This is deplorable. Did the goverment (state or federal) not have something in place to assist in distribution and storage of these wonderful donations? It does not help those that need them if it is sitting in a gas station parking lot getting ruined.

This is a disgrace. Many folks packed these items with love and good intentions. To have these items sit, is just another example of how much our government still needs to learn when a catastophe strikes.

Okay so where is this stuff exactly located so
I can get a truck, pick it up and take it to
storage for the next disaster?

Generosity is wonderful and we have to remember the reason it was sent was to be helpful. If the citizens in need don't search out the help offered and take it, how can anyone be to blame for that. Anyone passing by can take what is available and spread the word. Everyone has to be responsible.

What is the charity that they are being sent to?Who is responsible for distributing donations? Who deposits the boxes in this lot? I do not intend to blame any government until i know where it came from. Instead of blaming, please whomever is responsible, post your info here. What else is needed. Racks, renting a Locale for a month. Does it need to be moved. Please tell and maybe we can help. Don't let the donations go to waste.

This is absolutely discusting! All of those items are going to waste. Do the people of the area not know that the items are there? If they do they should be ashamed. If they can't use the donations then take a little bit of it and pass it on to someplace that will. My 10 year old boys ransacked their rooms after the hurricane to find things (their own things) to send to the victims and to think our donations could just be sitting there turning into garbage....next time we will just send our donations somewhere local.

A local agency needs to take responsibility for those donations. The breakdown is in LOCAL government for NOT taking responsibility for those donations. How hard is it to find a group of regular volunteers and dispatch them to a empty storefront where the clothing could be seperated into appropriate racks and distributed as needed. Lets think about this for a second too.. How many pairs of USED items would you yourself own when NEW stuff is being offered up to you as well.. Not much I am sure. These people are thinking about food and shelter, clothing is last on their list of items they need right now for the adults. People with children are not there, there are no schools open..
How much do any of us need when we have no children? And no house to store any stuff? And no insurance money coming to help rebuild my house?

Are the people of this city that well off, that they have the choice to pick and choose. It just goes to show that some people just don't get it. People reached out to help by sending these donations. Pack them up and send them to a shelter where others less fortunate will appreciate the donations.

Again, the media puts a negative slant on everything. Why don't we hear how this situation got like this and what is being done to remedy it? Perhaps there is a plan to distribute these items and no one bothered to find out and report it? Why do we want to publicize something that will only discourage people from helping people? Where are the GOOD stories in this Katrina mess? I'm sure there are a lot of good things being done out there to assist......isn't there?

If this country can waste billions on Iraq, it seems to me all that clothing that is not going to be picked up by a certain date the goverment should have some of it boxed and shipped to earthquake victims or any nation that would appreciate it.

I just arrived home last night from the Gulfport area, after being gone 11 days from my home in Anchorage, Alaska, serving with a group from my church in several cities, including Gulfport, Bay St. Louis, and Pass Christian, plus smaller communities. Yes, there are parking lots full of unorganized clothing in several cities we served in, and no, I don't know "who's responsible," etc. It made me angry too, and if I could have done something about it then I would have. But my team and I were too busy removing trees and debris from yards and feeding hungry people. The people down there are still in shock and are trying to survive the best they can. Cut the armchair quarterbacking and the criticism, will you? If you want to help, contact the folks at www.prccompassion.org. That's the organization we went through that has a local church in Gulfport directing operations for them. They are one of many non-government organizations working in the area.

i have been to waveland and served in a tent giving out clothes to about 1000 people a day.the tent is in the k-mart parking lot in waveland.the food and clothes tents are being run by a partnership of churches.Christian Life Church of Alabama,Heartland Community Church of Rockford Il. and Willow Creek Church of South Barrington Il. to name a few.They have all clothes sorted by gender and size.FEMA and the Red Cross are studying this operation for its efficiency.Teams of volunteers (35) are being shuttled down from illinois continuously twice a week to serve our brothers in waveland and the surrounding area.

My husband and I arrived in Bay St. Louis two weeks after Katrina hit. You still couldn't get through the majority of the streets, there was no electricity or water and debris was right where Katrina left it. But, the parking lots were already filled with food, clothing and basic necessity donations.

If the government had a system in place for distribution and/or storage of the donations, it certainly wasn't visible. No one, however, could have anticipated the total devastation of Bay St. Louis/Waveland. Homes are completely gone, trees are gone, cars are gone and, to be honest, most of the residents are gone. Any public building safe enough to enter is being used as shelter for emergency workers.

