Welcome Katrina Refugees

500 refugees from Hurricane Katrina are coming to the Tooele Army Depot. We've been asked to donate toiletry items to help them out, so I made up a box. I want them to feel as at-home as possible here in Utah, even though it's not their home. At least it's a safe place, which is more than can be said for where they came from.

Somebody mentioned they'd heard about the refugees coming to Tooele in the news, so I went to look it up to link to it in this post. I couldn't find it, but I did find this article:

About 50 people were loaded onto a plane late Saturday, but when told they were going to Salt Lake City, nearly 20 people got off. "There's nothing to do in Salt Lake City, nothing," said Sandra Lawrence, 32, who stayed on the plane. Most of the people on board had thought they were going to Houston.

Well, I guess that's understandable, as New Orleans is a really vibrant city full of plenty of exciting activities. Why, on any street there, you can shovel mud, sift through debris looking for bodies or food, or sleep out under the stars while trying to defend your family from lawless looters. I can see why they might find Salt Lake City boring, since all we've got here is hot showers, free food, warm beds, and kind people. Honestly, people are evacuating them to these cities out of the kindness of their hearts, not because they need to go to a place with nightclubs or fancy restaurants. Are they really going to look a gift horse in the mouth at a time like this? What ingrates! I'm just glad we're getting the ones who aren't snobs.


UPDATE: FH claims that he heard on the news this morning that after that incident with people getting off the plane rather than go to SLC, they just didn't tell refugees where they were going. When they found out they were in SLC, they asked where that was and how close it was to Atlanta, then called their friends to come and pick them up.

My question is, if they had friends in the Atlanta area who were willing to drive out to UTAH to pick them up, why couldn't they have driven out to NEW ORLEANS to pick them up a week and a half ago?

I couldn't find the TV report he saw, but I did find this article about it.

In the meantime, I'm putting together a box with everything from the list of urgently needed items that I can spare. At the rate it's going, it'll be two boxes before I'm done. I urge everyone else to do the same.