If people are close enough to get to Houston, or one of the many other flooded out communities, then go and help out. These people need help.
I have helped out after Hurricane Floyd flooded so much of eastern NC and when a tornado hit a rural area and killed a few people, one of whom was a coworker's family member. The shock of loosing everything is HUGE. The shock of being in a life threatening situation is HUGE. The shock of loosing family members, whose death might have been witnessed, is HHHHUUUGGGEEE. Add it all together and the misery is mind numbing.
These people will need help cleaning out their houses. Everything inside will be thrown away, the house stripped down to studs and floor joists to dry out, and finally rebuilt. Imagine how hard it would be to throw away everything you ever owned. Things that took a life time to accumulate. Now it is junk. Throw it away and start over. The physical labor of doing this is huge but I think the mental effort is worse.
The Federal government helps pay the bills but someone has to carry out the fridge and freezer full of rotten food. Don't open the fridge doors.....
One of the things that still makes me MAD
is that eastern NC has one of the highest, if not The Highest, concentration of military power in the US. We have the 82nd Airborne, the 3rd USMC division AND air wing, at least one USAF air wing at Goldsboro and another at Pope AFB supporting the 82nd. Yet during the recovery, those units were kept on base. We rightfully and correctly send our military to help out in foreign lands to help out in disasters but when it happened at their door step our military was kept on base.
At least with Katrina and now Harvey, the military is being sent in to help. :thumbsup:
I had a contact in a small eastern NC town that had been flooded so I got together about 10 coworkers to go help clean out houses. The Mennonites were already in town during my first visit. They had opened a relief center with food and clothes. I don't have a clue where the heck those Mennonites came from but they were one of the first groups down there to help. :thumbsup: The National Guard and Red Cross was feeding people, and along with the Mennonites, that was it. Later, the Baptists arrived with a semi that had a built in kitchen and showers. The volunteers slept in a church at night and went out during the day to clean out houses. Once the houses where cleaned out they would strip the house down to the structure to dry.
The 10 of us managed to clean out three homes in a long day. Imagine what a couple of platoons could have done for that small town. In a week they would be done cleaning up. If not sooner. Then the people could start rebuilding, which is yet another huge task, but at least they would have the big stinking mess cleaned up.
The simple act of SEEING other people arrive to help out provides these people so much. You can't understand until you have seen it. They are alone with the loss, the enormity of what needs to be done and wondering how they will proceed when a group shows up to help. The burden that is lifted, at least for a short time, is HUGE.
The town we helped was a small town with many generations of families. It was not just a one house with one family that was impacted, it was multiple generations that had lost their homes. It is real tough when almost everyone if not everyone in the family has lost their home.
If you can help physically, go help.
Later,
Dan