It's not that the donations aren't appreciated and/or needed. There's literally no place to store any of these items until people can return to the area nor people to organize the effort. We'll go back in November, but in the meantime, when anyone asks what they can do to help, we suggest they volunteer to help clean up the clean up!

It's easy to see why most people would be sad or frustrated by the sight of these donations being wasted but I like this picture. Bear with me for a minute and I'll explain why--

There are a number of reasons why these clothes were wasted. First, most of the people they were intended for are not here. They aren't in Waveland or New Orleans or in most cases even close. Most of the people who needed them lost thier holmes and had to leave. The lucky ones had a friend or a relative within a hundred miles- most are scattered all over the country.
The second point is that for those who had a house to come back to, clothes were not a priority. You had the clothes you left with and your just wanted to get back to your place and salvage as much as you could. You quickly realised that what was important was water and something to eat followed by a chain saw(to get the trees off your house) or gloves and a mask so you could rip out your carpet and pull out your sheetrock before the mold/muck destroyed what was left.
The local authorities were overwelmed by the magnitude of the disaster and anyone who had faired relatively well was helping everyone else.
Simply put, no one could dedicate the time needed to deal with donations like this and some of them(mostly clothes)were not well used.
So that's why this "stuff" is on the street in front of an Exxon.
And why do I like to see it?-- because I know that it is just "stuff" but I also know that I can look at each pile and know that someone cared enough and took the time to give every shirt and pair of pants there. That somewhere in those boxes is some little girl's favorite doll and if we looked closely we might find a small piggy bank. Maybe we would find out that the assorted baby formula came from a mother who couldn't really afford it but that understood how important it would be to another mother and her baby. That's what makes this a beautiful picture.
If this pictue still makes you sad, then take another look. To me it represents the loving and caring people who where part of it. The "stuff' was a small loss compared to the message that came with it. That message helped us through this ordeal in a way that no material help could.
We are eternally gratefull to all those who helped us in so many ways. We've had workers and volunteers here from every part of the country working 12-18 hours a day/seven days a week, sleeping on cots in the heat... and I haven't yet heard a negative word from one of them.
I pray you will never need the kind of help you have given us but if you do, I trust that you too, will know that you are not alone.

We just came back from Bay St. Louis last weekend. You cannot begin to comprehend the devastation. The people of Bay St. Louis are desperate for help and many are unable to get help, even professional help. The churches have stacks of work orders from the community and they are housing and bringing in teams of people daily. There is a ton of help, but such a need for so much more. Before you complain about the donations being organized, please ask yourself, what is more important, the stuff or helping the people of Waveland and Bay St. Louis so that they have shelter. Because they are left with nothing and insurance is simply not paying, they are desperate for all the help they can get. Please get a group together and go and help. When you get there you will realize the incredible blessing it was to have the donations that were given to help our team. The First Baptist Church in Bay St. Louis is like a Wal-Mart. As we were working and needed cleaners, tools, rags, anything, we walked across the street to pick up anything we needed. Their entire fellowship hall was filled with organized clothing that the residents are aware of and are taking advantage of. Thank you for donating because if it was not for you and your donations, I do not know what our team would have done. If any group wants to go to the First Baptist Church in Bay St. Louis and help them remove the 2 feet of mud in their sanctuary so they can house more people and items, please go.
The truth is exactly what the previous person said, any public building safe enough to enter is being used to house workers and the churches, government and community are doing everything in their power to meet the needs of this incredible devastation. Please listen to the truth from people that have been there and do not allow the media's negativity to influence your opinion. I personally only saw 2 gas stations this way. Many of the donations are being organized and sorted so please do not stop giving. They are so needed.

How can the government control this? THeir is no government in these towns. THere is no infrastructure. Also, while I admire the people who donated, these are old, obsolete clothes.

I personally have benefitted from the generous donations from all over the country. I live in Bay St. Louis. I had no shoes and few clothes after the storm. A pair of size 9 sneakers got me through the first several weeks and I am sincerely grateful!! I too see clothing stacked out in the open but there are numerous places where the items are well organized and under shelter. It makes me sad to hear the comments from people who have no idea what has happened here critisizing us and accusing us of being ungrateful. There are still people living in tents and under tarps, they are grateful too but they don't have room to keep alot of clothing and they are pre-occupied with more basic needs like food, water and shelter. There are so many wonderful people here from all over who have sacrificed their vacations and time away from their families and work. We, the people of the gulf coast are eternally grateful. Please dont critisize until you have walked in our shoes.

