Posted: Saturday, September 3 at 09:45 pm CT by msnbc
VIDEO: Reshinda Bradley of Hattiesburg, Miss. and Tacara Scott of New Orleans, both 17, tell their stories of fleeing Katrina Saturday at the Forrest County Multipurpose Building, home to roughly 1,100 refugees. (Andrew Locke / MSNBC.com)
Posted: Saturday, September 3 at 08:00 pm CT by Mike Brunker
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Relief workers, who have been advising Katrina’s outcasts to stay put at evacuation centers until workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency arrived to start the disaster assistance process, were biting their tongues on Saturday after the feds paid a call that can only be described as perfunctory.
Red Cross officials at the shelter at the Forrest County Multipurpose Building, home to approximately 1,100 refugees from the storm, declined to comment on the visit other than to confirm that FEMA officials had put in an appearance.
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Posted: Saturday, September 3 at 07:58 pm CT by Mike Brunker
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- An independent trucker with a heart of gold is willing to take a week or more off from his paying gigs to ferry supplies to hurricane-ravaged areas that need them. Just one problem: No one can tell him where such a bottleneck might exist.
John Kretschmer, who already has delivered a truckload of supplies from Raleigh, N.C., to Hattiesburg, figures that there must be supplies in need of transportation much closer in. That would allow him to make three or four roundtrips in the time that he could make another journey to Raleigh and back.
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Posted: Saturday, September 3 at 07:46 pm CT by Mike Brunker
An invaluable resource for those of you looking for a friend or relative in Mississippi is available online at Gulfcoastnews.com
Posted: Saturday, September 3 at 06:56 pm CT by msnbc
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- A steady stream of local residents delivered supplies to the Red Cross shelter in Hattiesburg, Miss., on Saturday.
By later afternoon there was a large pile of food, water, clothing, and children’s toys stacked outside, though caring for the estimated 1,500 evacuees at the shelter remains an enormous challenge. (Andrew Locke / MSNBC.com)
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Posted: Saturday, September 3 at 06:43 pm CT by Mike Brunker
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Big excitement rippled through the shelter this afternoon when the first representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency paid a visit to the shelter.
They only stayed long enough to hold a quick meeting and distribute fliers giving the phone number and instructions for people who have suffered property loss to call –- (800) 621-3362 -- but their long-anticipated arrival was nevertheless a shot in the arm for Katrina outcasts who have been reluctant to leave out of fear that it could mess up the paper trail and potentially cause problems in receiving compensation for their losses later on. Watch for an update on this situation soon.
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Posted: Saturday, September 3 at 06:40 pm CT by Mike Brunker
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- In what could be an indication that life is slowly creeping toward normal, the well-being of kids is a growing concern in the shelter.
There are more than 100 children among the roughly 1,100 evacuees waiting in this metal-topped arena, and they have been getting much more attention over the last few days than they did early in the week.
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Posted: Saturday, September 3 at 06:21 pm CT by msnbc
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Amid the misery and destruction are moments of renewal and hope in the Katrina-ravaged communities up-country from Mississippi's Gulf Coast. For others, plenty of fear and uncertainty remains.
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Posted: Saturday, September 3 at 02:14 pm CT by msnbc
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Aside from the necessities of life, the most precious commodity for many refugees at the Red Cross shelter in Hattiesburg , Miss., is communication with loved ones.
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Posted: Saturday, September 3 at 02:05 pm CT by Mike Brunker
HATTIESBURG, Miss. –- As I mentioned during an interview aired on MSNBC-TV this morning, the item most needed at the Red Cross shelter here is bedding –- be it cots, mattresses or foam pads.
Clothing and personal items such as toiletries, scarce earlier in the week, are now arriving by the truckload and much of the arriving donations are being redirected to other shelters in Hattiesburg and points beyond.
If you want to help, MSNBC.com has plenty of links at this URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9115520/
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