Katrina Blog

Just before Labor Day a few short months ago, the coastal areas of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana were hit with devastation by the destructive swathe of hurricane Katrina. The hurricane’s aftermath was not realized fully at first due to intensive damage to roads and communication avenues. In the New Orleans area, further loss of property and life occurred after the levy on Lake Ponchetrain broke, spilling its waters into the parishes and downtown areas. In the following days and weeks, it became apparent Katrina had caused the most hurricane related destruction in the history of the United States.

Soon, the refugees and rescuees of the afflicted areas began to filter into the Houston, Dallas and San Antonio areas. The need for volunteers, donations, food and clothing soon became a community effort in each area.

Here in San Antonio, the local congregation of the United Church of God responded to do its part. On Labor Day weekend, 20 – 30 members met at the empty Montgomery Ward building at Windsor Park Mall to essentially help prepare the shelter that was to receive thousands of the displaced in families and individuals. They helped erect or remove partitions and shelves, clean areas, organize clothes, and set out cots and blankets, working Saturday evening and Sunday. During the week several members continued doing volunteer work at this shelter and also at the major San Antonio shelter at Kelly USA.

The following weekend, in a meeting after services, a volunteer program was formed to work at the Windsor Park shelter. This included help with the set up of videos for movie nights. Others helped with the Red Cross services, including meal set up, serving and clean up, and with data entry. Two individuals, Susan Pieper and Bruno Ayala, continued to work at the Kelly USA shelter, having been given overseer positions in food service and in a dormitory, respectively. Others volunteered at the Food Bank.

Our movie program was soon supplanted by large screen TV’s with DVD functions and other entertainment provided by other groups or businesses. Church member volunteering continued in food service and in the warehouse working through the Red Cross. Further help was needed with the subsequent evacuees from hurricane Rita, which affected the east and southeast coastal areas of Texas and Louisiana just three weeks after Katrina.

Ongoing efforts in our church included a food drive to help with the Food Bank stock and delivery of clothing to the Salvation Army. Individuals continued to help also at Kelly USA. Eventually, operations were closed at both locations, first at Windsor Park and then Kelly USA.

About twenty individuals served in what has become known as the Katrina Relief efforts besides and including people from the original group of volunteers.

Thanks to all of those who sacrificed the many countless hours and served in this effort of representing our church in its outreach efforts. Periodic food drives, perhaps two a year, will continue to help keep the stock up at the local Food Bank.

Mrs. Lewis was one of those affected by the Hurricane. She spent a couple of months here with her son Silas. She was able to return home in Nov. The brethren there helped her clean up and fix a shed that was destroyed by the flood which housed her washer and dryer and water heater. With donations received from Katrina Good Works and LifeNets funds her appliances were able to be purchased and more financial assistance will be given!. If any of you would like to inquire more about her welfare, her address is: Mrs. Dorothy Lewis, 2325 Jena St., New Orleans, LA 70115-5905.

On the eve of Hurricane Rita we were driving home from running errands and getting ready for our second hurricane in less than a month. We had only been back in our home for just a few days after having left to stay with friends after Katrina hit our area. As we rounded a curve in the road we had to swerve to avoid hitting a small dog that darted across the busy highway just a few blocks away from our home. I was so afraid that he would be killed by a speeding car if we did not rescue him so after much pleading, my husband turned back to see if we could get him in the car.

There was heavy traffic that day and Tom was concerned as to whether we could slow down enough to get him. The traffic was far too busy to try to stop so we slowed as much as we could and sure enough, the little dog saw us and ran straight for our car. I opened my door and he immediately jumped in and began to rub his face all over me. He was so cute and so excited to be rescued, it seemed. He was such an adorable little guy. It only took a few seconds to realize that this cute little fellow left a lot to be desired when it came to hygiene. Within moments after receiving his affection, the car, and the blouse I was wearing, was filled with the stench of what appeared to be a dead animal. Yes, you guessed it, this little rascal had apparently come across something that had decayed and he must have rolled in it from head to toe. By this time I was begging my husband to get home quickly to get away from this horrible smell.

We took the dog home and I wiped him down with a few pet wipes that I had purchased to use on our cats while staying with our friends after Katrina. They did the trick for a short time until I could bathe him a few days later. We put the dog in a little building that I use as a shop and we bedded him down with food and water and we prepared to ride out Rita. As it turned out we were not really affected by that hurricane so by Sunday I was ready to clean the dog up and find him a home.

