Relief Should Follow the
Person
by Clarence Schadegg
United States Senator
Chuck Grassley of Iowa wrote, “Congress
passed a $51.8 billion disaster assistance package in early September
to get immediate relief to the devastated region. As chairman of
the Senate Finance Committee, I also am advancing a bipartisan package
of legislative tools to help displaced residents of the Gulf Coast
regain a good quality of Life…my bill would provide financial
assistance and access to health care services, targeting the most
vulnerable citizens, including low-income families.” Emergency
Health Care Relief Act of 2005—United States Senator Chuck
Grassley is the Chairman of the Committee on Finance.
My wife and I were fortunate enough to have visited the Gulf Coast
area before it was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. We arrived in
Gulf Port on August 21, 2005 our 12 year wedding anniversary date.
The whole time we stayed there, the heat index was at one-hundred
and seven degrees. Since neither Nancy nor I drive because of our
disabilities, we knew about the bus service in the area. But it was
too hot for my dog to walk the distance from our hotel to the bus
stop during the day. Our hotel offered us door-to-door service in
an air conditioned van as long as we visited places within a five
mile radius of our hotel.
On the evening of our
arrival, a trip to a restaurant brought us some unexpected good
luck. Our waitress, Cheryl Rodolfich, befriended us and insisted
on showing us around the beautiful sites of Biloxi, Gulf Port and
Ocean Springs. Two days later, in her air conditioned van, Nancy
and I were amazed at her generosity as she gave up more than six
hours on her day off from work to drive us around the Gulf Coast
region. It is one thing to do this for friends, but it is quite
another thing to do this for strangers. I believe Cheryl’s
graciousness was more then just southern hospitality, but more like
that of simple trust in faith to do what she thought was the good
thing to do for other people.
Many of the sites Cheryl showed us were, within a week, either flattened
by Katrina or so damaged that the only option was to tear down what
little was left of such buildings.
The hurricane force winds drove the water on shore and the water
swallowed buildings and buried highways.
Cheryl became a displaced waitress because of Hurricane Katrina.
She shared part of her story with me about how Hurricane Katrina’s
devastation along the Gulf Coast region turned her family’s
life upside down.
Her husband John, a
firefighter with the Biloxi Fire Department, wanted Cheryl to take
their two children and evacuate east. John had to stay behind to
help his fellow firefighters carry out rescue missions during and
after Katrina stormed ashore. On August 28, 2005 Cheryl, her friend
Danny, and her two children along with two dogs finally left Biloxi
as they evacuated east to Florida. They were, however, almost trapped
by Hurricane Katrina as they drove east. Their drive to Florida
was slow and the weather began to get bad, raining hard with a
lot of wind. Cheryl did what many of us would have done in such
a situation, she prayed. She was low on gas and it wasn’t
until 12 hours later that they were able to get a full tank of
gas. While Cheryl and companions evacuated east, her husband John
stood in water up to his neck rescuing people to dry ground.
On September 2, 2005,
as Cheryl looked over the damage to her community for the first
time, she saw that her house “was still standing” but
it was flooded with “two feet of water.” The area was “very
dirty” and there were downed “power lines.” Cheryl
noted “every-body’s belongings” were scattered “all
over the streets.” Cheryl said the air “smelled of death
and destruction.”
Senator Grassley’s bill to assist disabled people in the long
term reconstruction of the Gulf Coast region is right, good and necessary.
Elderly, disabled and poor people were especially affected by the
storms direct wrath because they could not flee. How much of the
fifty-one billion dollars in Senator Grassley’s relief bill
will go to provide jobs and training to disabled people in the Gulf
Coast region who survived the storms? How will Senator Grassley’s
bill help to prevent a future tragedy like that which befell disabled
people in the New Orleans stadium? And how will this bill help disabled
people rebuild their homes as well as assist with the mental health
of people in the long-term reconstruction of the Gulf Coast region?
After Katrina destroyed the electrical power sources, among other
things, disabled people were among the thousands who had to endure
these harsh conditions. To live amidst such devastation without any
way to keep cool or to get clean drinking water is an incredible
disaster in itself. For people who use walkers or wheelchairs, such
a condition made survival under such circumstances more precarious.
About one-hundred thousand square miles of the Gulf Coast region
was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. It will take action by the United
States government to come up with creative ways hurricane victims
can clean up their homes, if at all possible. The wind driven water
brought with it contaminates that were left behind as the water receded.
But along with such contaminants that were deposited by the storm
surge, conditions were also right for mold growth.
The effect of mold growth
is cause for long-term health concerns. According to the Center
for Disease Control (CDC), “There are
several sources of guidance on how to respond to mold. Determining
when a remediation effort is warranted or when it is successful is
subjective because there are no generally accepted health-based standards
for acceptable concentrations of fungal spores, hyphae, or metabolites
in the air or on surfaces. Very few studies have been conducted on
the effectiveness of remediation actions in eliminating problematic
mold contamination in the short and long term and on the effect of
remediation actions on the health of building occupants.
The CDC stated, “The
best way to get rid of mold growth is to remove it from materials
that can be effectively cleaned and to discard materials that cannot
be cleaned or are physically damaged beyond use. Persons with respiratory
conditions, allergies, asthma, or weakened immune systems should
not attempt mold cleanup...”
One of John and Cheryl’s
children has asthma, and her medication has helped her from succumbing
to the effects of mold. But their house, undoubtedly, will need
to be rebuilt. Currently, the Rodolfich family, like so many hurricane
victims, lives in a loaned FEMA trailer until their house is rebuilt.
There are thousands of other people who are still waiting for a
FEMA trailer, and some of these people have to cope with the current
environment with little or nothing but uncertainty. It will take
many years or perhaps several decades for the people of the Gulf
Coast region to recover from the physical and emotional damage
caused by this terrible series of storms.
According to Senator
Grassley, “It will take years and billions
of dollars to repair the public infrastructure, from transit systems
to sewage treatment facilities, schools, hospitals and flood protection
systems.” The residents of the Gulf Coast will need our help
for years to come, and below are some ways you can help.
Contact the Katrina Resources Minnesota Coalition to Aid Hurricane
Katrina Survivors set up with the participation of Minnesota and
Wisconsin Greens at www.mncahs.org/
A hotline is open for Hurricane
Katrina disaster response. Minnesotans can contact the State Emergency
Operations Center hotline for information about the Hurricane Katrina
disaster response. The following hotlines have been established for
people seeking information: 651-297-1304, metro area; 800-657-3504,
non-metro; 800-657-3822, TTY; people who do not have access to a
TTY machine may call 711.
To contact Senator Chuck Grassley, write to him at this address:
135 Hart Senate Bldg, Washington, DC 20510-1501 or call 202-224-3744.
For more info on the
Center for Disease Control’s reports
on mold cleanup and prevention, visit www.CDC.gov.
Clarence Schadegg is a regular columnist for Access Press who writes
about his personal experiences as a blind disabled person and how
these experiences interact with issues that face the greater population.
He can be reached by e-mail at cschadegg@mn.rr.com or by phone 612-798-5178.
