After the hurricane:
Helping the forgotten places



NEW SCOTLAND — Folks in this still rural town of 8,500 have pitched in to help a similar town just 50 miles north of New Orleans.

Mike Malark, a long-time New Scotland Kiwanian led a truck full of donated goods to a town known for it’s strawberry festival and a downtown center of antique shops — Ponchatoula, population 7,500.

Malark’s contact in this Louisiana town was a Ponchatoula Kiwanian, Mike Bermer, a retired captain from the Sheriff’s department.
Both men praised the efforts of individuals for "pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps" and helping others in the community recover from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

Once the trucked goods, were unloaded in a Ponchatoula warehouse, Bermer said the extra would be distributed to the outlying areas.
A lot of the relief supplies are being sent to the town of Franklinton, about 60 miles away from Ponchatoula, "They were hit really hard," Bermer said.

Another area in desperate need is Washington Parish, Bermer said.

Parishes in Louisiana are like counties in New York. Ponchatoula is part of Tangipahoa Parish which neighbors Washington Parish to the west.

There has been so much attention focused on New Orleans, but these are the little forgotten places, Bermer told The Enterprise by phone on Wednesday.
"Very poor, hard-working people, who work really close to the land," he said. And when a hurricane comes through and destroys the land, these people are left with nothing, he said.

Timber and farming are the main sources of income down here, he said. Seventy-five percent of the timber industry was lost in Washington Parish, Bermer said.

The electricity is still out in Washington, Bermer said, and dairymen, still have to continue to milk their cows, but there are no machines to pump and no way to store the milk, and no way to ship it out, so they are just pouring it into the ditches, Bermer said.

For Malark, just back home in Voorheesville, the memories are still vivid as he talks passionately about his experience.
"There is huge devastation...We didn’t go to New Orleans, we didn’t have to," Malark told The Enterprise Wednesday morning; he had just returned late in the middle of the night.
"The hurricane took the whole town by surprise," Bermer said of Ponchatoula.
"We have never been hit this hard before," the hurricanes that everyone always used to talk about were the ones of 1965 and 1969 — Besty was a Category 4, Bermer said.
Ponchatoula didn’t have flooding problems like New Orleans did but it was hit by a Category 5 hurricane, Malark said. "The wind was just as devastating...There were thousands and thousands of trees down...damage to buildings...power lines down...pine trees were snapped in half... hardwood trees ripped out of the ground," said Malark.
"We were just not ready," Bermer said, "Katrina took the roofs off on Main Street...and thousands and thousands of trees snapped like twigs."
"There is just so much devastation," Malark said. One brand-new housing development with 400 homes is completely gone, totally dead, he said; all that’s left is sticks or concrete slabs.

One man told Malark that he wouldn’t have been able to identify where his house used to stand, except that he had just remodeled his bathroom and the new floor tiles remained.

The whole parish was without electricity. There are six major towns within Tangipahoa Parish, with a total of 125,000 people, Bermer said.

Ponchatoula just got its power back on, Malark said, so now it is serving as a distribution center for getting food out to all the outlying areas, Malark said.
"Most of the people aren’t in New Orleans anymore," he said, but have been relocated.
Malark is concerned about all the New Orleans families that were uprooted and shipped to Oklahoma. "What are they going to do in the winter"" Malark asked; he said he knows they aren’t prepared.

Malark is the lead organizer for Kiwanis International’s New York State Katrina relief efforts. He made contact with a local Ponchatoula Kiwanis group, to transfer the food.
"The Kiwanis have one of the best networks in the world," he said.

Malark left New Scotland last Thursday, September 15th, with a tractor-trailer truck one-third full of food, New Scotland Kiwanis member Dick Ramsey reported on Friday.

Then Malark drove to Long Island, Staten Island, and New York City to pick up more boxes, Ramsey said.

Malark said he is making a second trip down to Ponchatoula next Thursday, Sept. 29th.
"I’m willing to stop in New Jersey, or Tennessee," he said, if more Kiwanis groups want to join this project, and hand over packed boxes of food.
The Kiwanis club is not excepting clothing anymore. What the people in Louisiana need now is food — canned meats, tuna, canned beans, pasta, rice, "rice is big down there in the south," Malark said.

What is also needed, Bermer said, are diapers and baby formula, because there is more of a need for that than was first anticipated.

Bermer said he appreciates the way Malark and all the people across New York have pulled together to help out.

Ponchatoula’s newspaper just started printing again three days ago, Bermer said, and one of its main articles was about the relief effort coming from New York.

Working together

When Malark arrived in Ponchatoula he was met by Bermer who escorted Malark into town, but not for safety reasons, for direction.

Malark said that he never felt unsafe at any point.
What he saw was "people out there cleaning up the debris," picking up on their own, and pulling themselves back up by their own boot straps, Malark said.
"People were taking care of each other...working side by side...people helping people," Malark said.

