Report from Hammond/Ponchatoula

We held the first AGM for the Resource Action Group at a house in Hammond this afternoon and which was attended also by Mr Richard Lajeunesse, who is a heroic trucker from La Belle Province. RAG, and ourselves as part of it, have several rental trucks dispersed throughout the region. They are all being used and are badly needed but we have decided to pull most of them back in as we are just plain out of money and these trucks are expensive. We joined Kevin on several deliveries between Ponchatoula and New Orleans.

We spent several days between the houses in Hammond and Ponchatoula. Time was spent writing press releases and trying to raise money for Resource Action Group. We got a request for 5-10 thousand contractor sized garbage bags and a couple days were spent calling around to suppliers and manufacturers looking for a sizeable handout. The bags are necessary to remove mould and mould affected items from houses due to the toxic nature of the mould. It is also needed to clean up all the asbestos. Almost half of the roofs in New Orleans are covered with asbestos shingles. It is VERY important that we come up with these bags. Dow Chemical, I think it was their national PR office, seemed on the phone to think we were insane, probably because, as he said, Dow has never given any in kind donation to such a thing.

- Geoffrey Young