October 17, 2005

Dear friends:

Thanks again for your continuing support of LEAN, as we reach out to help some of the many folks affected by the twin hurricanes that hit us in August and September. We hope you are praying with us that October won't bring another.

We've been busy for a slew of long days and nights, and I apologize for not getting more news posted over the past few weeks. But we've been hustling around the clock, and we've got some good things to report!

Through this all, we have continued as an environmental advocate and watchdog for the state. In mid-September we conducted chemical sampling in St.Bernard and Orleans Parishes, and found contamination levels for some known cancer causing agents far exceeding federal limits. Arsenic levels were 75 times the permitted levels in certain places, while lead levels in the lower 9th ward where more than 13 times the community standard.  The Advocate ran a story on the issue on October 7th. We are releasing this information so that displaced people are well-informed and protected as they return to their homes, and that the cleanup is not put on the back burner by the government and industry.

Through October, we have also continued our new role of providing relief through our networks to those in need in the affected areas. On October 4th, with the support of Oxfam, we sent 100 kits of protective equipment to Lafitte and Erath, for families returning to fix up their homes. That delivery was the beginning of a larger-scaled effort which is still gearing up, which I thought you might want to hear about.

On Thursday of last week, the LEAN family sent down 1,000 bottles of high grade bleach to Mayor Tim Kerner in Lafitte, which was badly hit by Rita's storm surge. The Mayor will distribute the bleach to families in the area who are trying to clean up the homes that are salvageable, and try to make them livable again. We will follow that up with 1,000 "Re-entry Protection Kits" that we are taking down on Wednesday. The kits will contain protective clothing and eyewear, gloves, biohazard bags, and particulate respirators, as well as more bleach, and hopefully, if we can find them in time, buckets and detergents. Another 1,000 kits will go to the Ninth Ward of New Orleans and Esther, in Vermillion Parish, for distribution. We thank Oxfam and many individual donors in helping with this effort, and Labsource of Willowbrook, IL, for providing many items below retail value. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, recognizing the importance of keeping people safe during the re-entry phase of the crisis, have given this effort their full endorsement.

With the kits, we will also distribute flyers sent to us from the Environmental Health Sciences Center of Wayne State University, alerting folks to the hazards of Arsenic, Lead, Mold that are present in the hurricane area, and steps they can take to protect themselves during cleanup.

Also last week, we were contacted by locals in Vermillion Parish who reported that many small farmers were not able to obtain feed from the major local distribution channels for those horses and cows they were able to rescue. Many of the farmers depend on these animals as a main source of their livelihood. Some had suffered staggering losses, losing most of their herds, their homes, their ranges, or both. With the help of cash donations we received, we bought medicines for sick cows, and feed for about 18 farmers to get them through the next week. We plan on going back again next week to bring another load.

Many small farmers reported being turned away from the main donations center in Abbeville. Making sure that low and middle-income folks are part of the decision-making process will be an important part of the recovery, and so we want to be part of the effort to do what we can to advocate on their behalf. During our run to Vermillion Parish, LEAN staffer Paul was interviewed by KLFY - Channel 10 in Lafayette, and explained what LEAN was doing to help these farmers. The story aired last night.

It's hard to imagine how some of the folks we met could display the grace that they did, after all they had been through. One farmer couple we met in Esther spent 7 hours during Rita atop a tractor, watching their house get torn apart and their fields ruined by the salt water surge. As we dropped off bags of feed in front of their ruined home and fields, they told us to be careful not to drop off too much, since there were folks worse off than they were.

Today, through a member of our network who helped us with the feed distribution, LEAN got diapers, baby food, feminine products and canned goods we had collected to St. Theresa's Family Life Center in Abbeville.

With your help, we will go back to Plaquemines Parish, and Vermillion Parish, and New Orleans, bringing whatever we can afford, find and transport to help folks out. There will be a lot of need, for a long, long time, in these areas. Please keep giving, and sending volunteers our way. We are surprised and grateful that Time Magazine recognized our efforts in their September 11th issue of the magazine by listing us as an organization to which you could donate.

Please, please let us know if you are in the area and want to help - chances are, we need a load delivered or a truck loaded.

I don't know how closely you all have been following the situation in Louisiana, but I'm sure you know that relief has not reached everyone down here, not by a long shot. To be clear, the whole area is reeling, rich and poor alike; whatever assistance most people are getting, it won't begin to cover their losses. But we are trying to identify specifically those folks who are falling through the cracks of the official aid channels.

You might know that Louisiana along with Mississippi, have the worst poverty and inequality rates in the country. If there can be any good growing out of these disasters, it will be making sure that our states come back better than they were before. To do that, we need help in the parishes, in Baton Rouge, and in Washington, DC, to put forward the policies that will reduce inequality and poverty. On October 29th, a coalition of labor, community, and civil rights groups is holding a rally in Baton Rouge to focus attention on job training and placement, fair wages, and adequate housing for Louisiana workers. We ask you to support these efforts. Folks across the country, please help us on the national level to make the changes we need. We can't necessarily control Mother Nature, but we can certainly take the steps that society needs to take to defeat unnecessary poverty and the problems it exacerbates - enough is enough.

Warm Regards,

Marylee Orr
Executive Director
Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN)