Help for the victims of Hurricane Ike

I'd rather donate my time, but since I can't I donated money.

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Link to report status or search for a loved one, also to make donations. http://www.redcross.org/

Contact your local Red Cross to obtain care package lists and drop off locations.

Volunteer Opportunities

* American Red Cross of Central Texas: Report to the Austin Volunteer Resource Center (City of Austin Northwest Recreation Center at 2913 Northland Drive) between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Background checks are required. Visit www.centex.redcross.org for more information.
* 2-1-1: Needs 10 volunteers to answer phone calls and provide information about disaster information. Volunteers will relay information on shelters and evacuation routes, and direct volunteers and people donating goods to the appropriate agencies.
* OneStar Foundation (a Texas nonprofit that manages national volunteer programs): Needs 100 volunteers for its donations management call center. OneStar will hold a mandatory Web-based training at their office or online. Visit www.onestarfoundation.org/ for more information.

http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/consumer/storms/cpmhurrike.html

Volunteer link on Salvation Army page: http://salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn_2.nsf

Save the Children has an emergency alert: http://www.savethechildren.org/newsroom/2008/texas-hurricane-ike.html

:hug:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=360

My suggestion though is to move Red Cross down on the list. Based on my experience with them, I'd also move Salvation Army up since they were in LA/MS faster, with less hassles for all involved, after Katrina.


Haiti was hit very hard, here are places to donate for there:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=360&topic_id=700&mesg_id=700

Texas:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=360&topic_id=699&mesg_id=699
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=360&topic_id=698&mesg_id=698
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=360&topic_id=697&mesg_id=697

Thanks for posting this stuff again.

KHOU forum (searching for people, reports from affected areas, etc) http://www.khou.com/forums

I worked with the Red Cross in Mississippi after Katrina and it was a racist clusterf*ck.(Not overtly racist, but still...) They were also out of the area within 3 months (except the local chapters).

But the Salvation Army fed survivors and volunteers at least through the end of 2007; I'm not sure if they're still there. The Salvation Army also assisted survivors by helping them navigate through FEMA paperwork, cleaning up and restoring neighborhoods, and even financially helping evacuees resettling elsewhere. I think they have better oversight of the money and use it more wisely than the Red Cross. And I never once, in the two years I was coordinating volunteers on the coast, heard the Salvation Army proselytize to people seeking help.

For instance, 1 guy was trained for food bank, ended up running a shelter and was upset at all the paperwork needed to get anything.

There were a few of us who were frustrated, but we were the grunts. The supervisor jobs went to people with political connections within the Red Cross; my supervisor had never been to a disaster zone and had only been a cashier at a retail store, but she was in charge of all damage assessment just because her husband sat on the board of her Red Cross back home. :eyes:

I went into local Red Cross right after Katrina, volunteering as a nurse with many yrs experience. They wanted to send me to training, which would start in Oct. Training would last a month, then I would be placed in a shelter in WA (where I live). After "successful completion" of my month in that shelter, they would consider if they needed me anywhere else. Besides, they told me, there were plenty of people and aid already on the gulf coast, no more was needed.

So, I got a ticket and came on down. Funny thing, I got a phone call last summer from local Red Cross, wanting to make sure everyone who had gone through the training was still willing to be on the disaster list in case something local happened (like wildfire). No, I didn't go through training.

Oh well. Probably for the better, being uppity and all.

and my local Red Cross chapter snottily told me the had no plans to offer assistance to Katrinaland, the DC office hadn't contacted them to give them orders. Less than 24-hours later I couldn't get through the phone lines. I went down there and took every training they had, they told me they probably weren't going to send anyone else down form Denver, then they called me 3 weeks later to send me to Biloxi. :crazy: