News Archive LAST UPDATE  September 29, 2005
September 29, 2005 Emergency Fundraising campaign to help those afflicted by Hurricane Katrina. Funds to assist victims in Biloxi, Mississippi
Appealing to the people of Tokyo to help those in need in Biloxi
Peace Boat has started a campaign to raise money for those left behind in aid operations. While government aid and a mass evacuation order has brought the majority of people affected by Hurricane Katrina to safety, there are still people left without aid or assistance.
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Biloxi as witnessed by the Peace Boat team
Peace Boat has made contributions to disaster relief operations both in Japan and abroad, including after the Kobe Earthquake of 1995 and more recently in the wake of the South East Asian Earthquake and Tsunami. In the aftermath of Katrina, striking the southern part of the United States, Peace Boat dispatched a surveyance team to assess the damage done and to find how Peace Boat can help in as constructive a way as possible.
Damage done to the town of Biloxi
After spending several days in the midst of the disaster relief operations in New Orleans and its vicinity, the team concluded that a large-scale relief operation had safely evacuated the large majority of citizens away from danger.

Although the flood waters had subsided in New Orleans, the city was to all intents and purposes empty, the only people present being the authorities and those involved in the relief operations, such as The Red Cross. The surveyance team observed a convention centre being used as a place where evacuated citizens are able to live in relative comfort, with food, air-conditioning and even internet access, and notice boards to facilitate communication between estranged loved ones.

Biloxi is a town located on a peninsula several hundred kilometres east of New Orleans. Biloxi had been struck by waves of 7-9 metres in height, and the destruction reflected this: houses had been fully uprooted from their foundations and transported by the massive waves. The Peace Boat team observed a few residents in Biloxi who had not evacuated, and while relief aid had reached Biloxi, it was simply not enough for the amount of people who had been left there. Coupled with this was a lack of information about how and where provisions and clothing were being distributed.
Peace Boat staff collecting funds for Biloxi
Peace Boat’s team were able to liase with a group of American volunteers, and were able to pass on advice about disaster relief work including the importance of an information bulletin with details of where and how one can receive clothing and food.

Peace Boat’s emergency fundraising campaign, conducted via street collections, will aim to help the poorest people in Biloxi who have been unfortunate enough to fall through the cracks of the government`s evacuation and relief operation. The funds collected will be sent to Biloxi in the middle of October. These will be delivered by Peace Boat staff who will make sure that the money is used in the most appropriate and effective way, since the situation and conditions and consequently the needs of the people, change daily. The Peace Boat team will continue to support the work of the American volunteers they encountered in Biloxi.

Persons in Japan wishing to contribute directly to Peace Boat’s fundraising campaign can do so to the following Japan Post Office account:

00180-3-177458 / Peaceboat

Please write “Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief” in the message column.
Enquiries: Takayama / Misu, on tokyo[at]peaceboat.gr.jp
Tel: 03-3363-7561 Fax: 03-3363-7562