Hurricane update # 2

Family and friends,

It has been a couple of days since I last wrote. The situation here in Louisiana is what I would call stabilized but dire. The Federal government has moved in swiftly, but I'd also like to remind people (and the public) that it's important to continue to keep the Katrina aftermath in the spotlight. I think the action of our government after the hurricane hit should remind us that we the people are the government and we should continue to speak up for the victims of this tragedy, many of which now cannot represent themselves.

Today I again walked down to the PMAC to volunteer. This time I had knew what to do and walked straight to the table to sign in and I was immediately put into the volunteer pool. It wasn't long before someone came and picked out "6 guys". We then all jammed into 2 huge golf carts and proceeded to drive around the PMAC, from which I could see helicopters landing on the track field. It turns out our destination was across Nicholson rd. which separates the football stadium, PMAC, and the baseball field. If you know Nicholson rd. then you know never in your wildest dreams would you take a golf cart up and down this 5 lane rd, but we did. It was our job to pickup supplies from a drop-off point and deliver them back to the PMAC via golf cart. While much more organized it still goes to show the chaos when perhaps 2 truck loads would have worked, we had to make an hour's worth of trips in the golf carts to move all the supplies. Today there were National Guardsmen _everywhere_ even guarding the supplies we were moving. After a few trips back and forth I hooked up with a volunteer firefighter who was driving a 'cart full of water, I jumped on the back and held on as we "drove" across Nicholson. Let me tell you this vol. firefighter could not _drive_ by any sense of the word! I can still feel my heart pounding hours later :-) and thank god that the only thing we ran into out of 3 trips was a rotating fan.

After my work was done with supplies I switched gears and became an escort for people going into the PMAC. They must have gotten alot more organized because now it takes a special clearance to get in. As I was taking people in and out of the PMAC I was glad to see that everything seemed to be far more organized than ever before. Most doctors were now military doctors or FEMA personnel. Lately many public figures have pointed out the obvious division of class and race still present in America. There are many people who would like to believe that finally America has achieved absolute equality, while endearing it's unfortunately not true. At one point I was asked to escort 4 middle age white women down into the PMAC to talk to FEMA. I think everyone assumed they were volunteers or something, but either way they were just allowed down in. Once we got down on the floor I found them a FEMA agent, who they then subsequently pestered about insurance numbers for their house and belongings. I couldn't help but get a sick feeling as I stood by watching this go on. These women, all obviously affluent white Americans had the audacity to pull strings just to get down on the floor and stop a medical FEMA agent to talk about getting their jewelry replaced. The division of race was an obvious theme throughout the day for me as many of the hardest hit were poor and now sick African Americans.

My third job was to sort clothing and help people find clothes at make-shift clothing tables right under the PMAC's giant ramps. During this part it was nice to see several of my friends working along side of me. As I was folding clothes I met a girl who was also a sophomore but had flown down from Harvard and was helping volunteer. Apparently she worked for Harvard's Crimson school newspaper and was looking to go back and write some articles based on her experience. I folded clothes for around an hour or so. I was happy to be removed from the blood and guts, at one point I ran across a tuxedo shirt which made me laugh (who donates a tux shirt? really?). I helped many people find clothes and shoes at one point I picked out a couple of outfits for an older man. About 15 minutes later I saw him far off stripping and changing right under the ramp wing, which was out of sight for most but it really strung a chord with me and made me empathize with him.

I worked for around 6 hours today, they have plenty of volunteers and I still have many errands to run and things that got pushed aside by the storm. School starts Tuesday Sept 6, and I'm sure that will be another story within itself. I actually heard today that for some time they were considering canceling the semester at LSU and using the dorms to house people. Luckily, that idea has been discarded and the Chancellor is assuring students that the semester will go on starting Tuesday. I'm sure school won't be the same though this semester, with New Orleans flooded I know of at least 5 universities that have had to close their doors this semester. LSU is now accepting these students which should be very interesting, I've heard over 2,000 have already signed up for classes at LSU. As I was walking back three Muslim girls in a car stopped to ask if I knew where the Thomas Boyd hall was because they were University of New Orleans students looking to register.

Things are still crazy down here, but I'm confident that all will turn out right if we remain on this path. I still would like to urge y'all to donate to the Red Cross at red cross.org. I'll be writing more emails, please feel free to pass them on and spread the word. I think it's important that people get all sides of a story when judging and I hope I can be part of that.

Well I'm off for now, take care y'all

Christopher Peters