IKE!

For those of you who have been asking about my family in Houston, I decided to post an e-mail from my Mum.

Hi folks.
Well this has been quite a month.
First of all I went up to the Dallas area to help with the preparations for the arrival of Hurricane Gustav and landed up as the job director for the close up of a non event. I stayed because Ike was coming and that was a real event.
There are small towns on the Texas coast that no longer exist. There are people inland who have not had a hot meal for a week and perhaps no meal at all for a while. We are desperately trying to get our feeding trucks out and about but can’t go to every street and have to hand out food at fixed points. If little old Mrs. Smith can’t go the mile to the Point of Distribution she is out of luck for a while. We just hope that neighbors and helping neighbors.
Sheltering has been a scramble too. We had enough space for the evacuation of almost a million people. Fortunately only 10% had no other place to go. They drove and were bussed hundreds of miles away to places like San Antonio and Austin and flown to the far side of the state. Now the schools where they were being sheltered want their space back and they are being bussed back to Houston and we really don't have anywhere to put them. We are opening old stores and putting thousands of people in them with a cot a couple of blankets and a "comfort kit" which contains a toothbrush, soap etc. Some of these good folks have three toothbrushes by now as they have been shuffled about so much.
FEMA has been hopeless and in fact a real blockade to what we are attempting, but that will have to come later.
It is really humbling to know that there are so many people in desperate need and we can't help them fast enough. Still about a million people are without electricity. We are one of them. We have the motorhome rumbling away outside with a detention cord coming into the house. John is waiting for me to get off the computer so he can plug in the microwave and heat last night's leftovers. At least we have that. It is getting hot at night and harder to sleep without air conditioning. Much hotter and we will move back into the motorhome. Like I said we are lucky. Our neighbors to the left were not at home. If they had been they would have been killed by the tree that fell onto their bed.
Enormous grandfather trees are lying around the neighborhood. Some logs as big as 3ft across. I keep thinking of all those women in Central America who walk for a day to collect wood. What would they give for all this? As it is it lies in piles too high to see over but it’s gradually sinking as the live branches wither.
I took the day off today. It is Sunday and I would not have made much headway with the business people I need to contact for sheltering space. I slept in, went for a hair cut, took a nap and went for a walk. After dinner we plan to play scrabble.
John has been so good, getting dinner when I crawl home and stringing lights all over the place. Great clusters of extension cords to step over. Love him.
Hard to live without power though. I walk into the bedroom and tell myself not to put my hand on the light switch but then reach out for the fan. It has become so automatic.
Must be off as we are getting hungry.
Lots of love to you all.
Thanks for your support
Have fun
Harriet

If anyone is interested in helping with the relief errors of Hurricane Ike please visit http://www.redcross.org/.