ACN
Sergio Ramos, a Canary Islander who coordinates aid efforts to the descendants from Baton Rouge, makes an urgent appeal for help in a letter sent to the media in the Islands. "The news we are receiving from the Parish of San Bernardo is even more alarming and devastating than the most pessimistic citizen could imagine," explains Ramos.
"On the one hand, the work of collecting corpses has already begun, the number of which has not yet been revealed by local authorities. On the other hand, we are faced with the fact that most of San Bernardo remains under water. And as if misfortune had not plagued this area founded by our Canary ancestors enough, now there is the oil spill originating from the Murphy Oil Refinery," he continues.
Ramos explains that the sum of all these factors creates "a Dante-esque panorama where the salt water of the Gulf of Mexico that covers San Bernardo mixes with highly polluting chemicals, excrement and corpses that are beginning to decompose."
The authorities in the area, given the panorama described by Ramos, fear the emergence of diseases in the area. Thus, the entry of residents (some 70,000 people) into the area is prohibited until the waters recede, after which the return can only be temporary to collect personal items, and by sectors.
The reconstruction of the area inhabited by some 50,000 descendants of those Canary Islanders who arrived in Louisiana at the end of the 18th century, explains Ramos, "will cost billions of dollars and will require the participation of public and private entities." Therefore, this professor, currently focused on helping the victims, reiterates "on behalf of all Canary Islanders and friends of the same, our request for help for those who have shown so much love for the Fortunate Islands."
Alejandro Sanz Díez is the coordinator of the Canary Islands Foundation for Education and Culture (CIFEC, Canary Islands Foundation for Education and Culture), the organization that tries to ensure that Canary Islanders in the United States fulfill a maxim: 'a Canary Islander nearby is a friend'.
Sanz explains that in view of the tragedy left in its wake by Katrina, CIFEC has launched a fundraising campaign for the Canary descendants residing in the US affected by Hurricane Katrina, which is responsible for disseminating, from the Canary Government, the Canary Society for Economic Development (Proexca).
From CIFEC, made up of more than a hundred Canary Islanders and their descendants residing in the USA, it is recalled that Hurricane 'Katrina' has left more than 50,000 Canary Islanders homeless in the United States and that in the Canary Islands they have supported "our compatriots abroad when they have needed our help", so help is requested for those affected by the hurricane.
To this end, various current accounts have been set up in Caja Canarias (2065 0000 01 4000008061), La Caja de Canarias (2052 8150 71 44 000004-06), Caja Rural de Canarias (3177 00 01 14 2057 611 226), Caja Rural de Tenerife (3076 0001 82 2076486121), La Caixa (2100 587 436 07 00000 116), and Banco Santander Central Hispano (0049 1848 71 2310316835).