We posted signs up and down the highway and at locals veterinarian clinics. We listed him on the internet at a lost pets web site. We even notified the local dog pound in the event that someone would be looking for their dog. Three weeks went by and still no one turned up to claim the little dog. By this time we had grown very attached to him and decided to call him Shadow because I couldn't hardly move without him by my side.

We had to leave for a trip to Branson in mid October so we boarded the cats and Shadow and left town for ten days. When we came home there was still no word from a potential owner so we took down the highway signs and one of the signs at a vet's office. We decided that after almost five weeks and no one to claim him, that he would now become ours. So we had a chip inserted under his skin with information to contact us in the event that he would get lost again. Shadow was now ours and he seemed to love it as much as we did. He was such a neat little dog. In early November he let me dress him up in a John Deer hat and scarf and we took him to a four year old's birthday party and he was the hit of the party. Shadow stole the hearts of everyone that came into contact with him.

Then, after almost ten weeks of having Shadow in our home, the dreaded phone call came. The Monday after Thanksgiving we received a call from a lady that said she thought she might know who the owner of the dog was. She told us that she and her young grand-daughter took some young pups to the vet for their first shots and check up. While there her grand-daughter saw a picture that we had posted of Shadow and she told her grandmother. The lady went on to tell me that she thought Shadow was the father of the pups that she had. I couldn't believe my ears as my heart sank. After all this time it seemed that the owner had finally surfaced. She asked if the owner could call us and come to see if it was indeed his dog. Reluctantly we agreed.

As the young man approached our front door he stopped in his tracks and stood in disbelief when he saw his dog standing there in our home. Without him saying a word I felt in my heart that he was indeed the owner and what we had feared for a while had finally happened. At first the little dog reacted as he did to everyone that he encountered. He never met a stranger. Then suddenly, once his owner entered the house and was petting the dog, it was as though something clicked inside the head of this little creature and he knew his owner. It was a heart warming reunion for this man and his dog. Although I wept with sadness I knew that it was the right thing to do when we gave Shadow over to his rightful owner. He was right at home as he jumped up in the seat of Trampas's red pickup truck and drove off down the street without even looking back. After all the tragedy that had struck this area, here we were able to witness quite a sight as these two were re-united with one another.

As it turned out, Trampas said that "Rimshot," and not Shadow, had gotten out the day that Katrina hit and it had now been three months since he had seen his little dog. He had given up on ever finding him again until he got the call from the owner of the pups that Rimshot fathered. All was not lost for us though as he drove away that night. As it turned out, Trampas was scheduled to leave town for vacation just three days later and had no one to keep his dog so he asked if we would like to keep Rimshot for him. Of course we said yes. It gave us the time to be with him and have a little more closure than the night that he left so suddenly. You see Rimshot came into our lives at a very sad and confused time and he filled a very big hole for us and helped us get through some pretty tough times. He loved so unconditionally and so completely that it would have been impossible for us not to have been touched by him. To let him go was not easy but knowing he was with his owner was like a miracle to us because Trampas lived almost twenty miles away from where his dog was found.

Though we no longer have Rimshot we were so grateful that he touched our lives at the time that he did. We were also very happy that we were able to care for him and then later re-unite him with his true owner. Having him in our lives was a gift to us and letting him go was a gift to Trampas.

Another area we helped in was Mobile, Alabama where there was severe damage to homes. In this area people had already gone through previous hurricanes, notably Ivan that caused previous damage. Below, we funded the replacements of vinyl soffits and vents. For many people repair to home will continue for years.

We have several new pictorials in the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans. We visited New Orleans on February 24 and 25th and were able to see the devastated city of New Orleans that still has 90% of its population displaced. Entire neighborhoods are ghost towns. The task of rebuilding is beyond comprehension as you look at mile after mile of abandoned city.

In the midst of this we were inspired by accounts of people helping one another and sacrificing for one another. People whose homes were not destroyed would take in two or three families whose home were destroyed. This is still the case for many. One family that LifeNets is helping has taken in ten people into their home.

We went to Church services and talked to just about everyone. Almost everyone had been affected in some way by the hurricane. But, the spirit of the congregation was amazingly positive! Helping one another, compassion for those who had it worse and looking proactively to the future has produced a spirit that seemingly an event like this produces. We were humbled and encouraged by what we saw.

