Reflections on 9 NYU Students' Alternative Spring Break 2006, helping with clearing and reconstruction in Katrina-afflicted New Orleans.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

FEMA Trailer Park Fails to Survive Storm from Residents - from the New York Times

posted by GAGS at 10:15 AM

2 Comments:

Blogger Relief Spark said...

Hey everyone!

Thought I would update you all on a few things that have happened over the last week:

1. FEMA is keeping the tent cities opened until June 1, 2006 - the official start of hurricane season. Nice, eh?

2. I am slowly adding more journal entries and if you come across a piece that is yours - let me know as a few of them are "author unknown."

3. We are taking on more projects - the New Orleans Courthouse is one of them. Wanna come back and help us clean this building??? It's HUGE.

4. I received an email from Chi Chi Valenti of the Jackie Factory in NY. Does anyone in your group know her?? She has offered to donate costumes, wigs and accessories to Shine Presents! Barry and Rose Marie are so happy....I can't tell you how much this means to all of us here. If any of you had anything to do with this: THANK YOU!!! And if not...THANK YOU anyway as I keep coming across various postings all over the Internet. Going back to Chi Chi - in her last email she asked Barry and Rose to make up their wish list and get it to her. It's truly a wonderful, wonderful thing. :)

I don't know if you all knew that Shine Presents and the Voices Foundation are taking to the road this summer. I am helping them arrange a donation of a RV (large and in charge a la rockstar), gas cards and a stipend for the troupe. Everyone is working on this. They plan to perform skits and show Voices of the Storm to universities and high schools along the Mississippi River. I hope to travel with them as I would love to share my story as well.....and hopefully it will inspire more volunteers into the area.

Going back to the FEMA tent cities - even though we have 2 more months, I am also working on closing a permanent volunteer base camp working with Deployed Resources who is the contractor for Camp Algiers. The cost is $100.00 per volunteer per day - and I am seeking corporate sponsors. If any of you know anyone that is interested in reaching out to 1500 volunteers per week....let me know. I've got the space and the infrastructure, just need the sponsors and we will be good to go - .....so you can come back over the summer!

Great pictures by the way....would you mind if I used a few for www.reliefspark.org volunteer page?

I am so proud of each of you and thank you again for coming out here!!

.....Oh! ----this is sooo important.

Thought you should know a few things on the health side of things here.

One of my volunteers who came out here in Feb. told me that she had a problem in one of her ears. She went to 4 doctors and 1 specialist who told her she had fungus in her ear! She has it under control now...

And....high levels of lead have been found all over the city. This is no surprise as most of the houses were built in the late 1800's and definitely before 1980.

400 parts per million is considered a health risk and in one area of Mid City (yes, where we gut houses) it is 3,960 parts per million!

There are also high levels of asbestos, arsenic and of course, mold.

I don't know if this ever gets out in national news and I am convinced that many stories will never see the light of day....so spread the word down here that it is a major health risk and if you are going to volunteer...suit up!

A good place to get news on what is going on out here is:

www.nola.com

:)

-Sidney

1:16 AM

 
Blogger Manuel Rosaldo said...

Thanks Sydney. Great to hear from you. The new project sounds really exciting and the donation from Chi Chi Valenti sounds great, though I don't think we had anything to do with it. Sorry to hear about FEMA and abestos!

2:41 PM

 

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