I'm Evacuating!

Last week I was in Slidell, Louisiana helping vicitims of Hurricane Katrina and today I'M EVACUATING out of Houston.

Hurricane Rita is coming right toward us.

I didn't go to bed last night at all.  One of my very good friends and I told each other earlier this year that we would help each prepare our homes if we were caught in a Hurricane Warning.  We spent all last night and this morning boarding up each others homes.

We then went over to a mans home who had a wife and three kids who couldn't physically do any kind of labor (he had heart bypass surgery) and boarded up his home.

We called him at 4:00am and told him we were coming over. 

I'll give you an update in a day or two with photos.

Have a great day (I know I will...if I can just get out of town in time :-)

David

Hurricane Katrina - On the Front Line - Working Parties in Slidell, LA

This weekend I'll be leading a working party from Houston into Slidell, LA. to help hurricane Katrina victims.  We'll most likely be doing some disaster recovery and clean up work in homes that have been affected by the hurricane.

I'll make sure to take a lot photos. By the way, if any able-bodied men here in Houston would like to go with us, just send me an email and I'll send you the details.  We'll be leaving this Friday evening and returning on Sunday evening.

Photo: Wreckage clogs a canal in Slidell, La., as an unidentified man wades through it, using a piece of debris as a walking stick on Thursday.

Coastal areas of Sidell were demolished by the 15-foot to 20-foot storm surge from Hurricane Katrina. (photo by MEGHAN LYDEN/Missourian)

Only 30 minutes from New Orleans, Slidell, on the northern shore of Lake Pontchartrain, was home to about 25,000 people a week ago.  Today, it is trying to recover after a week of baren silence.

Here are some photos from Slidell taken this past week.

Please help these vicitims in your own special way.

David

Hurricane Katrina - On the Front Line - Day 3

Tuesday Morning 10:02 am

If this is the first time you've come to this blog, you can scroll down and read the first Hurricane Katrina entry and see more photos.

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Yesterday, my wife Ingrid, went to volunteer her time down at the Houston Astrodome complex.  She left at 8:00am and worked there for over 16 1/2 hours! 

She got back home around 1:00am the following morning.

She is a trooper, and has more compassion and concern for others in her little finger than I have in my whole body.

Many of the evacuees now coming into Houston are being sent to other various shelters and shelters in other states (i.e. Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Arkansas etc.)

Although at the Houston Astrodome complex, we're still processing incoming evacuees, there is also an effort to transition to finding jobs for people.

Many (most) of the evacuees at the Astrodome complex are senior adults, elderly, moms with children, and people with health problems.  So a lot of them can't work, even if they wanted to.  However, the city of Houston and the Red Cross is doing it's best to find jobs for the men.

My wife told me that she met a man at the dome yesterday who was hoping to start work for the City of Houston today.  He was very hopeful.

Here is a picture of one of the younger volunteers. 

There is actually an age limit to volunteer at the dome. You have be at least 18 years old.

But this young gal is not only a volunteer, but an evacuee.

She thought it was a lot funner to help out, than sit around doing nothing.

She had such a cheery personality and was as cute as could be. 

Here are two young women who were eager and ready to help out.

They are sisters!

It's great to see the evacuees becoming volunteers. 

I've always believed, the best way to cure depression, anger, or low self-esteem is to go out and help someone else.

When you start helping someone else, your own problems seem to fade away.

This weekend, I'll be leading a work party into Lousiana to help a few Hurrican Katrina victims to salvage their homes and do clean up work.

I'll take a lot of photos and let you know what's happening on the front lines.

David

Hurrice Katrina - On the Front Line - Day 2

If you've just started to read this post, please go down to the post below and read Day 1 (Sept. 3)

                                      Sunday Morning 3:16 am - Day 2

Good morning.

It's very early on Sunday morning here in Houston.  I came home last night so exhausted that I went right to bed.  That was aound 8:00pm.  Hence, that's why I'm up so early.

