Disaster Relief: Hurricanes Katrina, Rita & Wilma

Listen to this post/Podcast

From Peter:

The next day we returned to the Astrodome and we met another team of Family International volunteers and we all headed to the hospital area that seemed to be the most needy at that time. There was already an improvement in the appearance of people — they were beginning to get washed up, and they were getting some clothes. But overnight they were still bringing in people to the Astrodome and the sea of people had grown up from the floor through the tiered seats because there was no more room for cots. That day in the medical area it was Topaz, myself and 4 young people who were also there from The Family international — and three of them were working on registration and helping people move through the medical department and getting them to where they were supposed to go.

(more…)

Listen to this post/Podcast

From Peter:

My wife, Topaz, and I were the first volunteers from The Family International to have access to the evacuees at the Astrodome. We entered the Astrodome on the 4th floor and we looked down and all we could see was a sea of green cots with people on them — many, many people milling around. At that time there were about 12,000 people there and they were coming in as fast as the buses could unload them. So we went down to the floor and most of the people hadn’t showered or changed clothes since the hurricane had hit — so they were mostly in pretty bad way. The first thing we did was we helped the new arrivals by finding a spot for them, setting up cots, getting them blankets and whatever else we could do.

(more…)

From Kenneth Landriault:

Today we went to the George Brown Center where they will be hosting about 10,000 refugees who were going to be arriving later in the day. There were, however, a group of 200 who had arrived earlier so we wanted to get permission to perform for them. The place was so big that it seemed almost impossible to find any managers or someone who could authorize a performance. After praying desperately Daniel bumped into a shelter manager who recognized him from having seen us perform in another shelter. He immediately recommended us to the other managers who worked it out for us to perform tomorrow at 2:00 P.M. Then Lilly, who has some medical training, was accepted on their medical team and worked till late this evening. Two of her patients prayed with her to receive the Lord.

Later in the day we performed at another shelter after spending several hours helping unload food for the refugees. They were impressed that our performers were willing to cheerfully help with whatever had to be done. About 30 children prayed with us to receive the Lord and afterwards they insisted we eat their delicious Bar B Qued roast beef. It was a truly memorable day! ( Wish you could have been there! — So here’s some pictures to give you an idea of what went on today.)

(more…)

When we first entered the Astrodome, we were overwhelmed by the vastness of the suffering — row after row of people who have lost everything and have a very uncertain future.

We immediately were drawn to the children, clinging to their parents, laying on the cots, staring at the very huge mass of people in their new home. Thanks to the Red Cross and other relief organizations there was plenty of food and water, and medical attention for all those who needed it, but one great need that no one has had time for in these first days of the evacuation has been comforting the children and giving them something fun to do to help pass the time and make them smile. In some of the smaller shelters around Houston Family volunteers have already put on skits, provided music and a clown show with balloons and fun for the children at the shelter. So when we surveyed the need at the Astrodome we looked for a way to set up a stage and program for the kids. The Houston Family missionaries knew the director of relief operations from their experience helping out with Hurrican Allison, so we visited him at the command center to explain the need and what we wanted to do for the kids — and he agreed that this was a big need, one that they just didn’t have enough volunteers to handle, and he said that he would help us get a stage in each major shelter so that we could provide some fun entertainment for the children. We’ll keep you posted!