Dear friends ;

 

First I want to thank everyone of you who have contacted me privately and offered me and my family assistance .You do not know how good that makes me feel about the commitment  ,love and dedication of such a circles of friends .Thank you and Bless you

We  survived, many others did not  

 

I just got my electricity back on ,and its a blessing to operate out of the house again .

Mary just had her bath and is going over her school lesson for tomorrow , difficult to comprehend that there are maybe thousands of children tonight that does not have that luxury let alone a School to go to .

 

My front yard looks like a scene from the first war, that's ok ..at least I have a front yard and a porch to view it from ...

My family ,grandparents kids and most of my neighbors are intact .The horses and dogs are ok too .

I jammed my wrist at the height of the storm and bruised a tendon in the heel of my hand so I am unable to leave with some of the men from my village who are part of a rescue effort.

I witnessed 911 directly from the top of the Pan Am building in NYC and was part of the relief effort there bringing equipment down to ground zero .

This is the same , only  greater in many ways  as the amount of homeless and  the loss of entire city of New Orleans is key elements in the devastation here         

 as far as I know the humanitarian response has been overwhelming , oddly enough some of the reception centers have called for a slow down of goods . I think there is still a great need for air mattresses and things like underwear and toiletries .

Cash ,personal cash is something many do not have having escaped with only the clothes on their back .....tomorrow I will post an address where the local shelter here is that have 50 family's (mostly women and children)..a donation there will go directly to the food and the victims themselves .

Sending money gets everyone nervous but I can personally vouch for this site and these family's .

Lessons learned : Do not take energy for granite ..plan a back up system of alternative sources . Solar , alternative fuels , be able to sustain yourself off the grid  Good Water very important

Do not rely on Government to put a roof over your head ,have a plan where you can go for a couple of weeks if not a month ,when your sitting somewhere with only the clothes on your back ...it makes a heck of a lot of sense

diversify your alternatives as to where you would go if something similar happened where you are .,

New York did not deteriorate after 911 because the disaster happened in downtown NYC one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in America.

Had the world trade center been in Bed Sty or Harlem the situation would have been very different  

New Orleans is surrounded by one of the largest Ghettos of sub standard and government housing projects in America , when it flooded  it unleashed a population of poor people who were  thankful to have a roof over their head let alone a decent job.Now they have none

 

I now  have to go to read my baby a bed time story, a luxury i think I will savor a long time

Love, Thanks and blessings  Michael