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| A National Guard Humvee patrols downtown New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. |
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Editors note: this is the second part of a two-part story
Pate Tate and Fred Danforth of Willits and two other Veterans for Peace from Northern California arrived in Covington, Louisiana on Sept. 2 to provide relief to hurricane victims. Tate parked his bus, the White Rose, next to a Red Cross office lacking electricity and phone service in order to share his generator and use of his laptop computer. Locals used the internet connection to find missing relatives. Tate put out a call for contributions of food and other supplies.
By September 3 wed been picked up and found by Michael Moore (author of the film Fahrenheit 911) and his organization, Tate reported. They put out a worldwide call to support our efforts. We raised over half a million (dollars) as a result of this appeal, over a million pounds of supplies that we distributed.
Among the contributions was a 53-foot semi filled with relief items paid for by a rock musician who wished to remain anonymous.
Tate and his friends managed to make small contributions of their own. With checks useless while banks remained closed down, Tate gave $100 cash to a man attempting to rejoin his family.
Not only was the family gone, the town was gone, Tate said, and there was no way to make contact. Our group gave him new clothes and a ride to a bus station.
Residents returning to Covington following evacuation were living in tents, trailers, campers, Tate reported. Some were putting tarps up hoping that would be enough.
For more than a week after the Veterans for Peace arrived, however, there was no safe drinking water in outlying areas. Since most stoves werent working, boiling contaminated water meant starting an outdoor campfire on ground covered with flammable debris. Local volunteers arrived with small vehicles to take bottled water and other supplies brought by the group to remote areas.
The roads were too messed up to maneuver a bus, Tate said, explaining why he couldnt make the run himself.
Then national and international volunteers arrived.
We had more than 150 volunteers at one point from all over the world, Tate said.
There were too many people for the campsite near the Red Cross office. Tate helped to set up a second camp about four miles away.
When the Rainbow Family showed up, a group with no formal organization that has been hosting annual Rainbow Festivals on state and national park land for decades, the Veterans suggested the group move on to Waveland, Mississippi, another hard-hit town Tate said was receiving little or no assistance from relief agencies.
Visiting Waveland before returning home, Tate saw officers of the National Guard, FEMA, and local police lining up for meals at Rainbow Family shelters. Like all other recipients, the officers took their turns working in the kitchen, washing dishes, peeling potatoes.
With the help of recipient participation, Tate said, the Rainbow Family fed 3,000 people three times a day on donated food.
At the Covington shelter, after 16 days of joining forces with Red Cross volunteers, Tate and the other vets were asked to leave.
Someone had made a political decision, he said. They threatened legal action.
The policewoman who was ordered to evict him was the same one who had told him he and his generator - were needed at the shelter in the first place.
She was in tears, Tate said.
Tate relocated to the second camp, taking his laptop computer with him. Electricity had come back on in Covington, but Tates departure left the Red Cross shelter without internet connections.
His next relocation was caused by forces greater than local authorities: a second hurricane was on the way. Tate and the other Veterans for Peace moved operations to Mobile, Alabama.
On Oct. 6, 34 days after arriving in hurricane country, Tate drove back to Willits.
I had to get home to run for school board, he said.
Tate and other departing Veterans for Peace passed on most of their donated money and supplies to SOS (Saving OurSelves after Katrina), a group organized by local activists in the South.
Most (SOS volunteers) had lost their homes, Tate said. They were funding their operations out of their own credit cards. We gave them over $200,000 to set up operations and distribute supplies, including generators and chain saws.
Any remaining funds went to Plenty, a local group organizing rebuilding efforts in New Orleans and surrounding parishes. Group members, Tate said, lead construction, train locals to participate, and ensure work is actually needed.
Support for citizen efforts, Tate said, is the ultimate goal of Veterans for Peace relief work:
What it comes down to is the need to empower people to rescue themselves. The government can't do it for them in a disaster. That's what were all about.