The Latest from Plenty's Bus to Louisiana---www.plenty.org


I'm copying this message to a bunch of people from my email address
book...everybody I thought might be even remotely interested in this
story. Can you imagine how many thousands of stories like this are
happening and being told or will come out later? New Orleans
represents an American gumbo, a spicy jambalaya of cultures. Bayou
people are a special breed. I can only listen to Zydeco right now.

Here's what I know related to Plenty's response so far. Funny how
disasters bring us together like almost nothing else...

Gary McGlaughlin pulled into the Farm Friday night in a full size,
diesel school bus. He had flown out to Nashville from Santa Cruz, CA
the previous night and earlier in the day bought the bus from a
company in southern KY for $1500. On the way down to the Farm he
stopped in Nashville and bought another $1500 worth of food and water
and dry goods like TP and handiwipes and aspirin and diapers. He
rolled in the Gate at around 10PM. He hadn't been back to the Farm in
25 years.


Gary had called me on Wed. and asked if the Farm was sending busses
down to New Orleans in response to the Katrina disaster. I said,
"Gary, we don't have any buses anymore." "And there are less than 200
people here now." He hangs up, Googles "school buses/Nashville" and
finds a place with good buses for $1500, buys his ticket and that
night he's in Nashville. He and Dawn have been living in Santa Cruz
and he has a successful remodeling business with his 29-year-old son.

The problem was, we didn't have anybody lined up to go with Gary and
I didn't want to see him head out alone in the big bus (although Gary
was fully prepared to do just that). We thought he was going to spend
the night at Neal and Barbara's but he wanted to just keep going. But
Barbara had dinner for him so we went down to "Honey Base" for
enchiladas and squash pecan pie. Gary could barely eat he was so
pumped. He hadn't had a chance to swap old Farm stories in a long
time. He said he had just gone up on eBay and bid on the Caravan Book
and Hey Beatnik and he had to pay over $100 a piece to outbid the
other people. So happened Josh Heake who's 22 and teaching at the
school has a room at Bloomfield's. He was there hanging out with us.
I ask if he wants to go to New Orleans. Next thing I know he's got
his back pack and sleeping bag in his arms.

So off they went at 1:00 AM. Saturday morning they call from outside
Jackson, MS still two and a half hours from Alexandria, Louisiana
where we heard there was a shelter begging for just the stuff we had
on the bus. Roads had been clear, some convoys of big trucks and
heavy equipment were seen headed south. Some gas stations were had of
gas but they all had diesel. At one stop a guy pumping gas next to
them at 4 AM asked what they were doing and when they told him, he
peeled off 5 $twenties and gave them to Gary.

Got to Alexandria in the afternoon and arrived at the shelter only to
learn they had been stocked up by the Red Cross, but said there was a
camp outside of town with 900 people that could use stuff. They went
there and the people were grateful to receive the food and dry goods
but they were okay for water.

Meanwhile, we'd gotten an SOS from the Veterans for Peace people who
had been part of "Camp Casey" in Crawford, TX. They were setting up
camp in Covington, LA and needed everything, especially water.
Covington is on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain across a long
causeway from New Orleans, so they head there, stopping Sat. night
for a little shut eye at a rest stop. All the motels were full. They
called me Sunday at 7AM. They were at the Park where Camp Casey had
obviously been. There was a sign "Camp Casey" but no people! They saw
a cop and asked him but he didn't know anything about where they
were. So they just started driving around. I went up on the Internet
and Googled around until I found a page that said they had moved to
a school and gave the address. I called Gary's cell and they found
the school and sure enough, there they were.

On the Internet, on the VFP and Camp Casey related pages, I was
seeing messages from what seemed like 8 or 10 groups that were on
their way to Covington with water and other things for Camp Casey.
Apparently they hadn't arrived because they were grateful to get our
load of water. Then they said, "Please stay and help us get people
out of the city." They had a bus but it was their "command center"
and didn't have the rows of empty seats ready for passengers. There
was a rumor that there were hundreds of people stranded under a
bridge in the city so Gary and Josh headed out for new Orleans across
Lake Pontchartrain across the 25-mile-long causeway. Gary said the
causeway was broken up in spots that you had to drive around but
otherwise was very driveable. There was a police check on the New
Orleans side. The officer wanted to know what they were doing and if
they had authorization. I had given Gary a letter saying he was
authorized "by the Board of Directors of Plenty International" and
that seemed to do the trick. So they got to the bridge and nobody in
site. Obviously from the trash there had been a bunch of people there
recently. Turns out they had been moved to the airport.

At this point the airport seems to be the depot for evacuations. All
the people from the hospitals were brought there and have been flown
out to places like Nashville where they've been placed in Vanderbilt
and other hospitals until now they say they're full. Others are being
flown to Houston. Gary headed off to the airport. He said he could
see parts of the city were still under water, but they were driving
though dry neighborhoods where people were sitting out on their
porches enjoying their Sunday and others were walking around or
riding their bikes. Gary says he doesn't think they will be able to
evacuate everybody because everybody's not going to want to leave and
there are still lots of people in the city who seem to be alright.

He gets to the airport and it's bedlam. Military vehicles,
ambulances, utility trucks, buses etc. are jamming up the roads in
front of the airport. The airport itself is swarming with state.
local and airport police and 3 kinds of military cops plus National
Guard, Red Cross, FEMA, you name it. And hundreds of people waiting
to get on planes to Houston or wherever. Gary's trying to figure out
how to get some people on the bus to take them out. He asks a cop who
says "nobody's leaving and get that bus out of here." He asks another
cop who says, "well, if you find some people who want to go, take
them, but don't announce it because there will be a stampede." So
Gary rounds up a bus full and heads them out the door only to be met
by another cop who says, "wait a minute. You can't take these people
out of here, and move that bus!!" So the people start filing back
into the terminal, when an MP comes by and says, "what's going on?'
And Gary tells him, these people want to go and we've been told they
can't. The MP says, "Oh yes they can. Get back on the bus!" Which
they do and Gary brings them back to Covington and the school where
the Camp Casey people have their shelter. Most of them are asking to
go to Baton Rouge which is close, but at the school they're able to
take showers and eat. A few decide to stay there and Gary and Josh
take the rest of the folks to Baton Rouge.

While I'm talking to Gary I can hear a young Black guy telling him
his "amazing tale." This guy was trapped in his house with the water
rising. Next thing he knows he's swimming for his life. He starts to
tire and go under, but he sees somebody on a nearby roof-top. He
yells for help. The guy dives in, swims over and puts him on his back
and swims over to the roof. They climb onto the roof where they
remain without food or water for the next 3 days, when a boat comes
by and rescues them. Three days!*%#!?!

We don't know if our bus will be able to bring more people out but
they will try. As they were leaving people hollered, "When are you
coming back?" People already at the airport don't normally get to
decide where they're going, unless you manage to catch a ride on that
hippie bus...

To be continued...

plenty.org