Communications Specialist Adele Stan, together with the M.O.R.E. team of Issues Mobilization Specialist Brendan Danaher, and Health & Safety Specialist Milly Rodriguez, were sent to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in mid-September to assess the needs of AFGE members--those affected by Hurricane Katrina, and those deployed in the disaster relief efforts. These are their blog entries.


One foot in front of the other

 

photo by Adele M. Stan for AFGE
Milly Rodriguez, Andrew Brumsey and Brendan Danaher.

BATON ROUGE, LA--Brendan, Milly and I entered a giant Red Cross staging area in the care of AFGE National Representative Andrew Brumsey, who is himself an evacuee from New Orleans. He and his wife are now lodged in Baton Rouge hotel.

Andrew spends his days tracking down AFGE members who have been affected--some devastated--by the storm.

He’s assembled a long, handwritten list of AFGE members he’s located, and is trying to get a handle on who else is out there.

In Gulfport, Miss., Andrew tells us, the AFGE Local at the Naval Navy National Space Technology La. (NSTL) Station in has been decimated. Thirty percent of the local’s members are homeless, and just yesterday, he learned of a member who had drowned in the flooding along with his two-year-old son.

Andrew’s home is still standing--but just barely. It’s not liveable. So, in the meantime, he just keeps putting one foot in front of the other, searching for members who have yet to be located.