University of South Carolina Libraries
AMECOCK The University of South Carolina Friday, September 9, 2005 VoL 99, No. 14 • Since 1908 KATRINA’S AFTERMATH Ashleigh Quiet/TIIK (JAMKtKMIK A volunteer at (JSC’s Naval Reserve Center shelter plays with a child evacuated from New Orleans Tuesday. EVACUEES STREAM IN TO CAMPUS BUILDING Volunteers work around £ the clock to ready vacant building for victims Gma Uasselli FOR THE GAMECOCK Controlled chaos best describes the usually desolate Naval Reserve Building on the corner of Pickens and Blossom streets, as evacuees from areas struck hardest by Hurricane Katrina are provided medical care, shelter, food and clothing. “We’ve created a city here,” said Fred Monk, one of the center’s managers. At a Labor Day meeting, city — 4 officials, university officials and ^1 volunteers created four committees at the center: transportation, resources, locations and community support. Upon arrival, city buses take evacuees to the reserve, where they are registered with the Red Cross. Evacuees can then restart their lives. They can obtain a S.C. driver’s license or new Social Security card, or transfer money from their banks. City trolleys then transport evacuees to hotel rooms contracted by the city for at least 30 days to rest and establish themselves. Volunteers called “shepherds” guide each family through the process in jand out of the shelter. " “It’s a point of familiarity; at least one person in all this mess who knows that’s going on with them,” said shepherd Christine Smith. “These people have been through hell. We wanted to create an atmosphere of dignity and caring to allow them to move through this with the least amount of additional pain certer#2 INSIDE Viewpoints Aaron Brazier addresses the decline of male performance in the classroom; Valene Sims criticizes football fans for giving Steve Spurrier too much credit. 4 k Hurricane tests student journalists Staff of LSU’s The Daily Reveille faces task of reporting own disaster Stephen fastenau NEWS EDITOH BATON ROUGE, La. — Imagine trying to report on a tragedy you’re a part of, attempting to maintain an unbiased perspective on something that has separated you from friends and family, and, in some cases, taken everything you own. That is the scenario the staff of The Daily Reveille, LSU’s student newspaper, has been faced with since Katrina rocked the area Aug. 29. No one on the paper’s staff was left unaffected by the storm. For every story the paper has told in the past two weeks, its staffers have 10 of their own — from the editor-in-chief on down to the youngest contributing writer. Their campus virtually converted into one giant relief effort, The Reveille’s staff has been forced to abandon the stories that normally fill its pages and concentrate on the events that have thrust Baton Rouge and other cities in the area into the national spotlight. Despite class being cancelled last week, The Reveille was able to post updates every day at 2 p.m., keeping RCU£ILie«3 Katie Kirkland/TIIK CANIKCOCK The Daily Reveille’s chief writer Jeff Jeffrey conducts a telephone interview on Sunday afternoon in Baton Rouge. hB flBBHHBBHBBBHBBHB Mike Mahoney for! UY. (JAMKCOCK Victims of Hurricane Katrina float to safety on board a rescue boat Sunday in a poor New Orleans neighborhood. Just another American Volunteer rescue worker paints vivid picture of Katrinas horror Jess Dauis STAFF WRITER BATON ROUGE, La. — “Angel.” “Is that your name?” “No, you’re an angel.” The words came from the mouth of a woman near death. She was lying on the interstate, where she had been for hours, severely dehydrated and forsaken by thousands of cars that drove past her. Her rescuer, Mike Mahoney, a 27 year-old Baton Rouge resident, doesn’t work for FEMA or the government. He’s not a police officer or firefighter. He is only a man who felt compelled to help those suffering in New Orleans. Beginning Friday, Mahoney signed up with the fire department, got shots to try to prevent diseases and headed down to New Orleans. There, he found a man with a boat; they went into the city and began the arduous task of saving peoples’ lives. On the first day, he literally hacked through the roofs of about 50 houses, where he found a few living people and saw many more dead bodies floating in the water. At one house, he heard what he KnkBMmdltm liAMBOtili Mike Mahoney, who volunteered as a search-and-rescue worker, relaxes after a day trolling the flooded city. thought was a panic alarm going off. He went in the house, water up to his chest, searching for survivors. Inside he saw a refrigerator and a couch floating, but it turned