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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 2005)
IJortlaub O bserver________________ Page A2 December 7. 2005 M ichelle Thomas and her daughters, A'Shanti and Maia in their rental house in Abita Springs, La. The family was displaced from New Orleans by Katrina. (AP photo) Holidays Stressful for Katrina Victims Thousands homeless months after disaster For three months after Hurricane K atrina’s waters consumed her home. Michelle Thomas locked her stress deep inside and put on a brave face for her husband and tw o daughters. She focused on the positive: Her Ninth W ard home was destroyed and her hospital job was gone, but her husband and children, ages 7 and 16, were alive and the family was together. Then came Thanksgiving, celebrated in her m other’s cramped home in a small Louisiana town. Since then, the family has moved into a modest rental house they owned in a com munity an hour from New Orleans. As Christm as approaches, the 36-year-old woman is feel ing anything but joyful. Like many survivors, Thomas has the blues. I go in to a fee lin g o f h o p e le ssn e ss, an d I c r y ,” she say s. T he ho lid ay season m ay m ake d ealin g w ith K atrin a’s fallout even tougher, m ental health e x perts say, especially when there are few doctors, cou n selo rs or hospitals to help people deal w ith the loss o f hom es, jo b s and lives. “It’s almost like a shotgun blast as opposed to a single bullet to social stability,” said Bryan Gros, a Baton Rouge psychologist who works for the Mental Health Association o f Louisiana. “People are having a hard tim e.” Thousands rem ain hom eless along the G u lf Coast, where the hurricane hit Aug. 29 and killed m ore than 1,300 people. It ripped apart families and com m uni ties, and wrecked businesses. About half a m illion people — both survivors and the em ergency w orkers who w ent to their aid — may need mental health services, the U.S. D epartm ent of Health and Human Services estim ates. Seven percent o f Louisiana residents have sought psychological counseling as a result o f the storm s, according to a survey by Louisiana State U niversity, and 53 percent reported feeling depressed. A K atrina crisis hot line in M ississippi got 1,100calls in its first two months, said Tessie Sm ith, spokesw om an for the state’s mental health departm ent. Before Katrina, the N ational Suicide Prevention hot line got an average o f about 3,000 calls a m onth from all over the country. Since the storm , monthly calls have more than doubled — 7,(XK) in O ctober alone — with most new calls com ing from Katrina- affected areas, said spokesw om an April Naturale. G ros said suicides have spiked in Baton Rouge, and New O rleans coroner Dr. Frank M inyard who review ed two suicide cases in one recent w eek fears more as the Christm as holiday nears. “We don’t have our m edical system here. It’s gone. T hat’s a big problem ,” M inyard said. “I think it’s going to end tragically for som e o f our citizens, not only here, but w ho are spread out all over the country.” Racism Blamed for Slow Aid white bird psu dance series N Z 0 Emotions flare as black survivors testify (AP) — Black survivors o f H ur ricane Katrina said Tuesday that racism contributed to the slow d i saster response, at times likening themselves in emotional congres sional testimony to victims of geno cide and the Holocaust. The com parison is inappropri ate, according to Rep. Jeff Miller, R- Fla. “N ot a single person was marched into a gas chamber and killed,” M iller told the survivors. “They died from abject neglect,” retorted com munity activist Leah Hodges. “We left body bags be hind.” Angry evacuees described being trapped in temporary shelters where one New Orleans resident said she was “one sunrise from being con sumed by maggots and flies." An other woman said military troops focused machine gun laser targets on her granddaughter’s forehead. Others said their famil ies were cal led racial epithets by police. “No one is going to tell me it w asn’t a race issue,” said New O r "D A Z Z L IN G ...B R IM S W ITH LIFE- A F F IR M IN G VITALITY" The N ew York Times Meet Alonzo King at Talking Drum Bookstore, Sat. Dec. 10"’, 1:00pm (446 NE Killingsworth) I white ______ J bird THURSDAY-SATURDAY DEC. 8-10, 8RM LINCOLN HALL, SCHOOL OF FINE & PERFORMING ARTS PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY TICKETS: $14 Students and Seniors. $25 Adult Service fee additional. PSU Bo« Office (inside Smith Center. 1825 SW Broadway), 503-725-3307 and tk k etm aster 503-790-2787 Information: 503 245.1600 ext 201 www.whltebird.org leans evacuee Patricia Thom pson, 53, who is now living in College Station, Texas. “Yes, it was an issue of race. Because o f one thing: when the city had pretty m uch been evacuated, the people that were left there mostly was black.” Not all lawm akers seemed per suaded. “I don’t want to be offensive when you’ve gone though such incred ible challenges,” said Rep. Christo- pherShays.R-Conn. But referring to some of the victims' charges, said “1 just don’t frankly believe it." “You believe w hat you w ant,” T hom pson said. The hearing was held by a spe cial H ouse com m ittee, chaired by Rep. Tom Davis, R -V a„ investigat ing the governm ent’s preparations and response to Katrina. It was r e q u e s te d b y R e p . C y n th ia M cKinney, D-Ga.. a m em ber o f the C ongressional Black Caucus. “Racism is som ething we d o n ’t like to talk about, but we have to acknow ledge it," M cKinney said. “A nd the world saw the effects o f American-sty le racism in the dram a as it was outplayed by the Katrina survivors.” Baghdad Police Academy Attacked m ize casualties, all o f whom were police officers or cadets. The first bom ber struck near a group o f students outside a classroom , a U.S. m ilitary statem ent said. U.S. and Iraqi officials have (A P)— Tw o suicide bomb w arned o f an increase in in ers detonated explosives in surgent attacks ahead o f the side Baghdad's main police Dec. 15 elections Residents academy Tuesday, killing at of Ramadi reported seeing fli least 43 people and wounding U. S. m ilitary personnel on alert after bomb ers Tuesday in the nam e o f al- more than 70, police said. Al- ers detonated explosives inside Baghdad s Q aida in Iraq w arning people Qaida in Iraq claim ed respon main police academy in Iraq. (AP photo) not to vote and threatening sibility for the attack, the to bom b polling stations. Late Tuesday, another suicide capital's deadliest in months. A lso Tuesday, the U.S. m ilitary The bombing came as Al-Jazeera bomber blew himself up in a cafe aired an insurgent video claiming frequented by police in aShiite neigh- saidasoldierassignedtoT a.sk Force to have kidnapped a U.S. security borhood. killing three people and Baghdad was killed w hen a patrol consultant - the seventh W esterner wounding 20. police said. One of the hit a roadside bom b Sunday. At abducted in Iraq since Nov. 26 - and dead and three of the wounded were least 2,129 members of the U.S. mili tary have died since the Iraq war the U.S. military reported another policemen, officials said. The assault on the police acad started in M arch 2003. according to American soldier killed in a road emy was carefully planned to maxi- an A ssociated Press count. side bombing in Baghdad. New round of kidnappings feared ___ New O rleans' resident Leah Hodges cries while telling Congress that Katrina victim s “died from abject n e g le c t." (AP photo) SPONSOREO BY WILLAMETTE WEEK 1