1. With all the news coverage concentrating on the same stories (looting, lawlessness, rescue efforts), I'd like to give some information that I'm sure folks have been wanting to hear. In many, many states relief efforts are under way. Power crews are being sent. Military is being sent. Relief organizations are asking for blood or money. Supplies are being gathered. Rescue crews are being put together to go south and help out. They don't necessarily make the news nationally or locally, but they're going from nearly every state.
2. People left the area of direct landfall. Those folks are alive. That doesn't make them any less homeless than those that couldn't leave. Doesn't make them any less poor or any more poor. They got out. Others didn't. And they all lost. Many lost everything. The scope of it all is that for the people you see on TV, struggling to survive in hell, there are tons more who lost just as much and haven't been allowed back yet. The toll is immense. It's far greater than a TV camera can show.
3. There are churches, hospitals, hotels, places of business that are doing wonderful things along the evacuation route. People drove until they could drive no more, until they ran out of gas. Yes, some had the cars to get out, but not necessarily the money handy right then to ensure they could keep going. So people have been taking care of them wherever they stopped. Applaud those folks that aren't price gouging, aren't taking advantage of a horrific situation and are just doing what they can to help a few at a time.
4. This is a damn nasty disaster. There are man-made disasters and natural disasters. Man-made is harder to understand, because how can people have hate enough to cause death and destruction? Natural disasters are easier to shrug off, because we have no control. But just because people had warning to get out doesn't lessen the impact. While I can understand that other countries don't get why this should be so important as to make their news (natural disasters of great scale happen in every country, rich or poor), Americans should care. These are *our* people. These people are of our blood, even if we aren't related. They are our brethren. Love them. Take care of them. Help them. Help is not necessarily money or goods, time or blood. It can be as simple as saying a prayer to your diety of choice, sending out good thoughts into the universe, giving a hug to someone who's relative/friend was in the hurricane zone. We don't expect other countries to share our burden on something like this, but death is death, and it's hard. A disaster is a disaster, and somehow trying to strengthen or lessen the toll of this one by comparing it to the tsunami is not fair. We're a richer country, but it takes more than a rich country to repair broken homes, broken families, broken people. To think that a check is going to fix all this is erroneous. Federal money only goes so far. People are STILL recovering from Andrew. This already has the markings of being financially more than Andrew. And that doesn't cover the recovery of soul, spirit.
***
All in all, I've seen many discussions on LJ about the disaster. The media, as always, starts out well, and then some start going into sensationalistic journalism. What needs to be remembered is that it's easy to sit back and look at the big tragedy and judge or see the flaws or make rationalizations for behavior. It's another to remember that these are people with finite possessions and limited resources who aren't thinking big picture - people that are just trying to stay alive.
Give in any little way that you can (knowing that not everyone can give in the same way), because each little equals a whole lot. One can of beans, one bottle of water, one pint of blood, one word of encouragement...they mean the world to someone who doesn't have those things.
Also, hurricanes have been happening for centuries. Natural disaster of all kinds have been happening for centuries. While all of the hubbabaloo has been going on, with media reports and looting and prison uprisings (never mind that I have issues with knowingly keeping men in an area knowing it could flood, just because they're prisoners - there's a certain signing of death warrants there that shouldn't be, although an uprising isn't the answer), the people who've been this before themselves, dealt with the aftermath, they're all mobilizing. They don't care about the politics, they care about helping.
ETA: Because we just got to talking about this. Looting a TV is one thing. That's so far into being a crime it's not funny. But please, looting food and diapers? Even clothing can be understood. Snarking on someone for stealing beer...think about this. You've trekked miles through hell, waist deep in water that is full of sewage and gasoline. You come across a store with goods. You're hungry. You're weak. You don't know at what time in the future you may get help of any form. You grab a loaf of bread and the only liquid on the shelves (because all the water is the first thing to be looted) - a soda or a beer. It's liquid. It can sustain in some way. I hate beer, but if it's that or nothing? I'm gonna take the beer.
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