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I had been watching the disaster unfold Monday and Tuesday in Louisiana and Mississippi. When the helplessness of the people and the ineptitude of the bloated governments became too unbearable for me to accept, I called my friend and Chairman of the Republic of Florida Red Shirts, Mr Dan Gonzales. We both felt something could be done by free people unencumbered by the chains of socialist bureaucracies faster, more efficiently, and directly to the source of suffering, than what we were seeing on the news and hearing on the radio.

On Tuesday I had called Pastor John Cripps in Wiggins, Mississippi to see how he and his family were doing and of course all the lines were down and there was seemingly no way to communicate with them in the near future. I mentioned to some friends in a small internet forum of Southerners of my concerns for John. One member had found a request put on a Southern e-list stating that John was in a very difficult position but alive and well and with the need of a generator, fuel, water, etc. A few of us discussed the problem and possible solutions and one member of our group Dennis Wheeler out of Greenville, South Carolina, immediately volunteered dollars and action. I then agreed to go 50-50 on the costs for the generator and gas. The wheels were now starting to turn.

While this was happening in South Carolina, Dan Gonzales (West Palm) and I (Ft Myers) started making phone calls in the south Florida region for donations to help with emergency items, funds, transportation, etc to enable us to get over to Mississippi within the next day (or two at most) with the disaster relief. We had gotten a mixture of responses by individuals in the churches and business communities both positive and negative. Some didn’t want to be bothered and even said “You aren’t supposed to be doing this as only the government and the big agencies are allowed to go in those areas” but then others courageously stood up and said “Yes, I’m behind you and what do you need? I will also call my friends (etc)”, and the whole thing then started snowballing.

As Wednesday wound down it appeared this was going to be a cinch and we would just go in with a van with some water and supplies and save the day in Mississippi and be back in no time… Ha ha ha… On Thursday, an unexpected call came from a businessman that found out about our plans to go into Mississippi (and not just sit and talk about it) and he said he would help and call some business friends of his and that he knew he could get a lot of assistance… and it came by the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars with immediate commitments of bulk loads of palletized goods that could be ready in hours for departure.

We quickly went from the 8ft cargo van idea to a 24ft diesel delivery truck, and then to two of them, and then to a semi-tractor trailer and then to two or more of them. Remember all this was within hours of deciding to do it and then calling perfect strangers and convincing them of the need. We finally got so big in scope that we had to say “no more” as we would never get to Mississippi. We had to at least get the first items delivered quickly as people had no water and food. We felt because of the water supply issue that every hour delayed could mean great harm or even the possibility of loss of life. We just didn’t know. We were however at least in a solid position for the first delivery of some water. Now Dennis was working hard already as we mentioned earlier up in SC and he found a new 7000 watt generator and two 55 gallon drums of gas and was already on the road around 5PM Thursday out of Greenville! That gave us some breathing room as we would be about 24 hrs behind him with two semi-tractor trailers with over 46 tons of cargo including more drums of diesel and gasoline with hand crank pumps. We had it all worked out and the plan was in place, it was working, and getting bigger and bigger.

Back now in south Florida, there was a discussion on who was going to drive the trucks and even security issues (ala New Orleans). At that point another businessman stepped in and said the problem was solved as “he would pay individual professional drivers out of his pocket and to let’s get the caravan on the road to Mississippi now!” We decided to have an extra man with each truck for security so I went with the first truck pulling out on Friday evening around 9PM and Dan going with the second truck that left Saturday at noon.

We (the first semi) approached Wiggins, MS Saturday evening right before dusk. After finding a place to secure the cargo we took our car and went to the Cripps residence (we saw they had a narrow road creating some navigation problems for the big vehicles that had to be resolved and Dennis had mentioned this issue earlier). Pulling up, it was a delight seeing the Cripps’ family come out with smiles on their faces even in the intense heat. John showed us the initial deliveries that had come on Friday by Dennis Wheeler, followed by a small group from central Florida that had brought another smaller generator. John had been told we were coming too but not anything about the semi loads.

After giving the news to John, we now knew we had another problem: If we can’t unload it at John’s house because of the narrowness of the road… then where? This was now around 10PM and we contacted one of John’s neighbors that was a volunteer firemen and he immediately went to contact the fire chief (remember there is no electricity and no phones) to see if we can coordinate something by the next morning around 8AM and to secure an area to unload our truck (and our second one with Dan Gonzales that was coming also and only about 6 hours behind us).

