Posted on 09/09/2005 4:33:44 AM PDT by iowamark
Bruce Widbin headed south expecting hopelessness, misery, and desperate need.
Instead, he found Hurricane Katrina evacuees at a Red Cross disaster relief center watching big–screen TVs, shooting hoops, listening to live music and choosing between ham, roast beef or barbecued turkey.
Widbin, a Wever resident, took a charter bus Sunday to Jackson, Miss., intending to return with a full load of southerners ready to start a new life in Iowa.
But, despite promises of houses and jobs waiting, only one family among the roughly 300 people at the Mississippi Coliseum relief center accepted a ride north.
And they had relatives in Dubuque.
"I walked around the center and there were big–screen TVs, three full semi–trucks pulled up serving pizza out the windows, medical areas, basketball courts and balloon tying and activities for the kids," Widbin said Wednesday. "The meal line was huge, like a big church buffet."
A member of Grace Bible Church in Wever, Widbin organized the bus trip with help from his congregation and the faithful at Harmony Bible Church in Danville. Trailways Bus System in West Burlington donated use of a bus.
This was no fly–by–the–seat–of–your–pants mission. About 50 families from the two churches had agreed to welcome evacuees into their homes. Additional apartments were set aside if needed. And several businesses were ready to hire people fleeing the hurricane.
Widbin worked with a sheriff from the Jackson area for three days prior to the trip to make sure everything was in order.
"She said, 'Oh, come on down, we'll have no trouble filling your bus,' " he said.
The sheriff spoke on the radio, appeared on TV and posted fliers around the shelter promoting the Iowa effort. But when the time came to leave, most evacuees preferred to stay.
"The people had it so good," said Widbin, who returned home Monday night. "They were just so comfortable."
Most families living in the center had evacuated before Hurricane Katrina hit, Widbin said.
The bus carried a load of relief supplies, gathered in large part by an African–American church in Burlington, that were loaded on a truck in Mississippi and sent further south to the Gulf Coast.
Not one to quit easily, Widbin wanted to look elsewhere when he realized people in Jackson were not excited about a move to the Midwest.
But when he asked about nearby relief centers, the top Red Cross official in the city did not know the locations.
"... The size and bureaucracy and territorialism within the Red Cross just really encumbered our ability to take action," Widbin said.
The largess heaped on the evacuees also left Widbin wondering: What happens when the philanthropy ends?
"There is no way the volunteers and the businesses can continue to provide that level of service and facilities for more than a couple of weeks," he said. "When the Red Cross goes to close the center, if the mentality of the people is, 'The government will take care of us,' and not to go out and fix the problems themselves, then you are going to hear a clamor when the services disappear."
The two churches are hardly alone in their failed generosity. Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack said last week his state would welcome 5,000 evacuees from the Gulf Coast. As of Tuesday, only about 40 had arrived.
Widbin is on the hook for the diesel burned on the run south. And he still feels the clinch of disappointment from accomplishing so little.
But he has found reasons to be thankful.
There was the pleasure of watching his 15–year–old son Jeremy, who went along on the trip, play with the children in the relief center and interact with the police officers standing watch.
There was the joy of meeting that lone family that did come to Iowa.
And there is the comfort of believing he acted on God's will, no matter what the outcome.
"We saw a need, we acted, and we did it in faith," he said. "There's nothing else I can say."
Working class Christians from Iowa run up against the welfare culture.
I have no fear that reality will settle upon those saviors from Iowa any time soon.
Yup. The people of New Orleans are by no means all welfare class. But the people who are not will migrate into new situations. Those who have been living on the government dole are still doing that, and will likely continue to do so...
We've been prepared for 500 evacuees here in Nebraska and so far no one has wanted to come....
There is a facility set up here in St. Louis for at least 2,000. As of yesterday afternoon, no one had come.
We've been prepared for 500 evacuees here in Nebraska and so far no one has wanted to come....
We are running into that same thing here in Wisconsin. Lodging was prepared, transportation was lined up, and volunteers were ready to roll out the red carpet, but there aren't many takers.
Wow.
Katrina is proving to be an eye-opener in so many, many ways..
I guess that's why I didn't live in those conditions to begin with though.
When the disaster relief honeymoon ends, things are going to get ugly again.
No he ran up against the genreousity and caring of Southerners.
Iowa was prepped for 5,000 arriving Monday, but none arrived.
I'm thinking maybe that's a good thing as I read these stories.
Dittos in upper esat Tennessee. There is a big upside though. The Good Samaritan ministry had a complete refurbishment of a new space thay had acquired in less that a week with volunteer labor and massive donations. It will not go to waste,
I wonder how many Katrina "victims" would like to move to North Dakota? I wonder if they would make it through the winter?
If you stay at the shelter you: (1) get free meals, (2) get free cable, (3) get to lie around all day without having to work. Plus the weather in MS is nice and warm almost year round.
If you go to Iowa you: (1) will probably be forced to find a job, (2) will have to pay for meals, (3) will have to pay for cable. And it gets cold in IA.
No contest.
I need to contact this man. If he could help a refugee maybe he would be willing to help an expatriated American.
"We've been prepared for 500 evacuees here in Nebraska and so far no one has wanted to come...."
Are you lucky or what?
SO WHY are the New orleans people the only ones shown on TV 24-7 with all the money, food, housing, medical care, going just to them?
What am I missing here?
The great flood of 2005 in NO happened not because of the hurricane but because a levee broke, the levee broke because of lib dem neglect. Do I have that correct?
So therefore the MSM along with the fed govt feel that we all have to pay for this for the rest of the NO People's lives?
And we need to ignore the needs of the people of MS,AL,and FL??
OR is it because the people of MS who are desperately hurting are taking responsibility for their own lives?As are the people of FL and AL, the people of FL have always managed to take care of their own. Or is it that everything is seen in black and white?
So, it has already started.
People in other parts of the country unaccustomed to welfare mentality reel at the evacuee's refusal to move out of a temporary relief center.
This church group finally gets it.
Welfare types are used to the government covering every need from cradle to grave literally.
From the time they are born, Medicaid pays for their hospital bill, to the Food Stamps for their food, the Section 8 for their housing, to Welfare monthly payments for spending money, to Medicaid for the diabetes, heart disease, and cancer treatment.
Why give up a gravy train at the Astrodome and take a risk with a church group from Iowa?
Stats from New Orleans say there are generations of families who have never worked and have always been on the public dole. That is why the number of jobless claims initially was only 10,000.
Prying these folks out of that environment may be the best thing that ever happened to them, it might just foster self-responsibility.
We shall see.
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