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Another case where this is too damned important not to get its own post.
First-hand account of a location FEMA is setting up in Oklahoma for evacuees from the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina
Go and read the full account. Then call/write/e-mail/fax your own representatives in Congress (if you are a US citizen or resident); the governor, the Senators and members of the House of Representatives for Oklahoma (edited to add:) and Colorado; the White House; FEMA; and your local news media. RAISE HELL. Contact information for elected government officials at all levels for all states can be found here. Don't forget to spread the news to less-internet-savvy friends, family, neighbours, co-workers, etc., and encourage them to speak out as well. Evacuees may or may not be getting subjected to this treatment RIGHT NOW in Oklahoma, but if or when evacuees do arrive there -- or at certain other sites around the country set up for evacuee relocation -- there has not even been the pretence, from any FEMA or other government official, that treating evacuees like prisoners is not considered acceptable. (edit: there is now a major-newspaper confirmed account of evacuees being held at a location with similar restrictions near Denver, Colorado; see the bottom of this post.)
Selected excerpts from the account, to underscore exactly how EVIL the government's current plans for 'housing' evacuees are:
FEMA will not allow any of the kitchen facilities in any of the cabins to be used by the occupants due to fire hazards. FEMA will deliver meals to the cabins. The refugees will be given two meals per day by FEMA. They will not be able to cook. In fact, the "host" goes on to explain, some churches had already enquired about whether they could come in on weekends and fix meals for the people staying in their cabin. FEMA won't allow it because there could be a situation where one cabin gets steaks and another gets hot dogs - and...
it could cause a riot.
It gets worse.
He then precedes [sic] to tell us that some churches had already enquired into whether they could send a van or bus on Sundays to pick up any occupants of their cabins who might be interested in attending church. FEMA will not allow this. The occupants of the camp cannot leave the camp for any reason. If they leave the camp they may never return. They will be issued FEMA identification cards and "a sum of money" and they will remain within the camp for the next 5 months. (underlined emphasis mine; bolded emphasis in original)
Two meals a day for five months. No one can visit you. You can't leave. Donations of food from the Red Cross, church groups (including the churches which *own* the cabins which are being used at this site) or private individuals will not be allowed in. WTF.
We start unloading our snacks. Mom appeared to have cornered the market in five counties on pop-tarts and apparently that was an acceptable snack so the guy started shoving them under the counter. He said these would be good to tied people over in between their two meals a day. But he tells my mother she must take all the breakfast cereal back. My mother protests that cereal requires no cooking. "There will be no milk, ma'am." My mother points to the huge industrial double-wide refrigerator the church had just purchased in the past year. "Ma'am, you don't understand...
It could cause a riot."
He then points to the vegetables and fruit. "You'll have to take that back as well. It looks like you've got about 10 apples there. I'm about to bring in 40 men. What would we do then?"
My mother, in her sweet, soft voice says, "Quarter them?"
"No ma'am. FEMA said no...
It could cause a riot. You don't understand the type of people that are about to come here...."
AMERICAN CITIZENS are the type of people who will be going there! AMERICAN CITIZENS! What is this, 1942?! WE DO NOT LOCK PEOPLE UP FOR THE CRIME OF HAVING SURVIVED HURRICANE KATRINA.
And no, being free (*maybe* -- it could, after all, cause a riot) to walk out -- into the middle of bloody nowhere in an unfamiliar state with nothing but the clothes FEMA deigned to allow to be donated to you -- is not being 'free' at ALL if doing so means that you lose your disaster-relief benefits by doing so. These people have no homes or jobs to go back to; they are dependent on others' assistance, whether from (if they're lucky) friends or family, or private charities or other institutions, or the government.
There are, by the way, going to be children at this camp. One of the 'hosts' (and what a horrifying euphemism that is -- clearly the evacuees are not to be treated as guests, so maybe we're supposed to read them as parasites?) explained that some of the camp's cabins had been designated men-only (for 'men' 14 and up), some women-only, and others for families. But NO MILK, along with that generous TWO MEALS A DAY. Including for the children sent there, presumably, because if the kids get the nutrition their growing bodies need but every adult doesn't get the same ration, it could cause a riot.
