The graphic pictures of the Hurricane Katrina survivors, that inundated our television air waves, touch the compassionate nerve of our Sisterhood. This compassion penetrated the sorors in the Metropolitan Presidents Council and each chapter was assigned a hotel were the survivors were residing. Suffolk County Alumnae and Queens Alumnae chapters were assigned to the Radisson, Ramada and the Holiday Inn in Queens. We visited the hotels, talked to the survivors and made a list of their needs. Several days later we returned with boxes of clothes, bottles of lotions, eye glasses, Metro cards, telephone cards and money for the Laundromat.

We supported the Gulf Coast Away Team, that left monthly for the Gulf Coast region with a truck loaded with supplies. The supplies began with clothing donations that quickly changed, as the word spread of contaminated waters, mold and hepatitis. The trucks were immediately loaded with bottled water, bleach, food supplies, linens, rubber gloves and workers to relieve tired, over worked volunteers.
On the home front, the survivor’s needs were changing as the Red Cross and FEMA vacillated their financial support with rhetoric of inconsistencies. The survivors were unemployed, money was scarce and their anxiety level was increasing. The hotel management was only interested in payment for services rendered, and soon, weekly eviction notices started haunting the survivors. Suffolk County Alumnae Chapter joined the Katrina Relief Coalition to help “Meet the Needs” of the survivors. This group held a rally in New York at City Hall to inform Mayor Blumberg and the public that Katrina and Gulf Coast survivors were in jeopardy of being homeless or becoming residents in city shelter. We went to Washington, D.C. to lobby for more assistance and aid. Senator Hillary Clinton was outraged and offered her support. She offered her support and promised that no survivor would be evicted from any hotel in New York, and that every effort would be made to fine appropriate housing for each family. The Coalition returned to New York with new inspiration and began contacting realtors and private citizens for available housing and apartments. As realtors responded with available rentals, FEMA created a new form for survivors to complete. This delayed the process and FEMA was often late with the security and rental allotments for families in a state of oblivion. Suffolk County Alumnae Chapter and Queens Alumnae Chapter would go to assigned hotels and stay for hours guaranteeing Gulf Coast survivors that they wouldn’t be evicted to the streets. By the end of April 2006 all Gulf Coast Survivors had moved from the hotels. They were residing in permanent housing and were fully employment, receiving Section eight or FEMA support for six to eighteen months. FEMA again reneged on their promise and stopped payments on May 29, 2006 leaving many Gulf Coast Survivors in the lurch.

Suffolk County Alumnae Chapter also supported the “Meet the Need Network”, comprised of thirty-nine community organizations in the New York Metropolitan area, to register Katrina survivors before the April 22, 2006 deadline. These absentee ballots had to be submitted and received by midnight if relocated residents were to vote in the New Orleans election come November.

Now, Suffolk County Alumnae Chapter is working with the “Meet the Need Network” to conduct a tour in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Nassau County, Queens and Suffolk County to raise money for the Gulf Coast Survivors. The survivor’s needs are every changing and now they are facing emotional, mental and physical illnesses from continuous stress. FEMA has imposed another deadline for May 29, 2006. This final deadline will withdraw all financial support to every survivor in the United States of America. Many of the families are unable financially to maintain their apartment. Others have their apartment, but no furniture and other household items to make the shell warm and homey. Many feel alone, isolated and like strangers in a foreign land. Suffolk County Alumnae Chapter contributed to DREF’s Hurricane Relief Fund and wrote a grant for five-hundred dollars to help the survivors. Suffolk County Alumnae Chapter is co-hosting the tour at First Baptist Church in Bay Shore, New York on Tuesday, June 27, 2006 @ 7:00 p.m. to raise money for the survivor’s basic needs. We have been taught from our first jewel, Compassion, that we should be ever ready to respond to human needs with gentleness, mercy and a commitment to serve.

Delta Sigma Theta is committed to improving the quality of life. Please visit the link below to read a message from our National President, Dr. Louise A. Rice, and Delta's efforts to support Hurricane Katrina Survivors.