LifeNets has assisted with about $13,000 worth of aid in Louisiana, $8500 for evacuees in Houston and $3000 elsewhere along with wheelchairs and other in-kind items.

Cheyenne O'Neal (age 34) is an evacuee from Louisiana. She was sent to Houston. Texas. From there she was put on a FEMA bus for a 15 hour ride to Indianapolis on October 24th. She has been separated from her three children who are in Illinois, but will be reunited with them next week.

She was injured in the evacuation while being in an angry group of evacuees who were frustrated with the painful process. She has lost a lot of weight since Katrina came through. She says that she has lost everything. What is left of her property will have to be demolished.

She was placed in the Covered Bridge Apartments on the NW side of Indianapolis, about three miles from where we live. LifeNets was notified by her adopted family for a wheelchair with a leg lift. We just happened to have what she needed.

Through the LifeNets Katrina Disaster Relief Fund, we have also given her some support for basic items in her apartment. Her apartment was burglarized a few days ago and many things stolen.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that struck the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi in the early morning hours of August 29, many were left homeless and stranded in other surrounding cities and states. My husband's family and friends of theirs were among the thousands that lost everything they own that was not taken with them when they fled from the wrath of Katrina. FEMA helped get some of them set up in hotels in North Louisiana while others were able to stay

Ricky Ranko, Tom Letellier, Rene Delaune with a dog we rescued from the aftermath of the storm as well. "Shadow" is just one of many lost and displaced animals. After failed efforts to reunite him with his owners, he is now ours.

with relatives temporarily until housing could be secured and jobs were found or resumed. It was over a month before they were able to return to nearby towns to begin their search for new dwellings in new communities. The families we helped were all from St Bernard, a low lying area of Louisiana that was hit the hardest with flood waters.

In addition to their homes being completely submerged in water and debris, they were victims of a giant oil spill that flooded the area and added to the destruction of their homes and property. During the storm at a nearby oil refinery an oil storage tank was lifted from it's foundation and moved three hundred feet from it's original location. As the waters receded the tank rested in a new location but the stress from the shift caused the tank to split and thousands upon thousands of gallons of oil flooded the community within a three and a half mile radius of the oil spill. Tom's family lived only blocks away from the spill so consequently their homes were affected by not only the flood waters, mud and debris but now the oil as well.

As the families were able to return to their community to assess the damages to their properties, the prospect of moving home was quickly banished by what they found. These, and many other families returned to find their homes filled with as much as two feet of sludge and mud inside their homes. The flood waters had destroyed sheet rock on the walls and ceilings. Bare rafters shown where ceilings used to be and many items of furniture and other belongings had become lodged in the rafters of the attic as the waters began to recede. Sofas were found upside down on counter tops. Refrigerators were found in other parts of the homes etc. You can imagine the destruction that was found.

Destruction was not their only problem though. There was an yet another added dimension to their woes. Snakes from nearby swamp areas had washed into many of the homes and businesses and it became quite dangerous to enter their homes. On their first visit back to their home, our nephew, Rene Delaune and his wife Rosalie picked up a crate that washed into their home and under it they found a live water moccasin. Rene's good friend Ricky was instructed by his insurance company to try to salvage a new set of tires on his vehicle that was flooded during the storm. As Ricky was trying to take the tires off of his vehicle he encountered snakes as well. After killing three cottonmouth water moccasins, Ricky gave up on salvaging the tires and left the area for the sake of his safety. He decided the tires were not worth it.

Once the families were able to come within approximately fifty miles from their homes, they were able to secure apartments and homes to rent until their lives could be redirected to something more permanent in the future. They were fortunate to have all found a place to live but now there was no money to purchase furniture of even the basic necessities to get by every day. I began gathering furniture from family, friends, brethren and even from our own home. There were a total of four families that needed housing. One family was able to rent a hunting camp that had furniture but very limited with household items. The others had nothing. We were able to secure beds, sofas, chairs and kitchen furniture for three households simply by pooling our resources. Life for these families was basically starting all over again.

