Bush cabinet official meets with evacuees
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A UMNS photo by Ronny Perry
Evacuee Elizabeth Kelly shakes hands with Norman Y. Mineta, secretary of the Department of Transportation.
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| Elizabeth
Kelly, a resident of New Orleans, shakes hands with Norman Y. Mineta,
secretary of the Department of Transportation at a Red Cross shelter in
Franklin, Tenn. Kelly escaped the flood waters in Louisiana with her
three sisters and a cousin. Mineta visited the shelter Sept. 16 as part
of the National Day of Prayer for Hurricane Katrina survivors. A UMNS
photo by Ronny Perry. UMNS photo #05H097. Accompanies UMNS story #516.
9/19/05 |
Sept. 19, 2005 By Kathy L. Gilbert* FRANKLIN,
Tenn. (UMNS)—Elizabeth Kelly had no idea where she was going when she
boarded a plane and left her flood-soaked home in New Orleans. She
was 33,000 feet in the air before the pilot announced they were heading
for Tennessee, Kelly said. Now home for Kelly and 179 other
transplanted New Orleans residents is a warehouse-turned-Red Cross
shelter in Franklin. On Sept. 16 — the day President George W.
Bush proclaimed as a national day of prayer for survivors of Hurricane
Katrina — Norman Y. Mineta, secretary of the U.S. Department of
Transportation, visited the shelter and expressed support to the
survivors and appreciation to the volunteers. Mineta is a United Methodist layman who has served in Congress and was secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Upon
meeting Kelly, Mineta shook her hand. “Bless your heart for all you
have gone through,” he told her. “Thanks for your patience.” “These
people in Tennessee have taken good care of me,” she said. Kelly
escaped from her uptown New Orleans home with her three sisters and a
cousin. She is anxious to get back home and is worried about the pets
she had to leave behind.
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A UMNS photo by Ronny Perry
Earl Heider, a longtime resident of New Orleans, is now living in a Red Cross shelter in Franklin, Tenn.
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| Earl
Heider, a longtime resident of New Orleans, is now living in a Red
Cross shelter in Franklin, Tenn. Heider spent several days in a tent on a
highway overpass before he was rescued. The trip to Tennessee was the
first time the 78-year-old had ever been on "a big jet." Norman Y.
Mineta, secretary of the Department of Transportation, visited the Red
Cross shelter in Franklin, Tenn., Sept. 16 as part of the National Day
of Prayer for Hurricane Katrina survivors. A UMNS photo by Ronny Perry.
UMNS photo #05H100. Accompanies UMNS story #516. 9/19/05 |
Earl Heider is also anxious to return home. He moved to New Orleans in
1933 and can’t wait to get back. “I am going to spend the rest of my
life there,” he said. “They got another storm, I’m still going to spend
the rest of my life there.”Heider spent several days in a tent on a highway overpass before he was rescued. “We
had no water, no electricity, no telephone, and you know where all the
waste went from humans and animals? Right into that water. That went on
for seven or eight days.” The trip to Tennessee was the first time the 78-year-old had ever been on “a big jet.” “That thing (the jet) just took off and come over here so easy with all those people and all the luggage.” Mineta listened to stories like Heider’s and shared lunch with the evacuees before addressing reporters. “The
president has always indicated all of us owe a great deal to each
other,” Mineta said. “We should be able to help people through prayer.”
Bush, like Mineta, is a United Methodist. “Something from my basic
faith says you have to respond to people,” said Mineta, a member of
Wesley United Methodist Church in San Jose, Calif. “It is based on
having been a United Methodist since I was a kid going to Sunday school
right up to chairing the pastoral relations committee.”
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A UMNS photo by Ronny Perry
Maggie
Throckmorton shows Norman Y. Mineta, left, and Franklin, Tenn., Mayor
Tom Miller a supply kit for evacuees from New Orleans in the commissary
at the Red Cross shelter.
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| Maggie
Throckmorton, director of Marketing and Special Projects for the
Williamson County Chapter of the American Red Cross, shows Norman Y.
Mineta, secretary of the Department of Transportation, left, and
Franklin, Tenn., Mayor Tom Miller, a supply kit for evacuees from New
Orleans in the commissary at the Red Cross shelter. Mineta visited the
shelter Sept. 16 as part of the National Day of Prayer for Hurricane
Katrina survivors. A UMNS photo by Ronny Perry. UMNS photo #05H098.
Accompanies UMNS story #516. 9/19/05 |
Mineta said his home church took up an offering Sept. 11 for hurricane relief.The
Department of Transportation is working hard to get “all modes of
transportation back up and running in Louisiana and Mississippi,” he
said. That rebuilding will probably cost more than $3 billion, but repairs also are needed in Florida and Alabama, he said. “The
question now is how do you deal with a swath 80 to 100 miles wide of
total destruction in Mississippi,” he said. “Louisiana wasn’t blown
away, but there is a lot of water damage. A lot of cultural history has
been destroyed.” As he walked through the shelter he commented, “It is the beauty of the American people; they respond, and we will rebuild.” Donations to support the United Methodist response to Hurricane Katrina can be made online at www.methodistrelief.org
and by phone at (800) 554-8583. Checks can be written to UMCOR,
designated for “Hurricanes 2005 Global,” Advance No. 982523, and left in
church offering plates or mailed directly to UMCOR, P.O. Box 9068, New
York, NY 10087-9068. *Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn. News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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