After just returning from a week of relief work in Mississippi, please go easy on these poor people. When supplies come in, there is honestly no place to go with all the donations. The churches we saw are doing the best they can to distribute supplies, but they were heavily damaged or destroyed as well. They are working bringing in workers from across the country, desperately trying to bring help to the community around them, but it is not even putting a band aid on the situation, when there are people without homes, vehicles, food, and all the things we regularly take for granted. People are walking around with just the clothes on their back. My prayers are with y'all, and I will be back to help again soon!!

18,000 pair of underwear arrived yesterday for distribution under the tent in the k-mart parking lot in waveland.i personnally helped give away 2 truckloads of clothes in 3 days in waveland.the donations are needed.food water and clothes now.help with rebuilding soon.

I was in Bay St. Louis. Right now sorting the clothes is the least of their worries. They get what they need as they need it. They are not going to take more than that as it is not fair to others. It is far better that there are too many donations than not enough. Stop criticizing those trying to help and if you want to help, send money or listen to what is needed before you donate.

I am a disaster response worker having been in the Gulf Coast areas now since Aug 29th. I've been to the areas of Hankcock & Harrison county south of the railroad tracks, and now into LA parishes for Rita recovery as well. The residents are grateful for any and all assistance, I can assure you. Yes, concerned citizens, local, state, and Federal officials are working together to meet the needs of residents. Not always will it be to everyone's likes or dislikes, decisions are made as best they can at the time they are made. Neighbors do help neighbors, and help has come from many far away neighbors as well. The strength of the people has been tested since landfall of Katrina and Rita both residents and recovery teams. Officials have asked to channel donations in the form of cash mostly into the Red Cross or other organizations simply because of the shortages of warehousing abilities for many coastal communities. Please continue your support by registering for volunteer programs, Churches, Red Cross, Salvation Army etc and or sending any cash donations to the your chosen charity/non-profit organization. Know that anything other Americans have done for the Gulf Coast residents has simply not been ignored, but deeply, deeply appreciated, I see it 7 days a week on the faces of the people I meet. Recovery is happening, in some areas it's still simply "one day at a time"--Thank you

I worked at the Waveland Free Market and Cage for a week. It was all we could do to sort food, cleaning supplies and hygiene products people sent. The clothing is in piles at the back of the parking lot and when the people went through the boxes it looked like seagulls at the beach. We prayed in group for someone to come and organize the clothing donations. Just a note, when a relief center is serving 600 people on weekdays and 2000 people on Sat and Sunday, it's fairly hectic trying to open boxes and sort goods. If your church or organization is doing a donation drive, take an extra step and "sort" the products before you ship them, ie. put all shampoo in one box, all soap in another, etc. These people are living in the woods and need Mosquito repellant, calomine lotion etc. If you are sending sheets, wrap the fitted sheet with the flat and pillow cases, tape them together and mark the size. FEMA trailors have a full/queen mattress in them and many children have twin bunks. PLEASE send Liquid Laundry Detergent. Many have little or no hot water. We were literally bagging up dry soap powder (5 scoops to a baggie) to hand out. ALSO Fabric Softner, this may seem trivial to you but if you're washing in a bucket or bathtub with dry soap powder then have to use a clothes line, these clothes aren't the most comfortable. Washing clothes is a big issue and it may be why some have left so much clothing lying in the parking lots. They do not have washers, dryers rows of cleaning products to choose from at the local grocery store, etc. Ladies actually cried when they saw clothline and clothes pins in the relief buckets. Some one please send a bunch of this! I am starting a drive in Tampa for Shovels, Rakes, Brooms and Mops. Do something in your town OTHER than clothes. We heard on the news early on, please do not send clothes. If you want to clean out something, clean out your shed and send your unneeded garden tools or clean out your wallet and send something to clean these clothes with. Like all the other volunteers who posted, my heart is with these people. After meeting them, I know they would do the same for me.

This is absolutley digusting. These people spent their time and effort donating these needed items only for it to be wasted. If local people were informed of this good will, i guarantee these items would not go to waste.