Some of the items that were purchased

Our pastor, Andy Burnett, learned that we were helping my husband's family and a friend of theirs and offered help from LifeNets to aid them in getting some of the basics that they needed to survive on a daily basis. I was given $2,000.00 to use on items that they needed. A friend of mine and I set out on a Monday morning and began shopping for these four households and by the end of a very long two days we were amazed at how far the funds had gone. We were able to purchase sheets, linens, dishes, shower curtains, pillows, coffee makers, toasters, irons and much, much more. These families were overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of LifeNets to provide them with so many things that they needed. They have expressed their sincere appreciation many times and are so grateful for the help they received. They were astounded! I spoke to Rene recently to find out if they needed any thing else and he said that what we were able to do for them set them up and they have all they need to get by now.

On behalf of our family and their friends that were helped please accept our heartfelt thanks and appreciation as well. It was heart wrenching to see these people suffer so greatly and not be able to do more for them. LifeNets provided a way to furnish them with things we could not give them otherwise. Please thank those that contributed to this cause to help families that were affected by this tragedy. It was an awesome blessing to us all.

Katrina victims that were assisted by LifeNets in this story:

Kenny and Marion Delaune (Tom's sister and her husband both in their mid sixties)

Kenny and Leah Delaune and son and daughter (Tom's nephew and his wife and two teenage children)

Rene and Rosalie Delaune and son (Tom's nephew and wife and son)

Ricky and Lisa Ranko and daughter (Rene Delaune's best friend, wife and daughter)

I wanted to take the time to write to thank you and the donors to your organization for the generous donations we have received. We have used these funds to assist needy brethren in our congregations as well as brethren who are housing non-members who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Below is an update of how your funds have been used:

Cheryl deArmas, a widow in one of our congregations, not only had to pull up all of her carpet because of flooding, but also needed to fall five large pine trees on her property—one of which was resting on the back corner of her home. She did not have the funds available to do this, and we couldn’t put a local work crew together to do this because of the liability of trees falling on her house, neighbors’ homes, and power lines. With $1,650 from LifeNets, she was able to get this accomplished.

Clarence and Cynthia Washington, members who live in Baton Rouge, saw their household grow from two to twelve immediately after Katrina. Ten of their immediate and extended family (none of whom are members) had lost homes in the New Orleans area and had no place to go. Clarence and Cynthia didn’t hesitate to take them in, even though Clarence had recently become unemployed. We provided them with $1,800 to pay for food, housing, and other incidentals that involved looking after ten people. Presently, now two and a half months later, they are still housing a few of their family. These funds were a huge help in helping them provide for their extended families’ needs.

A similar situation occurred with Shaunelle King who attends our Covington, Louisiana congregation. Upon returning to her home in Biloxi, Mississippi, even though the back half of her house was roofless and the contents under that part of the house ruined, she still took in about the same number as well. We gave her approximately $1,650 to cover similar expenses incurred by opening up her home to so many who had nowhere else to go and feeding them, while dealing with getting her house back in order.

Lloyd Vinnett, a retired octogenarian who lives about 20 miles west of New Orleans, took in an elderly widow and her invalid brother (both members) after their home was damaged by Katrina. Their roof “caved in” in several places causing the ceiling to give way. Mold-filled insulation was exposed in several rooms of the house making it uninhabitable. Mr. Vinnett especially appreciated the $500 that was given him to offset his expenses in helping provide for them.

Lastly, we gave Tom and Sandy Letellier, members in our Covington congregation, $2,000 to help four families get back on their feet again. These families lived in the areas that were flooded to the rooftops. Sandy will be writing a brief update on how the funds were used, so I’ll let her do that in a subsequent update.

These people mentioned above would have found a way somehow to help the people they assisted, even if no funds had been available. But, with your generous donations, you helped shoulder the financial burden. It truly is more blessed to give than to receive. May God continue to bless you spiritually as you give of yourselves in His service.

Gratefully,
Andy & Lisa Burnett

LifeNets Katrina disaster relief has filled a niche -- helping people in areas where other other fine programs have not covered. We helped people before FEMA aid arrived. We also continued to help people get going after Red Cross helped with initial disaster relief. We are now helping people with relocation and starting a new life.

Nearly 200 people donated more than $26,000 to our Katrina Disaster Relief Fund and most of it has already been spent in a hands-on manner with individuals who had to flee, who lost their homes or who need help getting started again.

