Mississippi/Alabama Contacts

[loaderbob]

Yanmar Team,
This may not be the right place for the post but I start here. I remember a while back we had alot of Grey members in AL and MS. I need some help. I was all the along the coast last week from Mobile to Waveland, MS dropping off over 34,ooo lbs of private donated food, water, and tolietries. Bottom line is it is bad... I ended up in Waveland, MS. Waveland is in dire need of supplies and was the worst hit that we saw along the MS coast. However, we are now understanding the areas around Hancock county are still in desperate need.

I am working on donations and coordinating a 53Ft tractor trailer and a 25ft enclosed trailer to go down possibly next week to Waveland pending further assesment of the health situation.

If we make the decision to go down this week we would arrive on Thursday and be working in the area a few days. What I need is a safe place to stay within 2 hours drive of Waveland/Hancock County along 59 or in Mobile, AL area where we could move along I-10. I will have 4-5 of my team members with me and my truck with an enclosed trailer. The tractor trailer will roll after we unload him in Waveland. I would mainly need the basics, a hose with water, shower and a place we can crash with sleeping bags, although we are working on an RV for this trip. Other than that we are self-sufficient. The main factor is it would have to be outside the "health risk" zone so we can get some good sleep and stay healthy.

I have a place to stay in Birmingham where we sleep for 4 hours on the way down(it is quite far from virginia). The hampton in donate the rooms through A Light in the Dark Outreach of Birmingham, AL. If anyone can help out that would be a tremendous.

This is a tough time for the people of the gulf coast and we plan to help them through. We work with the red cross, FEMA, MEMA, and the Locals. Most of our goods will be going back to Waveland at the Davis Family Store and Market Center. We have contact there now and will be working on a 6 month recovery plan.

If you can't help, but do have people in the Waveland, MS area that have phone acccess please forward me there number so I can get more local information. This helps us load the trucks with the right stuff and assess safety. My e-mail is bob@sctractor.com.

I am also working our Hampton Inn connection again and will let you know if they are going to sponsor us again... If you want any information on the effort please do not hesistate to call me.

God bless all of you and hug your families,
Loader Bob

 

[mark777]

Bob,

What you are doing is wonderful. Sorry, I have no contacts in that region. God Speed and be careful.

Mark

 

[flattman]

What a wonderful and humane mission you are on for those people. I have no connections or advice for connections in that area, but I do have respect, appreciation and love for what you are doing.

My family has been sending what we could afford through the Salvation Army and our prayers, we will include you in those prayers. Bless you and yours for stepping forward /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif.

 

[Whiskey]

Bob:

I've got another link to a thread here, can you tell me being you have been there if I'm wiser to donate money or load up and trailer a tractor and drive up there or will I just be in the way of prof. help?

didn't mean to take away from Bob's thread.....

 

[bassfishrman]

loaderbob,

i may have somewhere you can stay. contact me at stephen@fbcwilmer.com and i'll reply.

 

[loaderbob]

Whiskey,
We just confirmed with our new contacts at ARC down in Mississippi that they still having trouble supporting Hancock County and the Waveland area. According to one lady I talked to Saturady they still did not have a shelter set up and people were cramming in the houses that were left.

As far as money versus going down, the American red cross is really stretched and there are plenty of areas to assist. The coordination is the main issue. The reason that the ARC does not want people to go down with supplies is distribution and communication. A guess a bunch of folks went down to cities and expected the Police and 1st responders to unload everything, tieing up valuable resources. Others just dumped everything and left. Also the communication between even towns next to each other was rough. Most of the information was on status was non-existent or outdated. On Monday there was no power along the region making the problem worse.

That said... Making a direct impact helps the current situation tremendously. We have been successful by letting ARC and Mississippi Highways know that we are unloading our trucks and doing the distribution for them. Last time we road around with some poilce volunteers from Missouri to the "off the beaten path" places. It worked really well.

As far as doing work in the area you have to be very careful of disease and enviromental hazards. I wanted to take my D3250 down and start clean up but there is no way to know what is in the debris piles with out working with the EPA or FEMA guys. The last thing we want to go is hit a gas line or slice out hand on debris with DDT. We decided this trip we are going to stick with hand tools, although we are going to revisit the issues tomorrow morning. Make sure you are up to date on all your imminuzations including Tetnus and Hep B.

The people accross the Gulf were all wonderful, we never felt thratedend by anyone. The roads are open just make sure you take reserve fuel.

If you are going down this weekend I will know tomorrow at 7:00AM if we are loading another truck on Wednesday. This would put us down there at the same time. I could show you around if you are there and introduce you to the Davis Family Store folks.

Send me an e-mail with you number and we can talk further live time. They definitely need the help now and the ARC is strecthed too thin. With a little planning you will have a great mission down there.

Best Regards!
Bob

 

[loaderbob]

Flattman,
Thanks for the kinds words. The State of Texas has been a huge help down there. We saw many churches from South East Texas providing clothing and hot food at the disaster sites. Every bit help in a disaster this big.

The salvation army does a great job of geting supplies into the big relief centers. The folks in these centers basically have a cot and what ever they can fit underneath. I can tell you they appreciate everything!

Thanks for your support!
Bob

 

[flattman]

Bob,

Thanks for the kind words, and while we are not a large community we have had several drives to provide money, clothing, toiletry items, personal hygene items and support.

There are less than 1,400 in our county and many are pretty poor. It has been heart warming to see them rally with what they have and provide it for others without question.

Our church is small but the largest in the county, only 125 members and about 50 or so that regularly attend but they have had special offerings and many special prayer meetings with genuine concern and care for those in the area and those helping with the situation. They don't have a lot to give, but they have given and continue to do so. We even had a small group go to that area to help with medical assistance.

What has been happening in our small community has been happening through out America. The actions speak louder than the "Negative Critics" of this great nation and shows the true character of its people. I am proud of you and your efforts Bob, and this country and its "True Grit."

God Bless you and this nation.