Baton Rouge Church Helps Katrina Victims

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ED GORDON, host:

From NPR News, this is NEWS & NOTES. I'm Ed Gordon.

Crews throughout the Gulf region are increasingly shifting from rescue to recovering bodies as cleanup from Hurricane Katrina continues. Mississippi's official death toll now exceeds 200. The Bush administration announced that displaced families who qualify will receive debit cards worth $2,000 to spend on clothing and other supplies. And yesterday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the president wants more aid.

Mr. SCOTT McCLELLAN (White House Spokesman): The president today will request $51.8 billion in additional funding for the immediate needs of the people affected by Hurricane Katrina.

GORDON: Like many cities taking in evacuees, Louisiana's capital, Baton Rouge, is straining to accommodate many needs. First Baptist Church in downtown Baton Rouge is providing services for some of those most in need. NPR's Farai Chideya talked with the organizers of the effort.

Mr. STEVEN JOHNSTON(PH) (Shelter Coordinator): My name is Steven Johnston. I am the shelter coordinator here at the First Baptist Church of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We have taken it upon ourselves to start a shelter for healthy babies between the ages of zero and six months and healthy mothers. Women from New Orleans who had just had babies or were evacuated to Baton Rouge and had babies here in Baton Rouge needed a place to stay. Their homes were destroyed in New Orleans, so we established this shelter.

FARAI CHIDEYA reporting:

What's the ratio, roughly, of parents to children?

Mr. JOHNSTON: Total, we have about 85 residents. The infants equal about 12 and everyone else is either adults or toddlers. And we've probably got in the order of about 30 children.

CHIDEYA: This may be an assumption on my part, but it seems to me that with these kind of facilities, your church must be fairly well off. Is that correct?

Mr. JOHNSTON: We do tend to have a lot of businessmen and a lot of more well-off individuals. Yes, that is correct.

CHIDEYA: So is most of your congregation white?

Mr. JOHNSTON: Yes. We do have a very few African-Americans, but the majority are white.

CHIDEYA: And tell me--we were talking to--we were staying with a host family, I should say, who were volunteers here, and they were expressing hope that this might bring some of the black and white residents of Baton Rouge closer together. Do you think that that could happen?

Mr. JOHNSTON: I really do, because we've got a lot of volunteers from any culture that you can find here in Baton Rouge, and also our Sunday services have--since we've got so many residents, the majority of which are African-American, we've certainly invited them to our services on Sunday, and that has proved to be quite a blessing. We are just now getting around to establishing regular activities, other than meals, for the residents here. Many of the church activities, the regularly scheduled church activities, have been suspended in the chaos.

CHIDEYA: So you're taking us up on an elevator right now, I should note. I just have to note what I'm smelling right now. It's that kind of sweet, warm smell of babies. Tell us a little bit more about where we are.

Mr. JOHNSTON: Right now we're on the second floor. This is normally Sunday school space. We're in the education facility on the second floor, and this is where we have housed the young mothers. We have a lot of small rooms that are perfect for Mom, Dad, maybe a big brother or sister and the infant. Most of the residents we are trying to keep on the second floor, because we have volunteers that are coming in that we're trying to keep on the third floor.

CHIDEYA: And I'll just point out that we're peeking into a room right now. There's a mattress on the floor with a--very nice sheets.

Mr. JOHNSTON: A bed for an adult, usually an air mattress on the floor, again, not ideal conditions; a mattress for a youngster, and then each room, we either have a crib or a Pack 'n Play for the infant.

CHIDEYA: Are there any cases where some of these women are separated from other members of their family?

Mr. JOHNSTON: Yes. We have had many, many of the mothers and different family members that have come in that don't know where certain of their other family members are. And we have volunteers also that are coming in to try and help them get on the Internet, and we try to get them on some of the Web sites that are helping to find family members. And also we try to get them onto the Web sites so that they can get information about FEMA assistance or Red Cross assistance or State Department or Social Services assistance.

CHIDEYA: There's a lot of work to do in Baton Rouge. We understand that the city may have, in fact, doubled in size. What kind of work needs to be done to build a new Baton Rouge that can deal with all of its new residents?

Mr. JOHNSTON: Well, obviously more housing is going to have to be built, and I have been hearing even some of our residents here at the church shelter say, `Wherever I end up, I'm going to make a new start there.' And I know a lot of them are wanting to go back to New Orleans, but here, we're going to have to build a lot of new stuff. A lot of these individuals that have come to live with us, they're on Section 8 housing or have lived in government project housing, and those--the places where they lived in New Orleans are just destroyed.

CHIDEYA: Well, we wish you and your church and your city good luck in facing these challenges. Thank you.

Mr. JOHNSTON: Thank you very much.

GORDON: Join us tomorrow to hear more from NPR's Farai Chideya in New Orleans. For additional coverage of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, visit our Web site at npr.org.

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