We first began with helping evacuees from New Orleans who migrated to Houston. We helped them with basic essentials. Here is an e-mail we just received from an individual we helped in Houston who fled from New Orleans:

Our relief coordinator in New Orleans, Andy Burnett has been focusing on helping people in the New Orleans area. In the photos below we helped clear a yard of trees and stumps that have fallen on a house causing a lot of damage.

In another case, we are helping a family helping another family who have spent about $1,800 housing, feeding, and transporting 9 people all over town for job searches, etc. The folks they’re housing lived in the 9th ward, climbed to their attics, were boated to an overpass where they waited a few days to be picked up before they were evacuated to Houston, finally arriving in Baton Rouge. The family who is helping, the Washingtons housed seven of them.

We have also decided to help an individual who is permanently leaving the New Orleans area for Oregon. The aid is administered through LifeNets volunteers Larry Walker and others in Bend, Oregon. Here's what Larry writes:

We feature an inspiring example of a family who while hurting themselves from the devastation of Katrina is helping others in their neighborhood.

To: Whom It May Concern/ Mr. Andy Burnett /Mr. Victor Kubik, LifeNets October 11, 2005

I want to begin by saying “thank you.” Hurricane Katrina has affected so many people, not only here in the mid south but throughout the United States in such a horrible way. Just in my neighborhood alone we were told that 86 people lost their lives and well over 200 hundred homes were destroyed.

Like most families we procrastinated in leaving and thought that we could ride it out. At the last minute (the day before) we made the decision to leave due to learning that this storm would be more powerful then Camille and that the devastation would be unimaginable. It took forever trying to find a city far enough away that had enough hotel rooms to house (8) people. We were told "no" so many times that we began to get depressed, worrying if we stayed would our home hold up to what Katrina was about to bring our way. Needless to say, we found a hotel in Marietta, GA. A normal trip of 6.5 hours took us well over 12 hours to get to.

We worried endlessly how the remainder of our siblings was making out as we watched the CNN coverage on TV. My sister and I thought about all the things we might need and would not be able to find once we returned home so we made our grocery/first aid/ gas list out and went shopping. We knew that it would be days if not a week before we could get to food, ice, and gas back home so we had to be the ones to bring these items back with us since we had access to the grocery stores. It turned out that the remainder of my siblings had stocked really well for the storm and didn’t need as much of the food we brought back so we dispersed it to families in our neighborhood who had stayed and didn’t plan very well.

We spent well over $2000.00 between food, gas, and storage containers bringing these items home. $2000.00 we truly didn’t have. We decided to take the money we had put away for our personal bills to accomplish this. Receiving this money from LifeNets will turn out to be a life saver for us. With a portion of what I will receive I have chosen to buy winter clothes for a family I met while shopping at Wal-Mart. Hai is a single mother with two children who lost her home and all her personal belongings. Friends of mine from Miami are helping to provide her with a crib, high chair and some kitchen items.

So far $18,400 has been spent on Katrina relief through direct hands-on volunteers.

We now turn our attention to the actual areas where the hurricane hit, the New Orleans and the Gulfport/Biloxi, Mississippi areas. LifeNets has a policy of making sure that all contributions are given directly to victims and not passed on through another. We have plenty of volunteers who can help in the affected areas. We are now working through Andy Burnett, pastor of the United Churches of God in southern Louisiana. Through his members they are reaching out into their communities. Members of the United Church of God have been taking in those who have become homeless in their neighborhoods.

Another $8000 of LifeNets funding has been sent for helping care for this niche need -- for people flooded out with no place to go but neighbors.

We have also shipped 120 flashlights (that run 700 hours on one set of batteries) that were donated to LifeNets for people in Louisiana and Mississippi....some still without electricity.

I received your message and decided to e-mail you instead, so you could look at the figures. The lady in the Gulfport/Biloxi area who has been housing and feeding several families gave me an exact figure she has spent so far for these families which is $1,654

The other family have spent about $1,800 housing, feeding, and transporting 9 people all over town for job searches, etc. The folks they’re housing lived in the 9th ward, climbed to their attics, were boated to an overpass where they waited a few days to be picked up before they were evacuated to Houston, finally arriving in Baton Rouge. They are still housing seven of them. I’ve already given him about $300 to help him until he could get back with me on a figure…so that brings their total to about $1,500.

This is a tremendous service of providing relief to people who have lost everything and are trying to decide what to do with themselves.

