 2005

The recovery effort is still being plagued with miscommunication and short tempers.

Hundreds stood in line for hours only to hear the head of the Red Cross Service Center in Loxley make an announcement that no Mobile County residents could receive services at the Baldwin County location.

All were looking for help with recovery from Hurricane Katrina. "They're suppose to be helping out with cash assistance so we can actually go out an buy some clothes and stuff." says Angela McClelland who was waiting about five feet away from the entrance of the Civic Center. She had been in line since 7:30 Monday morning.

Most of the crowd frustrated with the system. Vickie King and her infant son had been in line since five o'clock and now were being told to go home.

"They going to take Mississippi and New Orleans people first and then they going to help us, let me know if that's the way it's going to go but don't make me stand out here all day."

"I do understand their frustration," says Diane Clewell in charge of the Service Center. "And I wish that I could personally write a case for everyone of them but I can't and I've got limited number of case workers."

"It's not fair It's not fair at all we all suppose to be neighbors right?" says a group of ladies from Mobile County.

McClelland says the other victims are slowing the process down and she needs the help. "There's a lot of people from Mobile over here and it's making it hard for people actually for Louisiana and Mississippi to actually get in line and get the information that they need." McClelland has spent the last two weeks being shipped from one shelter to the next and after six different shelters is calling Summerdale Church of Christ home till she and her three children can get back on their feet.

"We're just going to take as many people as we can. We're trying to help as many people as we can as quickly as we can we're just limited in resources." says Clewell.

Red Cross officials tell News Five Mobile County residents need to call 438-2571 and make an appointment for assistance.

Or there is a new 1-800 number that just began Monday to provide direct assistance to storm victims. That number is

1-800-975-7585.

This story can be found at: http://www.wkrg.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WKRG%2FMGArticle%2FKRG_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031785020486&path=%21news%21local

[trof]

1. Great. "Call for an appointment".

Like this is the fucking dentist's office.
jeez

[expatriot]

2. The American Red Cross is very MAXED by this.

They have 39,000 volunteers in the field, have 640 shelters and are sheltering 120,000 evacuees.

They are desperately trying to train and deploy 40,000 volunteers. I just got trained this weekend and am waiting for my marching orders, but it is just a mess. Volunteer.


On edit: The entire Southern Arizona RC Chapter has been fully mobilized for this already, with all of their Emergency Response Vehicles in Louisiana and Mississippi... I would bet it is like this with almost all chapters.

[expatriot]

3. as an appendum to my own post... what might help the Red Cross.

Is if they continued to move long-term evacuees out of the area into less affected areas so they could tap into a huge base of potential volunteers that are unable to "deploy" for 2-3+ weeks at a time.

[trof]

4. We have not been inundated, like Texas.

Estimated at 10,000 to 15,000 in our county.
They keep getting shuttled from one place to another.
Can the RC not establish a center and say "Come here"?