A Day of Giving in the New 'Ground Zero'

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In pictures and in words, Prosper Photo Editor Neil Michel documents the gallant effort of Sacramento-area businesses as they mobilize a convoy of six hurricane-relief trucks destined for the crippled Gulf.

By Neil Michel

Our Sacramento convoy of relief supplies is inching its way down a tattered Louisiana highway. We know we’re about 2,400 miles from home, but exactly where we are is hard to pinpoint. For hundreds of miles road signs are blown away or bent ?at on the ground.
     We have to ask the driver — John Sutherland, a press operator at The Printer in Davis — what date it is. It must be Sunday because we slept in this morning knowing the emergency distribution center we’re trucking toward in Bogalusa, La., won’t open until noon, after church. 
     There’s a restless energy in this group of strangers-turned-aid-workers. An effort to stagger the arrival of six 18-wheelers from Sacramento is prov-ing unrealistic as fate (and at least one speeding ticket) delivered the ?nal three trucks on the same day, today, Sept. 11.

‘The Good Stuff’
By 11:30 a.m., cars are lined up for a mile at an impromptu aid depot at a chemical plant in Bogalusa, a town of approximately 13,000 people 69 miles north of New Orleans. Trunks are ajar, waiting for another load of water, ice and FEMA-issued Meals Ready to Eat (MREs). This Sunday, as church bells again ?ll the air, an-other pick-up station is ? lled with irregular piles of what locals are calling “the good stuff.” 
Continued...

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