Cindy Sheehan, the grieving military mother whose vigil outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, TX, focused the nation's attention on the human cost of the Iraq war, will be arriving in Covington, LA, joining the ongoing national volunteer effort to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Immediately after Sheehan's vigil at "Camp Casey" in Crawford ended on Aug. 31, veterans who'd participated in the vigil drove all leftover supplies from the campsite -- toilet paper, medicines, water, and food -- to Covington, La., for distribution to hurricane victims. Since Sept. 2, they have been in Covington, operating a relief operation out of "Camp Casey III."

"My efforts for these last weeks since we left Camp Casey in Crawford have been about standing up against the inept policies of the Bush Administration and about helping people who are suffering because of those policies," Sheehan said. "The good citizens of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are certainly among this group, and I want to do whatever I can to be of assistance to them."

Volunteers at Camp Casey III have already delivered over 100 tons of food and supplies to communities in Louisiana and Mississippi that had seen no relief until they arrived.

They are working with community leaders in some areas; in other areas, they are simply delivering food, water, and other supplies to individuals. Yesterday they delivered 20 tons of supplies to the neighborhoods of West Bank, Algiers, lower gardens and French Quarter in New Orleans and Bay St. Louis and Kiln, Mississippi.

To find out more about Camp Casey III in Covington, Louisiana, see http://www.vfproadtrips.org (AScribe, Sept. 13)

See our last posts on the propaganda war around Cindy Sheehan and Katrina's aftermath.