This story on the overflow of clothing was posted well over a month ago at www.sunherald.com. Here's the link:
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/special_packages/hurricane_katrina/communities/gulfport/12699175.htm
If you can't copy/paste the link, then just go to www.sunherald.com and click on the "city by city" section, then click on Gulfport. This city section gives you past and present news from Gulfport and the surrounding smaller cities. These are the stories that will give you the real picture of what life is like in these communities as the weeks of recovery go by.

I am from Bay St. Louis, MS. My kids and I lost everything. Most people I know here, are overwhelmed with gratitude regarding the help we have received. I don't know how any of the distribution points in the beginning stages could have been organized in such a war zone, choatic state of affairs. As time pasted, tents with air conditioning being blown in were put up. I shopped for clothes and found some wonderful items, some still with the price tag still on them. It was extremely hot searching for clothes, towels, sheets, etc. on that pavement and one could only take so much of it. To all the people that appear to be angry, let me say this: we ARE very grateful and I don't know what we would have done without your generous donations. I hope you will also take into consideration how much we have to deal with here. The manual labor I experienced over a 3 week time period exhausted me and others. I personally was surprised that I was able to be so physical when I needed to be. There just weren't enough hours in the day it seemed. Please know that everyone here is grateful. I don't know what we would have done without the generous donations ya'll have made.....whether it was organized or not, really didn't seem to matter - the donations were there for us and so I say God Bless to all of you and thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

I remember very well the same situation when Andrew in 92. Water, food and all kind of clothing were under the sun and water getting spoil and melting away under no supervision,Right after Kratrina's desvastation a Miami radio station collected 2 trucks loaded with toys.TOYS! give me a break We need to be more realistic under this circustances

Quit sending clothes and start sending stuff we can use, construction supplies, nails, sheetrock, lumber, we have no where to put the clothes until we can rebuild, the media is ignorant to this plight and unfortunately it just adds to the debri piles, along with plastic water bottles littered all over the land.

this is very dreadful. my family is suffering in pakistan from a very sever cold. i am in saudia and i could do nothing for them as they are all outside shevering in cold without tent and medicine or enough food and blankets to save their lives... so i need the direct help of someone... khalid

I think it is very touching that so many people have reached out and have donated so many items. My husband and I made some basic needs donations. I dropped them all off at our CT National Guard faciltiy. Our governor has coordinated this relief effort for (2) wks. I was amazed by the out pour and generosity of people in CT. I think the govenment officals were very over whelmed liked everyone during Katrina. I recommend some church groups may be able to help coordinate some of this distribution with the Red Cross volunteers. It's a very frustrating situation for everyone. There are also alot of colleges that are coordinating relief efforts. My sister is a Chaplin at Converse University in Spartensburg, SC. She coordinated a mission trip with students from Converse and Clemson Unversity and some church volunteers. They traveled for 12 hours to Maiterie, LA. The did a variety of various duties. In the future a college mission trip could be helpful in distributing clothes and organizing them or whatever it may take to help everyone future needs.

I have held paid staff positions with the American Red Cross and organizations benefiting the homeless on local, national and international levels. The thing we need to recognize here folks is that “donating” is not a time to clean out your closets. If you would not use it, don’t donate it. Only donate items you would like to receive…no exceptions. I can’t number the boxes that I have seen that nonprofit organizations have had to incur the cost of disposing of because someone “cleaned out” their closet and decided to donate the items instead of disposing of them themselves.

Just because someone is in need, doesn’t mean they need what you don’t want.

Yes there are clothes everywhere. (I'm in Jackson Co on the other side of the state). I can say too that I didn't get any clothes because we didn't need them (and I'm not going to take away from the ones that do need it). My friends who lost evertyhing got a few things for themselves then also got boxes of clothes delivered to my house! We are all so grateful for the donations, help, and prayers people from around the world have given to us! Like someone said before, some people don't have the room for anything other than essentials because they are still living in tents and many people have moved away (I'm honestly surprised at how many homes are for sale right now).

Please don't critisize us until you've been here. We are getting what we need. (trust me, everyone I run in to I try to make it a point to find out how they are and if they need anything as I am more than willing to take people to get stuff!) Again, we are all so thankful and proud to have everyone help us!

This country is rich in soul and in hearts yet we lack the understanding of others to seek out the good in them. The clothing is a small part of what they are facing yet you all's comments sugguest that they are rich..Well perhaps they are not just in soul.
Think about it.