RESTRICTING PEOPLE TO TWO MEALS A DAY FOR FIVE MONTHS WILL CAUSE RIOTING BY ITSELF, YOU FAPPING MORON FUCKTARDS AAAAAGH.
More about where this internment camp -- or, as Valhall (Val Hall?), the author refers to it, detainment camp -- is located...
From the moment I heard about Falls Creek being scheduled to receive refugees I had two thoughts run through my mind:
1. What a beautiful place to be able to stay while trying to get your life back in order.
2. What a terrible location to be when you're trying to get your life back in order.
The first thought is because Falls Creek is nestled in the Arbuckle Mountains of south central Oklahoma. One of the more beautiful regions of the state. It would be a peaceful and beautiful place to try to start mending emotionally, and begin to figure what you're going to do next.
The second thought comes because Falls Creek is very secluded and absolutely no where near a population center. The closest route from Falls Creek to a connecting road is three miles on a winding narrow road called "High Road" (It gets that name for two reasons - it's goes over the mountain instead of around it like "Low Road" does, and it's where the teenagers of the area go to party). The road has not a single home on it for over 3 miles. After battling that 3 miles over mountains, you'll find yourself about 5 miles from the nearest town, Davis, Oklahoma, population ca. 2000. This is no place to start a new life.
She also notes that the area is notorious as a 'dead zone' for cellular phone service due to geography. There's no specific information on landlines at the camp, but my own experience of summer camps (which is how the facility is normally used) is that the cabins kids stay in do not have phone, only some administrative buildings do, and there are a small number (sometimes only one) of payphones for kids to use to call home or get calls from home. How are these people supposed to make any arrangements on their own for housing or employment if they have to wait on line for hours waiting to use the phone? Oh, wait, if anybody gets to use a telephone, that might cause a riot, so probably there will be no phone use allowed for the evacuees at all.
Updates and further details posted in the comments on the original account follow. ( Behind a cut, copied more for convenience of access than because it needs to be on the top-level pages. )
This LJ post has now been edited to add: I have copied out all of Val's updates as of 7am ET on Saturday 10 September. Based on her most recent updates, the Falls Creek camp, according to official reports, will not be receiving any evacuees and never housed any, though plans to do so had been made and were later put on hold. This does not explain, however, the eyewitness report of "between 50 and 100 people," mostly black, who were seen at Falls Creek along with approximately 10 busses which appeared to have brought them there, sometime between Monday 5 September and Thursday 8 September -- in other words, roughly contemporaneously with the announcement that the Falls Creek camp would not be used to house refugees. No one from the church groups affiliated with the camp, at last report, had been back to the site in several days to be able to confirm the presence or absence of Katrina evacuees.
For all we know, evacuees *are* being sent to Falls Creek, and there's no reason to think conditions there would be improved by having independent outside contact cut off or the media turning their attention away, if that were the case.
The most important thing is not whether this one particular camp is going to house evacuees or not. The most important thing is that FEMA was all ready to go ahead with plans to send evacuees there under the conditions described above.
This could happen almost anywhere in America.
As a people, we have to choose whether to be vigilant, or to be silent. (Check out what the media were reporting about Falls Creek, as quoted in or linked from the transcribed updates above, and think twice about accepting at face value any news item about conditions at sites you could investigate for yourself.) But one thing is clear -- if we are not watching, this is what the federal government will try to do. That's not wild speculation; it's not speculation at all. It is what happened in Oklahoma.
A related account about a relocation site being prepared for evacuees in Massachusetts can now be found in a separate entry here. (Thanks for your patience.)
And, just a reminder, evacuees will NOT be able to tell friends, family, the media, or anyone else where they're being sent for interim shelter before they get to their destination, because FEMA won't be telling THEM where they're going.
Other first-hand accounts I have linked to, transcribed and/or excerpted can be found here.
Edited to add: Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
brown_betty, who pointed me to this link: A staff columnist with the Denver Post reports that over 100 evacuees are being held in dormitory buildings at the Lowry Campus of the Community College of Aurora, fenced in, heavily guarded, and visitors -- journalists, and at least some volunteers offering assistance -- are being kept out; more evacuees are expected. Note that at least one of the persons denied access to the site was offering, not boxes of redundant supplies, but jobs for evacuees to help them get back on their feet.