It took only five hours for the New York Kiwanis truck to be unloaded, he said.
Local volunteer groups helped at the distribution warehouse — Ponchatoula Kiwanis club members, Key Clubbers, college students, members of Christian organizations. Although they "have enough reasons to be aggravated...they were all smiling as they were unloading the truck," Malark said.
In the warehouse, it was over 100 degrees. Malark was sweating so much, he said, "I could wring my shirt and pants out." It was 90 degrees outside but, with humidity, it felt like 110, he said. "Everyone did what they had to" all the while remaining "very Kiwanian — very friendly," Malark said.

A man on crutches was doing what he could and people in their 80’s were taping up boxes, he said.

When the electricity was out after the Hurricane, Malark was told that people who had generators were taking in food for other families, to refrigerate it, and everyone was cooking out on Barbecue grills, sharing what they had.

When Malark arrived in Louisiana, it had only been three weeks since the storm hit and one man, whose roof had completely blown off, had already built a brand-new roof with the help of the community, Malark said.
"They got off their butts and are doing it themselves;" the people of Ponchatoula are not waiting around for FEMA, Malark said, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

They are cutting up the trees, re-covering houses, replacing roofs and most of the businesses have re-opened said Malark.
"That’s what they did and they did a great job," Malark said.

If right now, you drive through Ponchatoula, it appears as though it was never hit with a hurricane, Bermer said. But, in reality, about one out of every six houses had damage, Bermer said.
"Forty percent of the people around here are contractors or builders," Bermer said. The morning after the hurricane, everyone was out cleaning up. All residents had to do was put their debris out by the side of the road and it would be picked up, he said of the efficiency of his community.

Everything has been repaired, so now those contractors and builders are reaching out to other neighboring towns, Bermer said.

Bermer explained how New York donated goods will be moved from the Ponchatoula warehouse outward. He is a member of the First Baptist Church in Ponchatoula and his Baptist church has made contact with other Baptist churches throughout the other parishes for further drop-off and distribution spots.

Resettling

After Malark’s truck was unloaded, and the work was done, he toured around to see what the devastation was like, traveling in a 70-mile circle.
"There were some areas where you saw very little damage, and then, for a quarter of a mile, total devastation; for another 150 yards it looked okay, and then devastation again," Malark said.

He only traveled on the main roads because the secondary roads were still closed off since trees and power-lines were still down.

He saw tent cities, Malark said.

Four families from New Orleans bought one home in Ponchatoula to share, so that their children could continue with school, Malark said. He added he didn’t know how they paid for it, but it shows that the people who can afford to get houses are starting to resettle.
Driving back to New York in the daylight, for a good 140 miles there was devastation "all over," he said. "It’s in states on both sides...It’s amazing how far it goes both west and north."

Malark met a team of truckers at a rest stop who were from New Orleans. They told Malark that their houses were totally gone; they got their families out and have no intentions of ever going back. They don’t want to raise their children in such a politically incompetent and corrupt place, Malark relayed.

Malark said he too blames the New Orleans mayor, and the state governor for not doing what he thinks they should have been doing — mobilizing an evacuation procedure from the start.
"I think New Orleans is a product of poor leadership," Malark said. "FEMA is not a first-response team"; it’s not meant to be, he said.

He thinks that there is a gap between the disaster-relief mechanisms in the country and that the nation needs a first-reaction group.
"If I was down there with my family, I would walk 20,000 miles to get them out of that town," Malark said.

Malark said he heard everywhere he went concerns about where all the displaced citizens of New Orleans are going to go.
The parishes outside of New Orleans are suburban, Malark explained. Many people who live in the suburbs do so to avoid the crime of a city, and now there are concerns about where all the displaced city dwellers will go, Malark said. Many people he spoke with are concerned about the "criminal element" being brought into their communities, Malark said.

He also added that, if the refugees were to flood into Ponchatoula hungry, the local people would most certainly feed them and help them out, but they do not have the facilities to put them up.

A number of the New Orleans evacuees have moved to Ponchatoula; Bermer did not share this mentality that Malark perceived from others.
"There have been no circumstances at all to warrant concern," Bermer said.
"We have put 740 new children into the public schools," Bermer said. "Traffic is jammed up for us, but spirits are really high...We are welcoming them with open arms... There is no gouging going on," Bermer said.

And the newcomers are rolling up there sleeves and helping out the community as well, Bermer said. Most are planning on staying, he added.
The talk around town is that it’s a shame that a national disaster had to happen in order for the people of Louisiana to feel united, Bermer said. The mentality used to be, "The people of New Orleans are one type of people — North Shore people are different than us... but since the hurricane, it’s not like that; everyone’s just pulling together," Bermer said.
When asked what was the overall feeling of the people in Ponchatoula, Malark said that he didn’t see frustration as one might expect. "No, I didn’t see frustration," Malark said. "I did not see people giving up, but instead people working with neighbors."
For the first two weeks, Bermer said, everyone was really pumped up and go go go. "Everyone is exhausted right now," he said. And, just as they have finally begun to breathe a sigh of relief, he is seeing fear emerge in people because there is another hurricane brewing in the gulf — Rita.
"We don’t need to be hit again right now," said Bermer.
Evacuation signs were being posted again on Wednesday, closer to New Orleans, he said. "There is a lot of concern about another hurricane," Bermer said. People don’t think they can handle another one right now, he said. "We are all just doing a lot of praying."