The championships of the mid 90's that gave our city the moniker of "Clutch City" will always be glorious. What we, and the rest of the world, have seen in the past few days however, could be redefining why our city is known as Clutch City. Never before in U.S. history has an entire large city been "killed", as what has happened in New Orleans. All those people needed a new home. These are people that have had their entire lives taken from them. If ever there was a "clutch" moment in American history, it was this one. And Houston, Texas, stepped up. The humanatarian outpouring from this city to our I-10 neighbors has been tremendous. I'm reading that donations are overcrowding the George R. Brown and all of the other donation spots around the area are bursting at the seams with donations. Local Wal-marts have been cleared out of basic daily goods, working class citizens are driving up to donation points with U-hauls full of everything you could think of. There was said to be upwards of 25,000 volunteers in the shelters lending a hand, and lines of people 100 deep to sign up. My friend who volunteered blogged his experience. . The world is now witnessing the other part of Houstons enormous heart. Houston is indeed, CLUTCH CITY.
definately h-town stepped up, but texas as a whole stepped up too (austin, san antonio and dallas). here in austin there were about 500 people WAITING to volunteer. when people leave you have all these others fighting over who gets to volunteer next. i just did a clothing drop off and wanted to volunteer, but theres just too many people already there. im sure they will still be needing people for the next few weeks so keep that in mind. they need clothes of all kinds, but they really need underwear, socks, belts, shoes, sheets, pillows/pillowcases, toothbrushes/toothpaste, hydrogen peroxide, diapers, baby formula, ect. right now i think the best the average person can do is gather up a few bags of stuff to donate or even go to the store and buy some diapers to take down there. donate money to the red cross, ect. theres alot of volunteers right now. i was amazed that there were so many people waiting outside to volunteer. people arent going to forget how texas stepped up.
The people of Houston are indeed great, compassionate people, Heart City indeed... I have family and friends who are some of the top decision-makers working for the City of Houston, and the amount of work they are putting in (and the very little sleep they have been getting, working round the clock for 4+ days now, including today) is absolutely amazing. City officials deserve a big pat on the back. Also, and this might be lost in all the hoopla, but local religious organizations (churchs, mosques, synogogues, and everyone else) have been nothing short of magnificent. The majority of the work that's going to be done to help these people to relocate, find jobs, shelter, etc is pretty much going to be the burden carried by the local religious organizations. So EVEN if you are not particularly religious, go to your local churchs and make donations, they are much more organized and have better outreach programs than mosques or anyone else locally. So even if you are a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew, or even an athiest please make non-monetary donations (clothes, food, furniture, whatever) through your local churches.
Houston has stepped up and taken a lead role in handling the evacuee situation ~ it must be noted that Austin, SA, Dallas and many other towns are putting in a huge effort as well. Great job Texas!
