Hurricane Katrina

[Jaded Gem]

Since I have not been working for awhile now, I have had more time to reconnect with family and friends. I consider myself very lucky to have many loving people around me, and many times I wonder how I could give back the love that I have felt in my life. Monetary donations, blood donations, and especially volunteering one's time can change a person's life forever. It's amazing how much the human spirit can help others as I have witnessed during the aftermath of 9/11 and the Asian Tsunami. With the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina, many people in the southwestern United States have been affected especially in the Gulf Coast and New Orleans areas. Please consider donating something to this cause. I believe there is a local American Red Cross chapter that you can donate to. For the people in the Bay Area, I have called the American Red Cross Bay Area Chapter in San Francisco. Because of the destruction left by Hurricane Katrina, they will be offering a two day readiness emergency outreach course for new Red Cross volunteers. I am on the list, and you can be on the list too. Their website is:
http://www.bayarea-redcross.org/ and their number is (415) 427-8000
If you are planning to volunteer, you will need to call their number and leave your name and contact information. They should contact you within 24 hours.

Here is the news posted today:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/31/LOCALS.TMP
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0831_050831_donate_katrina.html

How to help
People wishing to donate to the Red Cross disaster relief fund can go online at www.redcross.org, call 1-800-HELPNOW or send a contribution to their local Red Cross chapter, which is also the place that potential volunteers can go.

FEMA'S SUGGESTED RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS

Organizations Requesting Cash Donations

Note: 800 and 888 phone numbers work only in the U.S. and Canada

American Red Cross
English: 800 HELP NOW (435 7669)
Spanish: 800 257 7575

Operation Blessing
800 436 6348

America's Second Harvest
800 344 8070

Organizations Requesting Donations and Volunteers

Adventist Community Services
800 381 7171

Catholic Charities USA
+1 703 549 1390

Christian Disaster Response
+1 941 956 5183 or +1 941 551 9554


Christian Reformed World Relief Committee
800 848 5818

Church World Service
800 297 1516

Convoy of Hope
+1 417 823 8998

Lutheran Disaster Response
800 638 3522

Mennonite Disaster Service
+1 717 859 2210

Nazarene Disaster Response
888 256 5886

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
800 872 3283

Salvation Army
800 SAL ARMY (725 2769)

Southern Baptist Convention—Disaster Relief
800 462 8657, ext. 6440

United Methodist Committee on Relief
800 554 8583

For further information, visit the Web site for the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster at http://www.nvoad.org/

Source: FEMA

Thank you for reading this and God Bless!

 

[Jaded Gem]

Here is a website that you can put a general post concerning your offer of housing:

http://katrinahousing.org/

http://KatrinaHousing.org has a volunter site to post and search for housing listings. You can donate your room/apartement/home, etc to survivors as they can search the listings to find a place to stay. This is being promoted by MoveOn, who will get RedCross and FEMA to promote it as well. The search functionality will be complete later tonight. But postings can go up now.

Please pricescopers open your heart and your homes like Perry has. God Bless everyone!