Once again, miracles seemed to happen with all problems being overcome with good common sense and good people thinking of ways to resolve issues. We finally concluded that it would be best if we would use the Volunteer Fire Station as a secure location to give out the relief supplies. Saturday morning, after transferring some needed items for the community directly where John lives, we pulled the trucks up to the Magnolia Volunteer Fire Station and were greeted by perhaps 50 people (that number would swell) that were to help unload. They quickly took the two fire trucks in the stalls and parked them across the street. And then our first semi was backed into place and we formed one, two and sometimes three lines getting the product off as quickly as possible and stacking everything in workable columns for distribution later that day.

By noon we had everything unloaded and even had a smaller truck arrive unexpectedly donated by Green Forrest Nursery Supply company with more emergency provisions that we unloaded. Later we had ice deliveries with several more scheduled for later that day. A Red Cross meal van arrived sometime around noon with the driver somewhat disappointed when she saw everything we had unloaded, as she wanted to feed the needy. Dan Gonzales spoke with her privately and explained that all these people here worked all morning with no more than water and were a part of the starving community and why not feed them a meal? She agreed and the workers at least got fed to go along with the satisfaction of what they had just accomplished with the unloading of supplies.

Our truck drivers now had to go as they had to pick up other assignments and head north. Dan and I went over with John Cripps to his house to get our gear for our trip back to Florida. While we were there, one of the volunteer firemen came driving up and told us the wildest story of what just happened at the fire station about 30 minutes after we had left. He said that a MEMA (the state’s version of FEMA) official arrived along with two policemen that looked like SWAT team members and threatened to stop the flow of relief to the public as she had heard that there were people carrying guns, and that we were prohibiting anyone except Wiggins community people (Stone County) from getting provisions. She then said that since the hurricane had come through, the whole area was ‘FEDERALIZED’ (did she mean put under Marshall law?) and that meant the volunteer fire department’s station was now ‘federal property’ and since they didn’t authorize this that they would have to stop it and all the provisions could/would be confiscated (yes, you just read it right about what had just happened).

Now to answer these accusations, (1) I saw only one or two firemen there that morning with side arms (which I was happy to see). (2) The acting fire chief John Altman was the coordinator of this operation and was the one that suggested that we unload everything at the station. (3) And we never stated we would turn anyone away from getting help as we were never going to ask for proof of residency should anyone have been from a neighboring county. What hideous person would do that? In hindsight, we then figured out that two government employees from the Florida panhandle were most likely responsible for calling their supervisors that day and causing this stir as they initially walked into the fire station at the onset and tried to start giving orders as though they were in charge of this unloading operation. We told them politely thanks, but that we had no need for their assistance unless they wanted to help us unload, and which they did not.

Thankfully, back to the MEMA group, everything was worked out peacefully and the government agents left without further incidence. I just shudder to think of what would have happened had the government come in and confiscated these common, good, yet destitute people’s emergency sustenance. I would not have wanted to be a government agent taking the baby food from the mothers should it have escalated to that (and which they threatened to do). The government… can’t live with ‘em, but you can certainly live better without ‘em.

We returned home and pulled in to south Florida Monday around noon. We already had/have requests to repeat this again next week and with even more provisions and more trucks and with other companies coming forward. I just heard on the news that FEMA served two million meals in Mississippi this past week. I don’t know how many meals truly were served to the citizens and hopefully they weren’t including the government workers in that number. But I just figured up that our individual operation of private citizens provided the equivalent of 184,000-200,000 meals in just a 48 hour response time… JUST OUR SMALL GROUP! We accomplished approximately 1/10^th of what the government is ‘claiming’ they have done. And OUR figures aren’t doctored. On top of that we had ZERO overhead as everything was donated and given freely. On the other hand, how much did it cost the American public to finance FEMA and their meals?

Free people consisting of common men and women can accomplish more and in a shorter time than any government. We had 46 tons of supplies, 7,000 watt generator, 9- 55 gallon drums of various fuels, in 48 hours. And we’re planning more. There is a point here to be made and the government doesn’t want to hear it. God uses ordinary men to accomplish extraordinary tasks…we just have to be willing.