If you’re like most Americans, you’ve been watching the Hurricane Harvey coverage, thanking your lucky stars that you don’t live in its path. However, for millions, their lives have just been turned upside down, and the problems haven’t stopped. You want to help; you want your business to help. How? Here are 10 ways you and your business can help.
1. Cash. Cold Hard Cash.
Jennifer Smith Thames, a victim of last year’s horrible flooding in Louisiana wrote a Facebook post that explained why cash is the best idea:
PSA: For all of those across the country, watching the catastrophic events in TX, and wanting to know what they can do to help, I’m going to say what they’ll feel uncomfortable saying.
They’ll need money. They just will. Work will be disrupted, insurance will be slow to pay, and probably underpay. Even if they get plenty of insurance money, eventually, they’ll need money right away.
Less than a week after the flood last year, I was having to buy clothes for our family, replacing ALL of our prescriptions at one time, and buying random other things. We were blessed in that [my husband] Matt continued to get paid with no disruption. We were in the minority.
To keep reading, click here: 9 Ways Your Business Can Help Hurricane Harvey’s Houston Victims
The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is also a way to make an impact quickly. 100% of your donation goes to relief. Give here: https://secure3.convio.net/gbgm/site/SPageNavigator/umcor_donate.html?type=1002&project=901670
Thank you! I strongly prefer the religious based charities because so much of their leadership is volunteer as well.
I do too. 🙂 UMCOR is my go-to as I know that the Church takes care of admin costs, so the donations to the fund go directly to those in need.
Great ideas,just thought the Walmart part a bit weird, as there’s no way Walmart is doing that help for free. They are probably lined up as a source of supply for FEMA which means they will get paid in some form of compensation.
Anyway the best way to help is to send money to the Red Cross directly unless you have contacts in area, then you would help them directly.
Problem is situations like this that no one does any preparation ahead of the disaster, think how people rush out when it snows even when a storm has been forecasted with enough warnings. Most effected people in Texas knew about Hurricane Harvey with ample time to react properly especially in flood prone areas. Granted the claims of being low income, but the buses were running and roads were passable until the water started rising. My biggest complaint is the lack of foresight in those individuals who care for the elderly and just leave them stranded. I didn’t see any attendants helping those elderly who were left in a building with water up to their waists. Unless there’s a flash flood, water doesn’t get that high without time to move out of path.
Too many people don’t like to prepare themselves for the worst situation and then complain because it takes so long to help them. You should always have enough food and water to last for a short period in case you can’t leave area, plus candles and extra blankets. You should also know what type of geographic area you live in and what weather conditions are safe to stay and which to leave in.
I live near the top of a hilly area near a stream outlet for a river which flows under and by the highway across from the house I live in, so I know the water is flowing past my residence and even my basement apartment is safe from flooding but if I lived in the block of buildings one street down and behind me, I would consider leaving if there was a flood problem. Water flows down, a simple principle of physics everyone forgets.
Here’s hoping we have a fast turnaround from this storm.
“Most effected people in Texas knew about Hurricane Harvey with ample time to react properly especially in flood prone areas. ”
Hmm, no. A hurricane like this normally would have passed over and be up to the plains states by now. But, even as I type this it is STILL hovering over the Texas coast.
THAT is what has caused the unexpected, and unpredicted by the weathermen, rain. Close to 2 feet of rain over night. Nobody saw that coming. Nobody!
As for the elderly sitting in the chairs with water up to their waists. Just exactly how do you move the frail, elderly, and mentally-diminished folks? Moving them would be stressful and could cause more problems. Again, nobody expected 2 feet of rain overnight. With hindsight it might seem like a stupid decision; but, given the history of storms NOT dumping 2 feet of rain in one night, I’d also risk leaving them in their “homes” and not risk moving.
Surely, the next time they WILL move given what they are experiencing now. But, who knew?!
Also, it doesn’t help when the weathermen are calling every storm a “storm of the century” and it just doesn’t pan out. Did they never hear of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”?
The Mayor of Houston actually announced before Harvey hit that people should NOT evacuate – they were worried about accidents and medical emergencies cause and exacerbated by the inevitable gridlock they expected to ensue if people evacuated.
Also, if you are low income and you don’t have family to go to, a bus isn’t enough. Where are you going? Where are you getting the money to pay for a hotel?
As for that senior care facility – Guess who sent out the picture? The owner had started making arrangements to move her residents out but was told to NOT do so – and when the officialdom speaks, you listen when it comes to the safety of your residents. Then, the flooding started and she called for help was basically told “we’ll get to you when we get to you. We have no idea when. You’re not so important.” So she texted the picture to her daughter, who put it out on social media. Realize that once things started getting bad, it became impossible to just put people in a car and start ferrying them – these are people who need specialized transport. So she needed the help of the authorities, who couldn’t be bothered.
Thank you for mentioning Baptist Global Response! Those folks in the yellow hats are there feeding and caring for the first responders.