The refugess (evacuees) from New Orleans keep pouring in.  Thousands at a time.  Yesterday, the city of Houston just opened the George R. Brown Convention Center to house several thousand more people from New Orleans.

Today I went back to the Astrodome to help out.  The relief effort, on a local level, continues to get more organized.  It was heartening to see the supplies coming in, but the relief organizations are still in DIRE NEED of funds and supplies.

I can tell you that this ordeal will be a long term effort.  I fear that people will give today and forget tomorrow.  Please keep in mind that we'll need your help over the long haul.

Here are some more photos from the front lines...

CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO SEE THE ENLARGED VERSION

It just amazing when you walk into the Astrodome and see the thousands of people trying to survive.  At first glance, it takes your breath away.

This is the bulletin board for the "lost persons area."  Scores of people are trying to find their love ones who are missing.  There are so many small "missing person" notes that you can't even read most of the them.

This is a picture of some of the missing person notices close up.  It breaks your heart when you see notes like the white one down on the lower right that say, "Call Daddy."  You just know that there are parents out there that are grief stricken and are in pain.

The missing persons station also has people with laptop computers who search through a central database of evacuees to find people.  Evacuees have been taken to many different places.  Many of them went to Dallas, San Antonio, and many different places in the city of Houston.

This is a better look at the computer station for the lost and missing persons area.  There was a huge line of people waiting to talk to these young people on computers to find their loved ones.

And there are people who are roaming the floor of the Astrodome with huge signs of the names of their loved ones in hope that someone will know who they are or something about them...or perhaps, even find them in the dome.

The media is out in full force.  There were crews doing interviews all over the floor of the dome.  Here is one lady who had a LOT to say about everything.  While I was there she was dropping the "F" bomb while talking about President Bush.  Ouch!  There will be a lot of "bleeps" in that interview  :-)

I really felt for the people who were forced to sleep in the stadium seeting because there weren't enough cots for them on the floor.  I just wanted to take them all home with me.

The SPCA was there too!  SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).  They had sanitized stations for pets, although I did not see any there.

Luckily Spiderman showed up.  The kids flocked to him.  He was a great distraction.  He wasn't allowed to give out candy, so instead, he just gave out a LOT of big hugs to kids who really needed it.

Here's a beautiful relief worker who was taking food and drinks to the elderly and those who we're physically able to stand in line.

All these young men were volunteers.  They were all around the arena helping out.  I can't remember what organization they were from.  I was exhausted at the end of the day...and one of them brought me a plate of food (I hadn't eaten all day).  In the evening, they all got together and started singing.  It was beautiful to hear.  It brought tears to my eyes.

This pic is kinda funny.  The media came up and started filming and all of a sudden this lady jumps up in front of the choral group and starts singing.  It was weird.  You could tell she was "not all there."  She was making up words and kind of shouting them out.  As I walked away, one evacuee said to me, "That's what losing everything will do to you."  It wasn't so funny anymore.

Here's a photo of some young boys who were all cousins.  It was great to see them together.  This is an event that they will never forget. 

It broke my heart when I saw the little babies.  Evacuees are in big need of baby items (i.e. diapers, formula, clothing, toys, etc.)  These ladies had three babies in their arms and many others around them.

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To all of you who have donated to help these people.  THANK YOU! 

Again, this will be a long-term effort.  It will require a lot of sustained giving over a period of time to get these people assimilated back into society.  Most will never be able to go back to their homes in New Orleans.

More photos to come.

David

Huuricane Katrina - On the Front Line

Good morning.

Right now it's 5:30 am here in Houston and I'm just about to go back to the Astrodome to begin my volunteer shift to help the Katrina evacuees.

Yesterday, I worked with the evacuees and was able to get some photos for you.

First, I've gotta tell you that I've never seen anything like this.  When I stepped into the Astrodome, it was surreal.  It's hard to explain.  There are thousands of human bodies in every corner of the building trying to survive.

They are destitute, depressed, hungry, thirsty, bewildered and all the other emotions that one might feel after they have lost everything...even loved ones.  But they are thankful to be alive.