Where can I send actual needed items such as fabric softener, etc? I want to make sure it will get to where it's needed.

I'm was in "The Bay" 2 weeks after Katrina hit. At that time, survivors and volunteers and yes, even the government was too busy with the daily activity of surviving to take time to sort clothes. But......we all thank you so much for sending items, money, people and love. We were so taken by the show of love and support that even after 10 weeks we still are overwelmed by all of you and your concern.

I assure you,I live a block from the Exxon that the cloths were dropped, there wasn't a day that families were not shopping for clothes.This is a problem that grew over time, the people who dropped the clothes were dropping them illegally on the proprety. If they would have dropped them where volunteers were working, it would have been a lot more efficient. As for the people with comments that aren't even from here, keep your comments to yourself . We are having a hard enough time getting our lives up and running again.

What has happened with these donations it is more than half a year later I would like to know. With a concern for others and meaning no disrespect I hope you realize how much you all mean to all of us. I agree that sometimes people are not very mindful of their actions and that using Katrina as a way to get rid of unwanted items is not helpful. Better to hold a rummage sale and send the money! Or make something from the fabric and sell it! So I would love to know what happened because being a recyler myself some see a mess I see an opportunity to be real creative. I just attended a wedding where the women who had an dress that I admired made it out of some material intended for furniture it was bueatiful and that kind of creativity could make something bueatiful with those clothes.

Those of you complaining about the failure of government to manage this STUFF (Stuff Thats Useless For Folks) have no idea how much of this STUFF just shows up, a report makes a statement that a little boy needs a T shirt and 10,000 boxes of T shirts show up from Firefighers, EMS workers, Civic Clubs, Church organizations and well meaning people... There is no coordination with anyone on either end, STUFF just comes and comes and comes.... Tons and Tons of it... So before you and your group send that T shirt to that little boy... make sure it is needed or it will end up as more debris that needs to me moved, burned or buried in the over filled landfill! The local govenments are busy trying to get the basic needs met, not set up a clothing distrubution point on racks set up by color and sizes...

I can put an end to this discussion. As a volunteer guided only by a desire to help the TRULY needy, my friends and I worked at that corner in Waveland where this picture was taken. We started cooking meals there one week after Katrina hit and fed upwards of 3000 people per weekend. (including FEMA, Red Cross, etc) The locals that got food from us said they needed other supplies like clothing, tents, diapers, air matresses, etc. Only through the heart felt generosity of people back home in Alabama did these wishes come true. Yes, in the end some weeks later other individuals showed up and dropped off mounds of clothing --- but only after we had left that location. I assure you OUR clothing was neatly hung on racks we built on site by volunteers that were there. In the end, I believe a lot of what you see in this picture was removed by the corp of engineers. Until then, the site was visited on a daily basis by locals and they appreciated everything that was available. Honestly, if you were not there helping in the relief of this devastated area, I don't see where anyone has the right to criticize the willingness of others who were only trying to contribute in some small way. Basically, if you were not there, YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!!!!!

I was there in Waveland & Bay St. Louis the week following the storm working with our church's ministry team. We fed thousands of people on a daily basis (our mobile kitchen is still located in the region providing meals to this day almost a year later) and even ministered in music to Waveland just a few weeks after the storm to uplift their spirits. When they came to us for help, most wanted ice, water, diapers, formula, hot meals and medical help to which we were able to provide through donations from all over America. There were tons of clothes at the drop site in Covington, LA, too. And what could be used at the time was used. Anyone was allowed to take what they needed when it came to clothing. But just as the previous comments stated, when you have nowhere to put anything, including sheltering the generous donations, you do the best you can with what you have. If you weren't there, you don't know what horrific things people had to endure to survive the aftermath and the back breaking work that went into digging through, organizing and handing out donations. How can you justify sheltering boxes of clothes and toys from the elements when there were families living in the woods with no shelter at all, and nothing but a tarp roof over their heads if even that? Priorities people...priorities. Reading some of these rude comments made by those who think they have the solution to solve everything was disheartening. To think that you'd lash out at the victims of this storm or at those who were trying to help for the shape the donations were in at that point is ridiculous. Why is there always plenty of blame and judgment to pass around but never enough understanding? Sometimes a picture isn't worth the thousand words the media puts with it.

Hands of mercy,is an orphanage home,located in Ghana Africa.we please if you can help us with used choths for our Ghana home.we has 21kid at our costody.hoping to hear yours respond