Samaritan's Purse staff and volunteers are out in storm-ravaged neighborhoods along the Texas coast, helping people recover from Hurricane Ike.
Three Disaster Relief Units along with a convoy of support vehicles and equipment moved into Texas on Monday. They are based at Santa Fe in the Galveston area; Friendswood, between Galveston and Houston; and Port Arthur.
Staff and volunteers have begun removing felled trees from homes and yards, clearing debris, patching roofs with heavy-duty plastic, making emergency repairs, and cleaning out thick mud and debris from flooded homes.
Hurricane Ike officially made landfall in the Galveston area just after 2 a.m. local time on Saturday as a powerful Category 2 storm. It slammed the Texas coast with 110 mph winds and towering waves, knocking down trees, flooding thousands of homes, blowing out windows in Houston's skyscrapers, and cutting off power to more than 3 million people.
The storm, nearly as big as Texas itself, blasted a 500-mile stretch of coastline in Louisiana and Texas. It breached levees, flooded roads and led more than 1 million people to evacuate and seek shelter inland. Hurricane winds battered the coast for hours before and after the storm's center came ashore.
As they begin to work in Texas in response to Hurricane Ike, Samaritan's Purse is continuing to help people in Louisiana who were impacted by Hurricane Gustav. A Disaster Relief Unit remains in Donaldsonville, where it has been since September 2.
If you would like to help please call 1-800-528-1980
1 comment:
Hi Sunny,
Yeah, the hurricane missed us here in Austin. It's crazy. We are under a SEVERE drought and was praying for Ike to come our way... the rain that is.
What happened in Galveston is so very sad. My family was out there a few weeks ago camping on the beach. I'm so glad we went when we did. I wonder if the island will ever be the same.
Today at the grocery store, I noticed our shelves were bare. I asked an employee and she explained that the evacuees were headed back home and were clearing our shelves as there's no food and water in Houston! Many are still without power and water.
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