out to be just a fire alarm. On their way home, a rope from the boat was loose, and when Mahoney got out to fix it he noticed the woman on the side of the interstate who called him her angel. He immediately started an IV and made her drink water, and finally she was revived and able to speak again. Her first question: “Can I have a cigarette?” She then spoke about the hopelessness that came over her as she watched her chance to live pass by with each car, knowing she would be dead if it were not for Mahoney,. Mahoney, trained as an EMT, is strongly devoted to this rescue effort. Listening to his stories, “hero” immediately flashes through ones mind, but when faced with that title, Mahoney is reluctant to accept. “That’s a big word to throw around,” he said with genuine modesty. Of the man whose boat he went out in, he said, “he’s just another man with a job to do as an American.” The second day Mahoney went to New Orleans, he saved the lives of 10 people, including a family of eight sitting on their rooftop. Some were unsure if they even wanted to be rescued. The people Mahoney met had heart-wrenching stories. The scenes of devastation he saw were gruesome. One dead body floating in the water was so bloated that when Mahoney, wearing protective gear, tried to turn the body over, the man’s face seemed separate from his head, he said. Another man, who mnHonev • 2 USC student organizations to aid storm relief efforts Groups meet to discuss what they can do to help Ian Chamberlain FOR THE GAMECOCK Members from USC student groups met Tuesday night in the Russell House Ballroom to discuss how USC will aid victims of Hurricane Katrina. “Tonight is a university-wide effort to help the victims of Katrina,” said Student Government President and fourth-year public relations student Justin Williams. “As Americans, as humans, we’ve decided here in South Carolina, specifically here at the University of South Carolina, to do what we can to help these individuals in need. We want this to be a university effort. “Not just student government, not just the Carolina Service Council, and not just your various organizations. We want this to be a university effort.” It is estimated that South Carolina will accommodate more than 18,000 Nick Esarrs/-\'\W. CAM HOICK Student Government President Justin Williams addresses student groups Tuesday night. Katrina evacuees. Some have already arrived, with USC’s law school having taken in 12 law students, said Renee Gibson, liaison between USC and the CfMlPUS (IID • 3 LSUstudent opens doors to displaced family Jess Davis STAFF WRITER BATON ROUGE, 1.3. — Sitting on a couch on the second floor of LSU’s student union Sunday afternoon, Carl Franzella, a 24-year-old from Mandeville, La., looks a bit lost, a bit bored and very tired. He, along with his parents, two younger siblings and his grandmother, spent the past few days living with his iister, an LSU graduate student, at her' condo in Baton Rouge. Franzella stayed at their home in Mandeville during Flurricane Katrina while the rest of his family was in Houston. Why not evacuate? Living through a hurricane was on his list of things to do. “I’ve always wanted to stay through a hurricane,” he said. “Just to experience it.” Though Hurricane Katrina didn’t hit Mandeville as hard as some of the www. dailygamecock. com other New Orleans suburbs, the chimney of his house was blown off by intense winds and a window was also blown out. Worried about looters, Franzella stayed at his home Tuesday, repairing the broken window as well as he could and packing up their most treasured possessions. On Monday and Tuesday, he had no electricity, air conditioning or running water. Temperatures were in the 90s > PfidllLV • 2 * IN MISSISSIPPI, A MICROCOSM OF GULF COAST About 1,000 evacuees crowd into a Hattiesburg convention center flllyson Bird and Justin Chapura FOR THE GAMECOCK HATTIESBURG, Miss. — At the Forrest County Multi-Purpose Center on Saturday, the lines of cars, the piles of clothes on the sidewalk and haggard families sleeping in cars indicate what unfolded here in the days after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. At least 1,000 evacuees have called the center home since the storm rolled through 11 days ago. Forrest County is a microcosm of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The old watched the young dart around the arena. Nurses and volunteers chatted with those who brought supplies. Cathy Clark of New Orleans and her sister have been at the center since the day of the storm. “I was going to stay (with my sister) in St. Bernard Parish, but I didn’t HRTTICSBURG • 3