• Celebrity
    • Of The Essence
    • Celebrity News
    • If Not For My Girls
    • The State Of R&B
    • Time Of Essence
  • Fashion
    • 2023 Best In Black Fashion Awards
    • 2023 Fashion House
    • Red Carpet
    • Fashion News
    • Accessories
  • Beauty
    • Girls United: Beautiful Possibilities
    • 2023 Best In Black Beauty
    • Skin
    • Makeup
    • Nails
    • Hair
  • Lifestyle
    • Love
    • Parenting
    • Relationships
    • Bridal Bliss
    • Lifestyle News
    • Health & Wellness
    • ESSENCE Eats
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
  • Entrepreneurship
    • Money & Career
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Paint The Polls Black
    • Culture
    • Politics
  • Shopping
  • Video
  • Events
    • 2023 Fashion House
    • 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture
    • 2023 Wellness House
    • 2023 Black Women In Hollywood
    • 2023 ESSENCE Film Festival
    • 2023 HOLLYWOOD HOUSE
  • Studios
  • Girls United

WHERE BLACK CULTURE, COMMUNITY AND CONSCIOUSNESS MEET

Sign up for ESSENCE Newsletters the keep the Black women at the forefront of conversation.

Your email is required.
Your email is in invalid format.
Confirm email is required.
Email did not match.
Select the newsletters you'd like to receive:
Please select at least one option.
By clicking Subscribe Now, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Skip to content
SUBSCRIBE
  • MAGAZINE
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Celebrity
    • Of The Essence
    • Celebrity News
    • If Not For My Girls
    • The State Of R&B
    • Time Of Essence
  • Fashion
    • 2023 Best In Black Fashion Awards
    • 2023 Fashion House
    • Red Carpet
    • Fashion News
    • Accessories
  • Beauty
    • Girls United: Beautiful Possibilities
    • 2023 Best In Black Beauty
    • Skin
    • Makeup
    • Nails
    • Hair
      • Hair News
      • Natural
      • Relaxed
      • Transitioning
      • Weave
      • 4C
  • Lifestyle
    • Love
    • Parenting
    • Relationships
    • Bridal Bliss
    • Lifestyle News
    • Health & Wellness
    • ESSENCE Eats
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
  • Entrepreneurship
    • Money & Career
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Paint The Polls Black
    • Culture
    • Politics
  • Shopping
  • Video
  • Events
    • 2023 Fashion House
    • 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture
    • 2023 Wellness House
    • 2023 Black Women In Hollywood
    • 2023 ESSENCE Film Festival
    • 2023 HOLLYWOOD HOUSE
  • Studios
  • Girls United
Home · News

After Katrina, the Limits of Charity

Now in Houston, survivors work to regain control of their lives
By · Updated October 29, 2020

September 8, 2005

In her second dispatch from the field, our reporter JEANNINE AMBER talks to evacuees at the Houston Astrodome about what they need more than charity. In the coming days and weeks, as part of our mission to keep readers informed, we’ll share other first-person accounts of Katrina’s aftermath, and report on efforts to help our displaced citizens resume their lives.

Five days after being evacuated from New Orleans to the Houston Astrodome, Jimmy Jones and Jim Johnston are off on a mission to fill a need that none of the relief agencies are providing. “We’re going downtown to sell our food stamps,” says Jones, a welder. “What we need is some money in our pockets.”

Johnston, a retired veteran who has wounds on his face from breaking through his roof to escape the flooding in his house, rattles off a list of the donated clothing and toiletries that he keeps in a plastic trash bag under a blanket near his cot: five pairs of pants, seven shirts, 12 bars of soap, two bottles of hand sanitizer, eight briefs, five pairs of socks. “And they gave me about eight different deodorants,” he says.

Food, too, is abundant in the makeshift shelter. Sandwiches, packaged chips, water and soda are laid out on dozens of tables lining the perimeter of the auditorium. Piled in small pyramids and available 24 hours a day, the food almost seems too much. “They wake you up first thing in the morning and push a sandwich in your face,” Jimmy Jones says. “But really, all I want at that hour is to sleep.” It’s not that he’s not grateful for the provisions, but a grown man can live on handouts for only so long. “I want to get back home,” he says. “I want to get back to work. I can’t keep going like this.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by many of the evacuees. They appreciate the help that has been offered, but as the days add up, they need more than food and clothing. They need what most of us take for granted—the ability to make basic decisions about their lives. They want to buy and prepare their own meals and decide when they will go to sleep each night (the Astrodome has an 11 p.m. curfew). After more than a week of living at the mercy of Mother Nature and a faceless political bureaucracy, they need to feel in control of their lives again. They need their dignity.

Tomorrow: Finding Shelter From the Storm

COMPANY INFORMATION
  • Our Company
  • Customer Service
  • Essence Ventures
  • Change Your Address
  • Contact Us
  • Job Opportunities
  • Internships
  • Media Kit
  • tag
SUBSCRIBE
  • Newsletters
  • Give a Gift of ESSENCE
  • Magazine Tablet Edition
FOLLOW US
MORE ON ESSENCE
  • Home
  • Love
  • Celebrity
  • Beauty
  • Hair
  • Fashion
  • ESSENCE festival

ESSENCE.com is part of ESSENCE Communications, Inc.

Essence may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.

©2023 ESSENCE Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Essence.com Advertising Terms

Get The ESSENCE Newsletter and
Special Offers delivered to your inbox

By clicking Sign Up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Get The ESSENCE Magazine
by subscribing below
subscribe now