NIAS & THE N.O. CONVENTION CENTER - SING TOGETHER - A NEW FIRST RESPONDERS TACTIC

BBC News - crowd at the stadium

Birdie wrote earlier today:
I am in Los Angeles, working at Paramount Studios (the MTV/VH-1 Katrina benefit was staged there yesterday).

A few days after Katrina ROARED in the Gulf Coast....

I was at my desk at Paramount, and I had the transmission feed on, coming from the stage where they tape "The Insider" an Entertainment Tonight spin-off show. I saw footage of Harry Connick, Jr come on - and he was walking down an abandoned Canal Street in New Orleans.

It was either Wednesday or Thursday. The thousands of people who had been asked to evac to the Convention Center in downtown N.O, were now VERY hungry and thirsty and had been promised over and over that help was coming and yet, no one was showing up. They were starting to get agitated and were chanting "We Need Help!!"

I knew that there were buses getting people out of the Superdome and they COULD send buses there - but - they weren't.....I surveyed the crowd....old, women, disabled, children, hippies, mostly black and/or poor.

I quickly put it together that "the authorities" were afraid of mob scenes breaking out over anyone coming in with food/water or transport and put all on hold until they had armed escorts.

Remember the scene on - wasn't it western Nias - when, because they had been ignored for so long, the villagers were extra anxious to get supplies and a few of the men had been drinking Palm Wine - creating a bad mix - desperate and unruly?

Well....I remembered it and my attention returned to Harry Connick, jr famed New Orleans singer/performer....now alking the streets of N. O with a camera crew.

I picked up the phone and got a line right to one of the producers for "The Insider" - I told her I had just seen the Harry Connick, Jr feed come in - that I needed to get a message to him and the media crew on the ground with him. I relayed the story about the "unruly mob" in Nias, which sent the relief workers into retreat and how they were able to come back and get the villagers to sit down, and start singing their traditional songs - and that it calmed them down, and then, they were able to come back and get the aid delivered, in a orderly fashion.

She asked if the group was "Surf Aid International" and I said no, but that SAI had stayed with my friend, Rick (at ELM headquarters) and that they were involved with the same over-all group of surfers. She could have been a surfer. Anyway.....

I said that I needed Harry to get people to start singing....at The Convention Center, on the buses, at the hospitals....and she said like what? "America the beautiful?" and I said "No, "AMAZING GRACE" or traditional New Orleans songs....

Anyway, the two of us composed an email on the spot and whoosh......off it went to the team in N.O.

I was so grateful I had connected with such a SMART AWARE producer!!!

She totally got that it could help save lives....getting everyone to SIT DOWN and SING.

It would calm the crowd down but also....make them look completely non-threatening to obviously freaked out overwhelmed first responders who were hearing about gunfire, snipers, looting.....and a very large anxious crowd.

The message did get to Harry....and the media crews wound up finding nurses singing at Charity Hospital "we love you, we need you to survive" who had been tending to patients around the clock for over 5 days with power, plumbing and supplies....UNBELIEVABLE.

But more importantly, I want you all to know that "The Insider" got Aaron Neville to sing "AMAZING GRACE" as an exclusive, the very next night, and.....he performed it on the Hurricane Relief show that Harry Connick, Jr organized - as the closing song... the next day, MSNBC had a whole montage of clips that ran to Aaron's recorded version of "Amazing Grace"....and there was footage of people standing, where their church once was, maybe it was at Waveland (it was just a slab of concrete)....singing "Amazing Grace"....

A few more days went by....Faith Hill (country singer) was on the ground at a shelter and one of the evac's asked her to sing...."AMAZING GRACE" and it was run on "The Oprah" show.

I've been digging through my mails trying to find the original mails from Rick regarding the crowds in Nias and how that was handled....with the singing.

I have to tell you guys that the SIT DOWN and SING tactic NEEDS to be taught to FIRST RESPONDERS.... EVERYWHERE.

Often, that is LOCAL Law Enforcement, Red Cross, and FEMA. But, I think that the Red Cross needs to take up the charge, and, be in-charge of training not only their staff but to get the word out to police, hospital, church, and other community groups that can be in the position of being first responders.

I was only able to get through to the media and performers.

At this point....crowd control is no longer an issue, and I want to stay out of the way of what needs to be dealt with NOW...

But, I am mulling over how to proceed, in terms of getting the word out to the first responder community....maybe a call to Larry King on CNN...calls to the Red Cross....

I cannot express HOW important a TOOL for first responders this is....

Rick - if you have the original mails or more to add - please provide them so that I can forward them.

Your story needs to get to the Red Cross and FEMA.... Birdie

Thanks Birdie - (have edited your text slightly for clarity).

YOU made this happen and you probably saved a bunch of lives and a lot of pain. Amazing! See Associated Press carried a story about volunteers with bullhorns singing "Amazing Grace" to crowds waiting for transport this morning! http://www.wired.com/news/hurricane/0,2904,68833,00.html?tw=wn_story_top5
Rick