F.C. Council to Send $ to Red Cross; Moran Assails Fed 'Criminal Neglect'

By Nicholas F. Benton

The Falls Church City Council determined Tuesday that it will vote to authorize sending a check for $10,000 next week to the American Red Cross to assist its work in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. At the initiative of Council member Robin, Gardner , the Council will also form a special task force of public and school officials and private citizens to assess the long-term needs generated by the crisis, and how the City may help.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, who represents the 8th District of Virginia that includes the City of Falls Church , was scathing in remarks on the House floor Tuesday concerning the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina.

“Our nation failed its citizens last week,” Moran said. “There was a violation of trust that the American people have a right to put in their government. Whether it’s because we are not used to seeing poverty so visible or the results of institutional racism so stark, or because of just pure incompetence, its was criminal to abandon thousands and thousands of men and women, mothers and children, and grandparents to rot amid the squalor of complete government neglect.”

“There has to be an immediate, rigorous and harsh determination of accountability for this criminal neglect,” Moran said.

Falls Church City Manager Dan McKeever said a conference call involving community leaders from throughout Northern Virginia is imminent aimed at determining the capabilities in this region for absorbing the long-term impact of the incident. That will include housing, education and job-creating capabilities for citizens dislocated out of New Orleans and environs.

“We’ve been in contact since the middle of last week with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management to discuss staffing and equipment capabilities throughout the state,” McKeever said. “Unfortunately, as such a small community, the City of Falls Church has little, relatively speaking, it can offer.”

The purpose of the Falls Church Council task force will be to identify the good and services needed and collect them, based on a clear direction from the emergency service agencies on the ground in and around New Orleans based on what’s needed.

Falls Church charitable organizations are also in full mobilization, beginning with the Falls Church-based non-profit, CrossLink International. Set up to collect and distribute to the developing sector medical equipment, expertise and treatment, CrossLink is accepting funds and in-kind contributions and assembling personal hygiene kits to be distributed through its partner relief organizations. Donations to this effort can be made to CrossLink International, 427 N. Maple Avenue , Falls Church , VA 22046 .

The organization is accepting in-kind contributions of acetaminophen (Tylenol), antibiotic ointment, naprosyn (Aleve), diphenhydramine (Benadryl), clorpheniramine (Chlor-Trimeton), clotrimazole, hydrocortisone cream, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), Lamasil, tolnaftate, adhesive tape, Band Aids, combs, deodorant, gauze, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste.

The Falls Church Episcopal Church announced late yesterday that it will be sending with Republican Mississippi Congressman Chip Pickering two 45-foot U-Haul trucks driven by local church members and filled with supplies specifically requested to assist the thousands of families who have evacuated north to Jackson , Mississippi and staying indefinitely at the Mississippi Coliseum there. Church members are also being asked to contribute financially through the Anglican Network Relief Fund. The church says that as it assesses ways to help over the long term, it is “adopting” Rep. Pickering’s district with an aim to providing future shipments and getting “more directly involved with people for the long haul, as they need to know others care and will not allow them to wither away once the first adrenalin rush of providing short term aid has subsided.”

In this remarks on the House floor Tuesday, Moran, a Democrat, added, “There must be a response worthy of a great and prosperous and noble nation. A person of the caliber of a Colin Powell, perhaps, must be given singular authority and responsibility to resettle where necessary, to rebuild where possible, and to return eventually, New Orleans to its status as one of America ’s great cities.”