Thanks to all the contributors to the LifeNets Katrina Disaster Relief Fund. Please be assured that every cent of your contribution is being spent in the manner that you wanted it to be spent.

Andy Burnett will be providing us more reports as we continue in this phase of our Katrina relief.

The Houston phase of our Katrina relief is finished. Altogether we sent 8479.88 in cash to help with the following. In addition we sent seven wheelchairs to the Astrodome. We thank all the LifeNets volunteers who made sure that every cent went to intended recipients....evacuees, victims of the New Orleans disaster.

9-4-05     Air mattresses 284.82
9-4-05     Wal-Mart Gift Cards 1100.00
9-4-05     " ", 1399.94 Air mattresses, bedding
9-04-05   Bedding, household items 260.12
9-6-05     Apartment deposit for a 405.00 family left homeless by Katrina
9-10-05   Wal-Mart Gift Cards 5000.00
9-10-05   Quarters for laundry machines 30.00

                                                                TOTAL 8479.88

October 4, 2005

LifeNets is grateful for the volunteers who helped so many evacuees in the Houston area. Shortly after that Houston endured its own brush with Hurricane Rita causing the the evacuation of nearly three million people out of Houston. Volunteers for LifeNets came from the Houston South United Church of God.

Our next step is to work directly in the New Orleans area. People whose homes survived are taking in neighbors whose houses that are unlivable. That is putting a lot of pressure on people for food and other resources. We are now beginning to provide food and necessities for people in this kind of situation. We are directly administering our aid to people on site. Reports will follow.

Here are a few letters that we received from recipients in the Houston area.....

"Thank you for all your help during the aftermath of Katrina. The purpose of this note is to ask you to pass on our gratefulness to your church for helping our family during this catastrophe. The help we received was not expected but it was certainly welcome.

When we left home I packed for only five days and I really expected to only be away for three days. There were many thing oat Wal-Mart that we were able to get that both we needed and made us more comfortable during our time here. We were able to buy gas, diapers, shampoo, school bags, etc. We now have everything we need to make our stay here in Texas as close to home as possible. It has been hard to be away from home and all things familiar. However, the folks here in Texas have made this difficult time more bearable.

Thank you again for your "big Texas hearts." We will never forget the help we receive during our time of need.

Sincerely,
The Bethbeze family -- Craig, Christy, Caitlyn, Cammie, and Carston
Belle Chasse, Louisiana

Jon Erickson from Houston, Texas writes to us about a tremendous effort by 24 people who were involved in giving out gift cards to Katrina evacuees in Houston on September 11th. In this time of disaster, there are people who have been on site to directly help those who may have fallen through the cracks. Our LifeNets Houston volunteers have done just that. About $8000 has been distributed to these people to help them get needed essentials in a new city with their submerged homes behind them in New Orleans. LifeNets thanks all contributors to this hands-on relief effort!

Here are some of the stories:

A family of Louisiana evacuees, father, mother, and three children, (two girls and a pre-school age boy), had come to Houston before Hurricane Katrina hit. He works as a U.S. Customs officer in the downtown New Orleans office; she had a real estate appraisal office where she employed 7 other women. They are from Plaquemines Parish and live in Belle Chase. MORE

Today's poignant entry features an on-the-ground report about how LifeNets donors is being spent to help victims, evacuees, survivors, refugees (all descriptions used to described those displaced by Hurricane Katrina):

We received a call from Vic Kubik on Friday, September 2, offering help from LifeNets for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Ken was still in the midst of working with others to assess the safety, extent of property damage, and needs of our brethren in the tri-state area primarily affected by the hurricane. At the same time, the massive costs of sheltering over 100,000 refugees in Houston were beginning to become more apparent. Though we were not certain of exactly how the money Vic was offering could best be spent, there was no question there would be a nearly endless list of worthy causes from which to choose.

At this point the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and local food banks have been overwhelmed with donations of food, clothing and money. It has been amazing and heartening to see how quickly the basic survival needs of food, clothing, shelter and health care have been provided to the vast majority of New Orleans refugees in the city of Houston. Though these primary needs are being met quite effectively at the moment, and plans are in progress for meeting what might be considered secondary needs, the organization for equitable distribution of additional resources will take more time.

