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Over 100 trucks await orders from FEMA to bring water to NOLA“They’ve got their thumbs up their ass"
by Open-Publishing - Wednesday 14 September 2005
Food Not Bombs volunteers from Prescott and Tucson serve their first meals to a group of FEMA-contracted truckers and refugees at the Baton Rouge convention center.
After receiving word that over 100 truckers were sitting in a Target parking lot in east Baton Rouge, the AZ Food Not Bombs mobile kitchen showed up with several pots of beans, chili and rice.
We spent a couple hours talking with the semi drivers, who were operating under FEMA to bring water and food into New Orleans - but, as we saw, all were just sitting in the parking lot waiting for directions. Some had been there for days, some for more than a week, without any food or supplies from the government or any other relief agencies.
Many shared stories of frustration with the bureaucracy of the federal government and FEMA. Dozens of tanker trucks carrying 50,000 gallons of water each were parked in rows, awaiting orders to travel into affected areas and fill up 10-gallon jugs to hand out. Only a few trucks at a time are allowed in, and it takes nearly 24 hours to empty a tanker, leaving the majority of them sitting around doing absolutely nothing.
“They’ve got their thumbs up their asses,” said one driver talking about the incompetence of FEMA.
On the way to the truck staging area, the FNB crew had attempted to feed the Louisiana National Guard at the homeland security complex in Baton Rouge, but were told that they had two cafeterias and were well taken care of.
After spending about two hours serving the truck drivers, the FNB bus headed back across the city to the River Center where a few thousand refugees are still being housed. Our bus arrived about an hour before the 10:00 pm curfew and was able to catch people as they trickled by to stand in a 2-hour long security line to re-enter the shelter.
Many refugees were from New Orleans, some only having left yesterday under the mandatory evacuation, others had been there for over a week. Some had spent time in the Super Dome and recounted horrific stories that nearly brought them to tears. It is a highly emotional scene, as each has their own story of loss and their own vision of hope.
The FNB bus will head out to Covington, a town about an hour east of Baton Rouge where Veterans for Peace is organizing a major shelter. We have made contact with several other areas in eastern Louisiana that need help and supplies, and plan to begin visiting those areas throughout the week.
Many talked about their dissatisfaction with the way things were being handled, and the huge waste of money by the federal government.
As best we could understand, only a handful of truck were allowed into New Orleans at a time, leaving the others to wait. The water was trucked in from Ft. Worth, Texas, although Baton Rouge and other areas much closer have safe drinking water that could have been used instead.