www.rainbowpush.org

Rescue - Relief - Relocation - Reunification - Reconstruction
A Community Response to Hurricane Katrina
September 7, 2005

In the midst of the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina, we are focusing on
Rescue – Relief – Relocation – Reunification and Reconstruction
of homes, communities, and families. The Bush administration, Homeland Security and FEMA have utterly failed to fulfill their duty in this crisis.

1. People displaced by the Hurricane should be not disrespectfully characterized as “refugees� – as if they are fleeing to or from another land. We are U.S. citizens and deserve to be treated as such. This is our land; it is our families, friends, schools and churches, and homes affected – and our government must be responsible and accountable to us.

2. We need a Hurricane Victims Fund to provide resources to the affected people and families, based on the same compensation and assistance formula of the 9/11 Victims Fund.

3. We need a freeze on mortgage payments and a moratorium on mortgage foreclosure proceedings, amnesty from electrical, utility and telecommunications payments, and a freeze on implementation of the new bankruptcy law.

4. We need our people and families to be relocated to NEARBY facilities. Available military bases, state and national parks and other available public lands should be utilized to house people as CLOSE TO their former communities as possible.

5. Our businesses, community resources and people should be given priority in the allocation of jobs and contracts and services provided for the rescue, relief and reconstruction of our communities.

6. We need a systematic effort to reunify families, many of whom are being separated and sent to different relocation destinations. In some cases, the rescue/relocation effort is creating even greater dislocation.

7. We demand an INDEPENDENT Commission to critique the government’s response to this crisis. This Commission should include African American leadership at all levels, to ensure that the people affected are directly affected in the process of critique and the recommendations for future development.

8. We need counselors, social service workers, medical personnel and security resources in the emerging relocation centers to assist people and families with FEMA registration, unemployment and social security applications and other aspects of the transition ordeal.

9. We need to ensure direct African American participation in all dimensions of the reconstruction plan that emerges from the crisis.

10. We need to identify the locations of the relief centers being established by the Red Cross and other agencies; and how and where relief supplies and resources can be distributed.