With possibly thousands dead, water and food supplies running out and 80 percent of New Orleans submerged in rising waters, rap mogul and native son Master P has been busy trying to coordinate relief efforts to help citizens cope with perhaps the most catastrophic natural disaster ever experienced on US soil...
Master P still hasn't heard from his Dad - Percy Miller Sr., or his wife Sonya's sister. He went to New Orleans over the weekend and organized vans to drive family members to relative's homes in Houston, Baton Rouge and Lafayette. Traffic on the highways was crawling all the way. Many of them didn't want to go and stayed with their homes and their belongings. They still have not been able to locate those people who stayed.
"Too many people cherish material things. They should be concerned about being alright. They should cherish their lives." Master P said yesterday. "Talking to people who stayed, man ... they're just in shock. Seeing bodies floating in the water. Seeing family and people they know and grew up with dead. Watching neighbors trapped in attics, trying to get out and then knowing that they drown. It's just awful." Master P lost all of his homes in New Orleans and all of his family members lost their homes as well.
P spent part of Wednesday, in his Los Angeles home, on the phone with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and the suits at BET in hopes of organizing relief efforts.
Master P's publicist, Donna Torrence, said he will be in New York today at the Red Cross' headquarters for a 12:30 PM press conference organized by BET, the Urban League, the RED Cross and Russell Simmons and the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network.
“As a native of New Orleans, me, my wife Sonya and my son Romeo have formed Team Rescue to help our community affected by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina,” P said in a statement. “We are contributing our own money toward items such as food, clothes and shoes and we are also reaching out to corporations for donations.”
Torrence said: “[P] provided a way for all of his family members to get out, but I didn’t get the details of what he did, whether he rented a bus, sent them airline tickets, or what. But there were some members who didn’t want to leave, and those are the ones they are not able to locate.”
Master P’s wife, Sonya Miller, plans to donate products from her hair care and skin care line to women who make up the over 78,000 people living in shelters around New Orleans.
“Sonya is reaching out to companies for product donations for mothers, like Pampers and Gerber baby food, as well as soliciting donations of items helpful to ladies and girls,” said P. “I am reaching out to companies for men's products as well as calling on my friends, athletes, sports team owners, banks, etc for monetary contributions as well items such as a quantity of cell phones so that people can call loved ones.”
P is also organizing a Save Our Hood concert and album to raise additional funds, while Romeo is calling on his teenaged peers for help with donations.
As President Bush prepared to speak on the situation Wednesday afternoon, looters in New Orleans continued to raid abandoned stores - grabbing up food, clothing, electronics, guns and other items. One nurse was held up at gunpoint while stepping out of a hospital to get some fresh air.
Thousands of stranded citizens waving white flags piled onto rooftops and crowded into upper level apartments with hopes of attracting attention from Coast Guard rescuers.
Long lines began forming Wednesday at gas stations across the country, causing unease and short tempers at locations in Atlanta and Mobile, Alabama as folks tried to get gas in their vehicles before prices surged to over $6 a gallon. There are now concerns that limited supplies of gas could bring back the long lines and rationing reminiscent of the 1970s gas crisis.
Conditions in the Superdome, where some 15,000-20,000 refugees were being housed, grew down right uninhabitable – with no air conditioning, rising flood waters riddled with disease, broken toilets and nowhere to bathe. Five hundred buses will carry as many refugees as possible to the Houston Astrodome in Texas, 328 miles away.
Nagin said there will be a “total evacuation of the city. We have to. The city will not be functional for two or three months.”
Master P said of his relief effort: “My family has set out to save and rebuild our neighborhoods and help our inner-city brothers and sisters who have lost everything in this disaster. Those in need and those who wish to donate can call our hotline at 888.886.7377 and speak to someone who can help. The line will be up and running today. For more information please go to
www.teamrescueone.com.
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