California evacuees get massages, acupuncture, entertainment in stadium shelter

National Post (Canada) ^ | October 24, 2007

[yorkie]

It doesn't bring back lost family heirlooms, a child's favourite toy or photos of your daughter's wedding but evacuees of the fires raging around San Diego, California can take solace in the fact that their home away from home is safe, comfortable and even has a few extra frills.

CanWest correspondent Sheldon Alberts reports about conditions from the Qualcomm Centre, which is housing thousands who have left their homes because of the massive fires in California:

Instead of chaos, there was relative calm as evacuees arrived to discover a carnival-like atmosphere that included live music performances, a makeshift pre-school and "Kids Zone," ample stacks of diapers and baby wipes, and food stations offering everything from bagged lunches to chocolate chip cookies and potato chips.

In keeping with southern California's reputation for new age living, volunteers had also set up a massage and acupuncture centre, a tent for yoga and meditation and even a station where evacuees could receive reflexology treatments.

Compare it with this eye-witness account of the conditions inside New Orlean's Superdome during Katrina:

[khnyny]

No one can say Southern California doesn’t have a certain style and panache. lol.

The way SCal has handled these fires makes New Orleans look really bad and blows the leftist arguments to smithereens.

[BenLurkin]

While the supplies outside are beiong loaded into pickup trucks and stolen by illegal aliens.

http://sosdfireblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/illegal-immigrants-arrested-for.html

http://dailypics.blogfodder.net/oldweird.jpg

[RedCell]

Only in California.

[umgud]

My brother, wife & kids had to evacuate his house in San Diego and is now living on his 48 foot sailboat in Mission Bay.

[sinanju]

Now it’s certainly true Qualcomm Center was not cut off, nor did it lose power and water like the Superdome.

Nevertheless, I’m sure everybody there was/is determined to make the best of it. If I was an evacuee, I would be keeping as busy as I could helping out. Anything to keep my mind off my house.

[Gay State Conservative]

Hopefully folks can get aroma therapy too.

[ari-freedom]

it smells like...burning

[CindyDawg]

:’) . I’m going to have to tell my DIL she should have gone to the shelter :’).

[Army Air Corps]

SoCal has a certain style.

[ClearBlueSky]

Here I go- I’m just going to say it.
As a New Orleanian who isn’t afraid to face the truth, the difference between the fire evacuees and the Superdome evacuees is THE CLASS OF PEOPLE.
There it is.
If you fill the stadium with people from the projects and crime ridden areas of L.A., you would have a much different scenario.
The middle class of New Orleans, for the most part, got out of town. They didn’t end up in the Dome.
Of course , ineptitude and deteriorating conditions in the Dome played a part in the disaster. Anyone stuck in 90+ temps for days without food, water, and bathrooms would start to fray. The majority didn’t become beasts, they were just beaten down.
Money- and how it is used- makes a big difference in dealing with disasters. CA is well prepared, the facilities are newer, and there are ample supplies. They learned from past experience. N.O. did not.
Class makes a difference here. Anyone who thinks it doesn’t only has to wait to see if the more violent areas of CA are affected.

[freekitty]

Compare the rich areas to the poor areas. Katrina to Malibu.

[SoCalPol]

No, not every one of the 500,000 are evacs are from the wealthy set.

You have all types of people including some just back from Iraq.

Some folks need to get a grip and give credit for all types of people just acting like adults.

This is the way we are here in San Diego, we don’t play the victim as this is where the msjority of Navy and Marines are based. We know the world of reality.

I live in the city and not in direct the fire, just smoky air to breath in and soot all over.

The county went through this same thing in 2003, we are use to dealing with situations and not making things worse
by high drama of victimhood like others.

[CindyDawg]

Also there are many wives and children that are alone. They don’t have family near and their husbands are at sea.

[maine-iac7]

Just a small glimpse of what we'll pay for with a socialized health care system under President Mrs. Clinton.

You are, of course referring to the treatment the Socialist elite will get - the rest of will get the Katrina treatment

[maine-iac7]

BINGO! - Nail, meet Head.

[Kirkwood]

What you say is true. In addition, the Superdome (and for that matter the convention center) was never meant to be a shelter, but it was opened as a shelter of last resort when it was realized just how many people didn’t leave. There were no water and food supplies at all set aside for these people by the Red Cross because they decided a year before to not set up shelters below I-12. Also, the plan by the city govt was to wait 3 days for a rescue by the state and federal govts while the local residents sustained themselves off their own emergency supplies. That plan was doomed to failure because far too many people either didn’t have 3 days of emergency supplies, left the supplies behind in their homes, or they were stolen by others.

[SoCalPol]

This is true.
There are a large number of military evacs on bases and
they are doing a great job of taking care.

[Brad from Tennessee]

I traveled to the New Orleans area right after Hurricane Katrina with a church group in coordination with FEMA. We were directed to the Nicholls State University in Thibodaux which was one of many evacuee centers set up outside New Orleans. Two gymnasiums were set up with cots and bedding for people being brought out of the city by bus. I spent much of my time unloading trucks of supplies. Wal-Mart sent truck after truck of water, clothing, food, disposable diapers and other items.

Organizations like the Shriners, Kiwanis, VFW and others set up mobile cooking units to serve all manner of food. (Though I didn’t get much sleep I actually gained weight while I was down there. A state employee we met opened his house to us while we were there and his wife cooked supper for us.) Corporations sent groups of volunteers which you could identify by their uniforms, like UPS.

A couple of buildings on the campus were turned into a hospital. Volunteer mental health workers, priests and ministers sifted through the evacuees trying to identify those who were in need of counseling. A bank of telephones was established so evacuees could try to locate family members.

And a group of nurses aides wandered around giving elderly people people back rubs and massages.

After a week the students returned to Nicholls for fall classes and the emergency zone was swamped with volunteers so we decided to head back to Tennessee. There was such a surplus of supplies we carried a load of bottled water and personal hygiene items to a shelter in Hattiesburg in a cargo trailer we had towed.

The point I’m trying to make is that the media, and at least one California officials I’ve heard, are trying to compare the response to the wildfires and the response to Katrina.

Hurricane Katrina did not do that much damage to New Orleans. The real destruction was east of there. The levees broke under the storm surge and the city flooded. FEMA workers and equipment were staged at the stadium when the levees broke. They were ordered to move up onto the elevated interstate until it could be determined how high the waters would rise. Once the water rose they could not physically return so they were ordered to Thibodaux, Houma, Baton Rouge and other evacuee centers. The levees were the responsibility of the New Orleans Levee Board which spent its funding on things like building a casino.

The human and material response to Katrina was swift and overwhelming. I met volunteers from as far away as California. The Coast Guard alone rescued 4,800 people.

The response of the news media was a complete disgrace.