wwjd2day
September 9th, 2005, 08:52 AM
Our church is located just north of Houston. Our church has converted it’s gymnasium into a shelter for people displaced by hurricane Katrina. We have had a steady stream of people passing through. We seem to average about 30 people a night, with a dozen or so new faces every other day. Mostly the people who stay with us come from hotels in the area. We can accommodate 50-72 in the 18 semi-private rooms. Those who that have left our shelter mostly found family or permanent housing elsewhere. We offer semi-private family rooms, rather than a gymnasium filled with cots that you see in most shelters. We have beds, showers, meals, internet access, cable TV and clothing are available. We do our best to help them find housing, jobs and family. The small community around the church has literally inundated us with donations of food and clothing. There is another church in the area that has the resources in place to open as a shelter for people displaced by hurricane Katrina. But, no one has come to stay at their church.
Our church contacted the local Red Cross to see what was needed to be added to their official shelter list. We were under the impression that perhaps we could help more people if the Red Cross sent some people to us. If we started running short on beds, we thought we could easily divert some people to the church down the road (an additional 50 beds). Also we have been told that the Red Cross assistance is only available to people staying in offical Red Cross shelters. Given the circumstances the Red Cross was willing to waive the mandatory Red Cross training for our people working in the shelter and they seemed ready to overlook the fact that we didn’t have a nurse on site 7X24. All we had to do in order to be added to their list of official shelters was to send all our donations to their re-distribution center. What would we get in return? They said we’d get added to their list of official Red Cross shelters, we’d receive $22 a month to help on our utility bills and we could call the re-distribution center and request any supplies we needed for our shelter. That’s it, that’s all nothing else, no promise to send us people from the Astrodome, no special help with getting relief assistance for the people staying with us, nothing. We said thanks, but we’ll just keep all the stuff the local community has donated and continue in helping as many people as we can.
Recently I have heard of several large churches that are already Red Cross approved shelters (pre-Katrina). These churches have the facilities, people, cots, food and everything to start providing for people displaced by Katrina. They have called the Red Cross and were told that they can not open their shelter until the Red Cross mobilizes them. To date the call to mobilize has not come any of them.
Our church contacted the local Red Cross to see what was needed to be added to their official shelter list. We were under the impression that perhaps we could help more people if the Red Cross sent some people to us. If we started running short on beds, we thought we could easily divert some people to the church down the road (an additional 50 beds). Also we have been told that the Red Cross assistance is only available to people staying in offical Red Cross shelters. Given the circumstances the Red Cross was willing to waive the mandatory Red Cross training for our people working in the shelter and they seemed ready to overlook the fact that we didn’t have a nurse on site 7X24. All we had to do in order to be added to their list of official shelters was to send all our donations to their re-distribution center. What would we get in return? They said we’d get added to their list of official Red Cross shelters, we’d receive $22 a month to help on our utility bills and we could call the re-distribution center and request any supplies we needed for our shelter. That’s it, that’s all nothing else, no promise to send us people from the Astrodome, no special help with getting relief assistance for the people staying with us, nothing. We said thanks, but we’ll just keep all the stuff the local community has donated and continue in helping as many people as we can.
Recently I have heard of several large churches that are already Red Cross approved shelters (pre-Katrina). These churches have the facilities, people, cots, food and everything to start providing for people displaced by Katrina. They have called the Red Cross and were told that they can not open their shelter until the Red Cross mobilizes them. To date the call to mobilize has not come any of them.