Pine ridge declared disaster area after brutal snow storm(new article)

[Guest guest]

please ask for AMMAs blessing for the MA center to create a service that can

serve these people.800 homes have been left without heat,or power in sub-zero

temperatures.

 

baby's and elders will freeze to death this winter.please take this more

serious.this is a winter storm tsunami !not to mention it is the poorest place

in the country.many devotee's are doing something,but many more would help if at

least a small service was started through the MA CENTER...love u ,temba spirit.

 

read article below please

 

Pine Ridge residents running low on fuel and food

 

 

 

StoryDiscussion

 

 

Mary Garrigan

Journal staff | Posted: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 8:45 am

 

 

| (49) Comments

 

 

 

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Lloyd Wilcox hauled groceries home on a sled Tuesday to a house

without heat, days after a severe winter storm paralyzed the Pine

Ridge Indian Reservation and left an estimated 800 homes there

without propane.

 

 

Five days after the storm hit on Christmas Eve, reservation

residents are still facing unplowed roads, electrical outages,

broken water pipes and diminishing supplies of food and fuel.

 

 

On Tuesday, Oglala Sioux Tribe President Theresa Two Bulls

declared a state of emergency for the reservation. Two Bulls and

the tribe’s Emergency Management Team conferred Tuesday with

representatives from the state Office of Emergency Management and

road departments in Fall River, Custer and Haakon counties to

coordinate snow removal efforts.

 

 

Maureen Last Horse agrees that her broken water pipes,

impassable road and lack of propane constitute an emergency at her

isolated home about 7 miles southwest of Kyle.

 

 

“Our water lines broke because we ran out of propane on the

23rd,” Last Horse said. She and her family, including a 3-year-old

grandson, were forced to move into her sister’s home 2 miles away

on Christmas Day. The extended family of eight is still miles from

a plowed main road and were told by tribal officials that help may

still be days away.

 

 

“They didn’t grade our road yet,” she said. “They said it would

be a while.”

 

 

Tribal headquarters in Pine Ridge Village is being deluged with

calls for help. As of Tuesday, OST Emergency Manager Monica

Terkildsen had a list of 800 people without propane. That list is

expected to grow by another 200, said Loretta Cook, public

relations spokeswoman for the tribe.

 

 

The OST Transportation Department is working to clear secondary

roads and lengthy driveways around Oglala and Manderson as crews

work westward toward Kyle and Wanblee.

 

 

Wilcox, who is unemployed, ran out of propane on Sunday and said

he doesn’t know how he’ll pay for more even after his driveway is

cleared for a delivery truck. He spent Monday shoveling a path from

his home about 1 mile to S.D. Highway 44. On Tuesday, he hitchhiked

into Wanblee to buy groceries and to seek emergency help from the

tribe to buy more propane.

 

 

Wilcox received $400 in Low Income Energy Assistance Program

funds that purchased about 200 gallons of propane. That’s gone now,

and Wilcox was told by LIEAP officials that they can’t help him any

more this year.

 

 

“We ran out of propane two days ago,” Wilcox said. “I was hoping

the state of South Dakota would cut some emergency money loose to

help out with propane and electric heat costs.”

 

 

On Tuesday, Two Bulls said she plans to “notify and negotiate

with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Health Service

officials, and the U.S. Congress to obtain all financial and other

emergency assistance needed to deal with the hardship and crises

caused by the storm.”

 

 

Two Bulls said she is worried about children and elderly people

who need medical care and livestock owners who cannot get to their

cattle and horses to feed them.

 

 

Two Bulls will address the reservation on KILI Radio at 9 a.m.

today.

 

 

Main highways on the reservation had been cleared in time to

accommodate the Wounded Knee Anniversary ride, which saw about 150

horses and riders come into Pine Ridge Village on Tuesday to

commemorate the 119th anniversary of the Wounded Knee Massacre.

 

 

Contact Mary Garrigan at 394-8424 or mary.garrigan

 

 

 

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