Red Cross supports shipboard Katrina evacuees

During the six-month emergency phase following Hurricane Katrina, the American Red Cross provided clothes and supplies for New Orleans city workers living on docked ships made available by the Carnival Cruise Line.

The city employees and their families had lost everything in the hurricane and were living in a city bereft of stores. Throughout that time, a Red Cross volunteer was assigned to cruise ships Sensation and Ecstasy to coordinate deliveries of relief supplies. Cindy Dudley of Cedar City, Utah, arrived in the Gulf in September 2005, when the program was well underway.

"We had a daily supply run from Warehouse #4 in Walker, and the Red Cross provided everything from toothpaste to underwear for the police and firefighters and their families living on board these ships," Dudley explained. Her job was to compile a daily list of needs from the ships and pass them along to workers at the warehouse. The next day warehouse workers brought the needed items to the ships.

"Many of these people lost everything, and they are still out there every day doing their jobs protecting the city. They are living in pretty close quarters, but they have developed a wonderfully supportive community on board," Dudley said.

Katrina's six month anniversary

The sixth month anniversary of Hurricane Katrina marked a big change. As the contract between the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Carnival Cruise Lines concluded, city workers left the ships for FEMA trailers or hotels. The role of the Red Cross also changed.

As the people of New Orleans begin to rebuild their lives, the Red Cross has moved into a longer-term community recovery effort to assistant survivors in accessing physical and mental health resources, to aid families in finding the community resources and to work with long-standing partners to help communities meet the ongoing needs of those affected by Katrina. What hasn't changed is that Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs) continue to provide hot meals, water and supplies to those in need from a contract kitchen in New Orleans.

"We have plenty of Meals-Ready-to-Eat (MREs) and Heater Meals as well as water and snacks," Dorothy White, Red Cross volunteer from Hillsboro, Ore., who has been on Katrina relief assignments since October 2005. "When people go back to their neighborhoods to live in their trailers and work on rebuilding their homes, we will be there with our ERVs."

An ERV was on the docks as city workers began moving from the ships on March 1.

"For many this is going to be an emotional change, as they move from the close community that they had on board the cruise ships to situations where they may be isolated in their FEMA trailers," said Mary Sutton, Southeast Louisiana Chapter Red Cross board member. "Our mental health counselors are sensitive to this need and will offer help to smooth the transition."

Roslyn Thomas, the wife of a New Orleans policeman, is a little apprehensive about the move. "We're going to be cramped in our new trailer," she said. "I'll miss the company of the other families we have been living with for so long on the Ecstasy."

Thomas added, "I really appreciate what the Red Cross has done for us since we have been here. When I couldn't buy any clothes because all the stores were closed, the Red Cross took care of our needs. I know that the Red Cross is there to help me through this next stage as well."

At the peak, the Carnival Lines Sensation and Ecstasy housed 4,675 Katrina evacuees. By 3 p.m. on March 1, the ships were completely empty of their guests and the crew and technicians who would begin refitting the two ships began boarding. On Thursday, March 2, the ships left New Orleans bound for dry dock in Mobile, Ala., before resuming their cruise operations.