Imagine, being told to evacuate the city you live in and later finding out your home, your possessions and your job are all gone because of the destruction. Worse yet, imagine being one of those who were unable, or chose not to heed the evacuation warnings who are without drinking water, food, shelter or means of communicating to the outside world. Seeing the scenes left in Hurricane Katrina’s wake, I can’t begin to understand what the people there are going through.
One thing I can do is help. As I was driving home from work today, the folks on NPR’s All Things Considered, were interviewing a representative of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. His response on how people can help? Give money. Find a reputable charity helping victims of Katrina, and donate. I’ve decided to give to the American Red Cross. A link to their site, and other charities recommended by FEMA, can be found on NPR’s How to Help Hurricane Katrina’s Victims page.
Those of us in this country who were spared the destruction are living one of its consequences. Higher gas prices. It’s difficult for me to complain about high gas prices when I think about the people in New Orleans and other areas devastated by Katrina. When I first sat down to write this entry I was going to go on about our country’s petroleum addiction. However, that would take away from where the focus should be right now — helping the victims of Katrina. So, please do what you can.
After I finished this entry I tried to connecting to the Red Cross’ web site to submit my donation and I’m getting no response. I’m guessing their servers are being flooding with others trying to donate. If you are interested in donating, you can also submit a donation to the Red Cross through Amazon.com, which is what I did.
To help out the victims of Katrina mother and I have given to two sources. UMCOR – United Methodist Committee on Relief, and ELCA Disaster – Evangelical Lutheran Church of America Disaster for Katrina.
We always use these church agencies because every dollar you give goes to help the relief effort – where some of the other organizations – Red Cross included – uses a portion of your giving for their overhead. The churches overhead is already paid via standing denominational contributions. I think the Salvation Army also operates like the churches. Just thought I’d pass that along.