First-hand account of a location FEMA is setting up in Oklahoma for evacuees from the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina
Go and read the full account. Then call/write/e-mail/fax your own representatives in Congress (if you are a US citizen or resident); the governor, the Senators and members of the House of Representatives for Oklahoma (edited to add:) and Colorado; the White House; FEMA; and your local news media. RAISE HELL. Contact information for elected government officials at all levels for all states can be found here. Don't forget to spread the news to less-internet-savvy friends, family, neighbours, co-workers, etc., and encourage them to speak out as well. Evacuees may or may not be getting subjected to this treatment RIGHT NOW in Oklahoma, but if or when evacuees do arrive there -- or at certain other sites around the country set up for evacuee relocation -- there has not even been the pretence, from any FEMA or other government official, that treating evacuees like prisoners is not considered acceptable. (edit: there is now a major-newspaper confirmed account of evacuees being held at a location with similar restrictions near Denver, Colorado; see the bottom of this post.)
Selected excerpts from the account, to underscore exactly how EVIL the government's current plans for 'housing' evacuees are:
FEMA will not allow any of the kitchen facilities in any of the cabins to be used by the occupants due to fire hazards. FEMA will deliver meals to the cabins. The refugees will be given two meals per day by FEMA. They will not be able to cook. In fact, the "host" goes on to explain, some churches had already enquired about whether they could come in on weekends and fix meals for the people staying in their cabin. FEMA won't allow it because there could be a situation where one cabin gets steaks and another gets hot dogs - and...
it could cause a riot.
It gets worse.
He then precedes [sic] to tell us that some churches had already enquired into whether they could send a van or bus on Sundays to pick up any occupants of their cabins who might be interested in attending church. FEMA will not allow this. The occupants of the camp cannot leave the camp for any reason. If they leave the camp they may never return. They will be issued FEMA identification cards and "a sum of money" and they will remain within the camp for the next 5 months. (underlined emphasis mine; bolded emphasis in original)
Two meals a day for five months. No one can visit you. You can't leave. Donations of food from the Red Cross, church groups (including the churches which *own* the cabins which are being used at this site) or private individuals will not be allowed in. WTF.
We start unloading our snacks. Mom appeared to have cornered the market in five counties on pop-tarts and apparently that was an acceptable snack so the guy started shoving them under the counter. He said these would be good to tied people over in between their two meals a day. But he tells my mother she must take all the breakfast cereal back. My mother protests that cereal requires no cooking. "There will be no milk, ma'am." My mother points to the huge industrial double-wide refrigerator the church had just purchased in the past year. "Ma'am, you don't understand...
It could cause a riot."
He then points to the vegetables and fruit. "You'll have to take that back as well. It looks like you've got about 10 apples there. I'm about to bring in 40 men. What would we do then?"
My mother, in her sweet, soft voice says, "Quarter them?"
"No ma'am. FEMA said no...
It could cause a riot. You don't understand the type of people that are about to come here...."
AMERICAN CITIZENS are the type of people who will be going there! AMERICAN CITIZENS! What is this, 1942?! WE DO NOT LOCK PEOPLE UP FOR THE CRIME OF HAVING SURVIVED HURRICANE KATRINA.
And no, being free (*maybe* -- it could, after all, cause a riot) to walk out -- into the middle of bloody nowhere in an unfamiliar state with nothing but the clothes FEMA deigned to allow to be donated to you -- is not being 'free' at ALL if doing so means that you lose your disaster-relief benefits by doing so. These people have no homes or jobs to go back to; they are dependent on others' assistance, whether from (if they're lucky) friends or family, or private charities or other institutions, or the government.
There are, by the way, going to be children at this camp. One of the 'hosts' (and what a horrifying euphemism that is -- clearly the evacuees are not to be treated as guests, so maybe we're supposed to read them as parasites?) explained that some of the camp's cabins had been designated men-only (for 'men' 14 and up), some women-only, and others for families. But NO MILK, along with that generous TWO MEALS A DAY. Including for the children sent there, presumably, because if the kids get the nutrition their growing bodies need but every adult doesn't get the same ration, it could cause a riot.