So here are a few photos I took yesterday to give you a feel of a small part of the relief effort.

CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO SEE THE FULL SIZED ENLARGED PICTURE

Stepping into the Astrodome with all the evacuees there were a surreal experience.  I was overwhelmed by the immensity of people and the state they were in.  Basically, as a volunteer, you simply checked yourself in and went to work where ever you think people needed help.

Here is a mother with he little newborn baby girl.  As you can tell, both were very tired.  Mom was heartbroken...but she was grateful to have a cot to sleep in.

This is a photo of the sleeping area in the Reliant Arena (used to be the Astro Arena).  As you can see, people are packed in pretty tight. 

My job was to keep cold water and beverages coming outside to the people who were waiting to be checked into the Astrodome and Arena.  It was a back breaking job (and I had back surgery about 4 years ago).  But it was so worth it.  People of all ages were extremely thirsty.  Some were even passing out from exhaustion and hunger.  No kidding.  I help one lady into an ambulance that was near death.  She just couldn't take the heat.

The Arena had plenty of food for everyone.  Don't believe all the media who say that the relief effort is unorganized.  It might be at a macro level, but inside the shelters at the Astrodome and the Arena, people knew what to do, when to do it, and all the victims were being helped in every way possible.

Media and press from around the world were camped out at the Arena.  As you can see, journalists from Australia, England, Brazil, and other countries are all here.

This is a photo of Cris Wagner.  Cris works for me as the manager of one of my businesses.  He is not only a super sharp guy, but he has the biggest heart in the world, and the best person I've ever worked with.  We worked hard today...shoulder to shoulder.

The police were out in full force to keep peace. There were no riots, fighting, shouting or anything of the kind.  The police really kept a close vigilance on law and order during all the chaos.

This is the line for clothing.  It was a huge line, but by the end of the day, everyone had what they needed.  There have been a huge amount of clothing donations to help the victims.  Imagine staying in clothing that you had waded through nasty water in for over 5 days!!  These people were able to choose clothing for them and their families.  THANK YOU to all of you who donated clothing!

Here's a bunch of relief workers folding and sorting clothing to make it easier for victims to pick what they needed.

Here are many of the victims looking for and finding the clothing they so desperately need.

Here's two little cutie sisters hamming it up for the camera.  They are beautiful girls, aren't they.

Here's a lot of the assorted food products donated to the cause.  Relief workers went through all the food and sorted it into different food groups, which will be dispersed in the coming days.

 

Here's a photo of Cris, my manager and "THE BOSS."  I can't say enough about this relief worker.  He was in charge of beverages.  He has more leadership in one finger than most people do in their whole bodies.  He runs a very tight ship.  He really cared about what type of drinks we served, how cold they were, how they were displayed etc.  And he had a system that he created on the fly, that made everything work right.  THE BOSS is the man!

 

Even the most able and strongest of the victims were completely exhausted.  Many of these people were sitting on their house top just the day before, trying to be rescued.

This is where many of the victims have to "do their thing."

Here I am taking drinking water outside to those who need it.  Notice that I'm drenched in perspiration.  Imagine how the people felt outside who had been standing out there for hours on end trying to get processed into the Arean and the Dome.

Even the elderly and those who needed assistance were being taken care of.

Here is the station for helping children.  They had baby food, similac, first aid kits and all kinds of things specifically to help children.

Here's another shot of the sleeping area.  Notice the sign on the wall, "Females."  That guy doesn't look like a female.  Really, people just had to find their own sleeping area.  Space and cots were prized possessions and so people simply took what they could find.

Here is an eating area. Like I mentioned, there was plenty of food to go around.

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This relief effort will be going on for a LONG TIME.  Perhaps months.  The rebuilding effort will take years.  Most of these people will never return to their homeland.  They'll be assimilated into the city of Houston and get jobs and hopefully, rebuild a new life.  Keep them in your prayers.

If you live in Houston, there is always a need for volunteers.  :-)

(More photos to come!)