In Austin, Texas today evacuees are facing food and supply shortages as they attempt to rebuild their lives from hurricane Ike. Officials from Red Cross, United Way and Austin area food bank are becoming aggressive and are in despite need of food and supplies. Over the past few days all three agencies have organized food and clothing drives at various locations throughout the Greater Austin region and each group sites nominal results. And with evacuees being forced settle in for the long haul here in Austin, charitable groups are worrying what they will do and attempting to get people on board to help their fellow man out. "We made a mistake" say Henry Ramirez of the Central Texas chapter of the Red Cross. "We thought we had enough food and supplies on Monday to fully support the evacuees. We flat out asked people to stop donating food and clothing. They did. We made a mistake." A press release was made to local media Monday here in Austin saying exactly that, and the Red Cross said they had plenty of volunteers also and asked people to hold off on submitting volunteer applications. It was not only the local Red Cross chapter that made the claim of having enough food for all the evacuees. The Austin Area food bank also asked people to stop giving donations on Monday saying they thought they had plenty. Max Taylor of the Austin Area food bank says "You know, our situation was, we were getting so much from the great people of Austin that we just had no room. What we meant was we just ran out of room for all of the food." After touring the facility on Monday it is plain to see that the Austin area food bank was full to capacity of donated items, but today when we were allowed access it was obvious that they had started running out of food. Austin area food bank worked with local media and other outlets to once again start building up their supplies and stockpiles of food for evacuees by holding numerous food drives throughout the area. The shortage of food for evacuees has thrown another blow to them. "How can this happen? I mean they knew there was a disaster going and they tell people that they had enough food. Give me a break! I thought it was a bad call when I saw it on the news Monday night. How and why did this happen? This is my question" says Cameron Falls of Surfside Beach, Texas who was evacuated to Austin one week ago to flee hurricane Ike. Her thoughts were repeated by evacuees and donors alike. "They put it out on the news the other day that they had enough food to go around and now they don't? How does this happen?" says Elizabeth Dowdy an Austin area food donor we spoke with. "We want to help, at least those who want to help themselves you know. How can we do that if we don't know what they need" says Dowdy. No matter who is to blame or how this happened the fact still remains for those in need, the food supplies are short. The Austin Area food bank, united way and Red Cross still need food and monetary support. All three agencies are set to issue apologies for their actions this week and are attempting to regain lost support and increase donations so that they can continue providing food for evacuees here in Austin. Red Cross, Austin food bank and united way advise for those wishing to make contributions to please look at their respected websites for information on donating food, supplies or money. And all 3 insist they will continue to meet the needs of people as long as the food holds out.
About the Author
Matthew is freelance premire journalist who is recognized as an industry expert in transportation, sports managment and community activites. Matthew has been recognized as a superior journalist and by 12 news orginizations includind API. He lives in Texas on the Gulf Coast with his family
No comments:
Post a Comment