RESTRICTING PEOPLE TO TWO MEALS A DAY FOR FIVE MONTHS WILL CAUSE RIOTING BY ITSELF, YOU FAPPING MORON FUCKTARDS AAAAAGH.
More about where this internment camp -- or, as Valhall (Val Hall?), the author refers to it, detainment camp -- is located...
From the moment I heard about Falls Creek being scheduled to receive refugees I had two thoughts run through my mind:
1. What a beautiful place to be able to stay while trying to get your life back in order.
2. What a terrible location to be when you're trying to get your life back in order.
The first thought is because Falls Creek is nestled in the Arbuckle Mountains of south central Oklahoma. One of the more beautiful regions of the state. It would be a peaceful and beautiful place to try to start mending emotionally, and begin to figure what you're going to do next.
The second thought comes because Falls Creek is very secluded and absolutely no where near a population center. The closest route from Falls Creek to a connecting road is three miles on a winding narrow road called "High Road" (It gets that name for two reasons - it's goes over the mountain instead of around it like "Low Road" does, and it's where the teenagers of the area go to party). The road has not a single home on it for over 3 miles. After battling that 3 miles over mountains, you'll find yourself about 5 miles from the nearest town, Davis, Oklahoma, population ca. 2000. This is no place to start a new life.
She also notes that the area is notorious as a 'dead zone' for cellular phone service due to geography. There's no specific information on landlines at the camp, but my own experience of summer camps (which is how the facility is normally used) is that the cabins kids stay in do not have phone, only some administrative buildings do, and there are a small number (sometimes only one) of payphones for kids to use to call home or get calls from home. How are these people supposed to make any arrangements on their own for housing or employment if they have to wait on line for hours waiting to use the phone? Oh, wait, if anybody gets to use a telephone, that might cause a riot, so probably there will be no phone use allowed for the evacuees at all.
Updates and further details posted in the comments on the original account follow. ( Behind a cut, copied more for convenience of access than because it needs to be on the top-level pages. )
This LJ post has now been edited to add: I have copied out all of Val's updates as of 7am ET on Saturday 10 September. Based on her most recent updates, the Falls Creek camp, according to official reports, will not be receiving any evacuees and never housed any, though plans to do so had been made and were later put on hold. This does not explain, however, the eyewitness report of "between 50 and 100 people," mostly black, who were seen at Falls Creek along with approximately 10 busses which appeared to have brought them there, sometime between Monday 5 September and Thursday 8 September -- in other words, roughly contemporaneously with the announcement that the Falls Creek camp would not be used to house refugees. No one from the church groups affiliated with the camp, at last report, had been back to the site in several days to be able to confirm the presence or absence of Katrina evacuees.
For all we know, evacuees *are* being sent to Falls Creek, and there's no reason to think conditions there would be improved by having independent outside contact cut off or the media turning their attention away, if that were the case.
The most important thing is not whether this one particular camp is going to house evacuees or not. The most important thing is that FEMA was all ready to go ahead with plans to send evacuees there under the conditions described above.
This could happen almost anywhere in America.
As a people, we have to choose whether to be vigilant, or to be silent. (Check out what the media were reporting about Falls Creek, as quoted in or linked from the transcribed updates above, and think twice about accepting at face value any news item about conditions at sites you could investigate for yourself.) But one thing is clear -- if we are not watching, this is what the federal government will try to do. That's not wild speculation; it's not speculation at all. It is what happened in Oklahoma.
A related account about a relocation site being prepared for evacuees in Massachusetts can now be found in a separate entry here. (Thanks for your patience.)
And, just a reminder, evacuees will NOT be able to tell friends, family, the media, or anyone else where they're being sent for interim shelter before they get to their destination, because FEMA won't be telling THEM where they're going.
Other first-hand accounts I have linked to, transcribed and/or excerpted can be found here.
Edited to add: Thanks to
brown_betty, who pointed me to this link: A staff columnist with the Denver Post reports that over 100 evacuees are being held in dormitory buildings at the Lowry Campus of the Community College of Aurora, fenced in, heavily guarded, and visitors -- journalists, and at least some volunteers offering assistance -- are being kept out; more evacuees are expected. Note that at least one of the persons denied access to the site was offering, not boxes of redundant supplies, but jobs for evacuees to help them get back on their feet.
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