We were in the process of considering how we might help with some of the above mentioned secondary needs, when one of our church members informed us this past weekend that approximately 15 adults and children from New Orleans had moved into the apartment next door to her the day before. They had very few clothes and really no other belongings. We were able to send food collected at a church home with her and visit the recently transplanted families the day afterwards to further assess their needs. When we arrived we found that neighbors had donated some necessary items, yet all of the new residents were still very much in need of something on which to sleep. I would like to mention here that many of our Houston evacuees, including those with their own transportation and decent jobs a week ago, are running low on money. They are close to maxing out on credit cards or have spent most of their cash on hotels etc. and aren’t sure when they will have insurance settlements or access to additional income. Obviously, they are very concerned about spending the last of their money. If they have no friends or relatives in Houston, can’t access their bank accounts, and know they can’t continue to pay for a hotel they have several options from which to choose. They attempt to scrape what they can together to get into an apartment, attempt to find an apartment complex manager that will wave the first month rent, or pray that FEMA will grant them a free apartment soon. When they do get into an apartment, most often there is little left with which to furnish it.

Back to the story…Yesterday afternoon, as a result of meeting both the large extended family we were told of at church, and an additional eight folks who had just arrived at the complex, we realized that air mattresses, pillows and bed linens would be an important contribution! Ken and I proceeded to go to Wal-Mart and Academy Sports to acquire some or all of the above items for each of our new acquaintances. (Everyone was so appreciative and excited about the possibility of getting a good nights sleep in their new residence!) While at Wal-Mart we saw several clusters of family members gathered in front of the bed linens or air mattresses section intently studying the selection to determine how to best spend their very limited resources. One large family planned to buy a mattress for “Grandma” and let the rest go without. Without exception, we were able to correctly identify folks from New Orleans either by observing individuals as we walked by the above two sections or noticing what was in their carts. After inquiring as to whether various individuals were from New Orleans, and asking how they were coping emotionally, financially, etc. the “floodgates” opened and it was easy to determine that most could really use some help. Over the course of yesterday afternoon and a portion of this afternoon, at Wal-Mart, one or both of us were able to distribute over $3,000 in $100 Wal-Mart gift certificates and/or air mattresses and bedding. The recipients were told that an organization named “LifeNets” had been formed to help meet the immediate needs of disaster survivors and was supported by individual contributions sent from all parts of the world.

Everyone we have met from Louisiana this week has been effusive in their appreciation for the care and kindness that has been extended to them by so many. The love that they have been shown is obviously helping them cope with the enormity of their circumstances. We heard and felt their anguish as they relayed the stories of their departure from New Orleans, their concern for their homes and belongings and the safety of friends and relatives. Yet we heard many thank God for his protection and provision over the last several days.

LifeNets’ contributions were very encouraging to the recipients. They enabled many folks to get a better night’s rest and/ or purchase a special “something or two” for themselves or their children - be it a lamp to light their new apartment, perhaps a stuffed animal with which to share their new air mattress, or some much needed changes in underclothes and socks!

Thanks to everyone for their generosity in helping victims of Hurricane Katrina. The outpouring of support from around the world has been overwhelming as pledges of donations coming from as far away as Germany and South Africa. Phone calls and e-mails of material support and volunteerism are come from all over and we are trying to determine how best to channel it. Cash support is of greatest need now as the necessary essentials can readily be purchased. When we get to needs in Louisiana and Mississippi, there will most likely be need for material aid.

On the ground in Houston, one place where the Hurricane victims have evacuated to, Ken and Kathy Giese along with the Houston South United Church of God have been busy. On Sunday the church worked in the Astrodome helping serve the refugees.

Ken and Kathy went to places away from the Astrodome and shelters to help those who didn't have people to care for them. Ken will be writing a report that we will post on this blog, but on Sunday he and Kathy took care of the needs of 60 people who needed basics...including inflatable mattresses to sleep on. The first $3000 in donations to LifeNets were already at work and spent on Sunday. We are evaluating as to how to help further and have our eyes still on the "Ground Zero" in Louisiana and Mississippi where the greatest devastation took place and where all people are not accounted for. We are looking to have complete confirmation on all UCG members and need to determine what immediate and long-term needs be fulfilled.

As usual in disasters, the outpouring of support is greatest shortly after the catastrophe and then diminishes as the other news replaces the disaster news. But, aid for getting people on their feet is still needed. So, we are thinking ahead in a longer strategic terms in continuing LifeNets support.