September 09, 2005

Official Confirms Red Cross Denied Access to New Orleans

Col. Jay Mayeaux, deputy director of the state’s Office Of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness confirms the Red Cross wasn't wanted inside New Orleans on 09.01 and 09.02:

“He asked us not to go in and we abided by that request,” said Howell, who added that the Red Cross was supplying food and water throughout the metropolitan area, just not in the city itself.

Mayeaux, who is the deputy director of the state’s Office Of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said that the state began shipping its
own stores of food and water from the Pineville staging area down to New Orleans two days after the storm, on August 31st.

The supplies were sent to the Superdome and Zephyr Field and then spread throughout the city, said Mayeaux. Although the state did not start moving food
to the Superdome until the Wednesday after the storm, Mayeaux said there was adequate food at the facility, noting that people had been instructed to bring their own supplies. There was also some food that had been put there before the hurricane, he said.

But when officials realized that people would be staying at the storm for a longer period of time, they started to move food down, he said.