Houston in need of help….
Normally, I don’t pass these things on because I don’t really know where they came from. This one is different, it’s from the daughter of friend. My friend rewrote it so it could be posted and sent to others. Read and ponder, and if you can do something to help, please do so. Evidently, FEMA didn’t learn from the aftermath of Katrina and now Houston is in the same fix.
My daughter Jennifer lives in Houston outside the outer beltway. Three days ago, her electricity came back on. Since the hurricane, services that we take for granted are a hardship, even for the people who are lucky enough to have power. At the grocery store, people are allowed into the store accompanied by store employees. Only 20 people are allowed in at a time. They can get a limited selection of groceries – milk, eggs and bread being very precious and hard to get. They are then checked out using cash. The lines are long and Jenny has waited upwards to a couple hours for food. Gas lines are the same. This is still happening on a daily basis for her. Of course, she considers herself one of the lucky ones – she had emergency cash on hand and has non-perishable food to last several weeks. Now, magnify Jenny’s plight by millions. Not hundreds, not thousands, MILLIONS. 1.2 million people are still without power in and around Houston. These people are running out of cash, are having difficulty getting around to get groceries because they need gas for their cars, and are doing the best they can to survive. Neighbors and family are helping each other. But there are poeple there without that family or friend network.
Since she’s capable of caring for herself, Jenny decided to volunteer in some way to help the people who’ve lost everything, including their homes. Because the news is filled with headlines about the latest political campaign, Houston’s massive cleanup and rebuilding its infrastructure have passed from the public’s eye.
Jenny has been volunteering at a Red Cross shelter for the past 3 days. The shelter is an old big box store that was closed down. The Red Cross has set up cots, handed out blankets, and given each person a small bag of travel-size personal toiletries. Port-A-Potties and the trailer showers have been set up outside for hygienic purposes. Hand sanitizer is scattered throughout the shelter to help people keep clean. Each day, more buses arrive with more people. An entire group of mentally disabled people is now housed in this shelter. Their own facility is gone. The website says that only people who are being bussed back are in this shelter. However, Jenny says there are several people there who claim they were homeless before the hurricane. There are about 1000 people at this place. So far. There are 40 Red Cross volunteers – 2 groups are from Taiwan and Mexico’s version of Red Cross. One individual is the “mental health officer.” In trying to handle the crisis, the Red Cross volunteers have been at the shelter from 6 AM to 10 PM – without breaks. Many have had nothing to eat all day. Anyone who appears to possess food is descended upon by the clients and there’s simply no way to share with everyone. So because the Red Cross workers can’t take a break, they are simply not eating. There is no way to cook food. The Red Cross is handing out self-heating MREs (Meals-Ready-To-Eat). Tonight, Verizon donated 100 pizzas and 43 sandwiches to this shelter. Jenny said the “clients” fell on the food like starving wolves. Many of them have had little to eat for days.
The volunteers are there to help the people fill out forms to get aid, try to get them whatever they need as far as personal stuff (some only came with the clothes on their backs) and generally help people get settled with a cot and corner to call their own until FEMA and other emergency measures can be taken. From what I understand, FEMA has been so overwhelmed that the supply line is backed up and people are not getting the resources they need. The newspapers paint a rosier picture, but the reality is, thousands and thousands of people have lost not only their homes, but their livelihoods.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/us/21houston.html?em
Many of the clients come up to the Red Cross personnel and ask if they can help find a job. They understand the predicament they’re in, and are desperate for work to help themselves. Sadly, there aren’t any jobs available and even if there were, the Red Cross can’t give them one.
Up close and personal – Jenny says the biggest issue is FOOD. These people, including the workers, are going hungry. At different times during the day, she says even the Red Cross workers have broken down over the misery of not being able to alleviate the hunger. Sure, the clients are getting at least one meal a day, which is better than nothing, but for bodies used to 3 meals a day, its hard. One Red Cross worker hid under a desk so no one could see her crying. Then she wiped her tears, dusted off her hands and went back to work.
I am asking each of you to go to the Red Cross website and donate money or your time. If you can go down there to volunteer, please go give the aid workers help if its possible. If you can, take a busload of people with you – maybe your church group or your cheerleading squad or your boy scout troup. I realize school is in session and this is probably unlikely. But you could ask your schools and work to do a fund-raising drive for the Red Cross.
I realize a lot of folk were not happy with the Red Cross a few years ago due to issues that made the news. But that has changed. Jenny has volunteered to man a TV hotline for aid, a FEMA POD center and the Red Cross shelter she’s now at. She says the Red Cross, BY FAR, is the most organized, most helpful and most reliable at getting the goods and services out there. But they are being slowly overwhelmed by the magnitude of Houston’s dire straits. Here’s the link for Houston’s Red Cross:
http://www.houstonredcross.org/
Please, if you can help, donate.
Thank you!
P.S. You have my permission to send this email to anyone as you see fit.