Houston Strong

On August 25, 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall at Corpus Christi, TX,  near Houston.  And once again history repeated itself, sort of.  Anyone that was alive in the early 2000's remembers Hurricane Katrina and the disaster that was.  And I'm not really talking about the hurricane itself.  Or the floods.  Or the poorly maintained levys breaking.  I'm talking about the human disaster that played out in the weeks and months after the storm had subsided.  All the news reported was efforts to help.  People transporting people by boat when they had been living out in the open on the tops of their roofs for days.  Animals clinging to logs too exhausted to swim anymore.  Old and disabled people abandoned by their 'caretakers' to roll the dice with fate.  Lousisana's Superdome became a gigantic shelter with thousands upon thousands of displaced people camping out practically on top of each other.  People who had no place else to go sat in the heat, wondered if they were going to eat that day and worried about sending their family members to the bathroom because they never knew if they were going to be physically attacked or sexually assaulted by the predators that shared their roof.  And the worst of it - the politicians on both sides of the aisle in Washington DC and in the affected areas playing the blame game with pointed fingers instead of rolling up their sleeves and putting their power to do good to work, delaying help and funding for weeks!  It was a pretty bleak picture for a long time.

Its not going to be like that this time.  People in the wake of Katrina saw that the most effective help that those people and areas received were not government agencies.  They were by organizations, old and new, whose sole purpose was to intervene in times like these.  And this time, while the support of government agencies are important (why should we pay taxes if all its going to do is pay politician salaries?), this time we know where our time and money should be going.

Today, Wednesday, September 6th at 8pm EDT, a group of us who stream on Twitch** are going to have a fundraising stream to help those affected by the hurricane.  Our group specifically plays the game Star Wars: The Old Republic.  As the guild Unholy Alliance on the Harbringer server, we'll gather to raid, to goof off, laugh and help raise awareness of the different ways you can help.  Join us for the fun, but also consider making a donation too.  Think about it.  There were 114.8 million families living in the United States in 2010.  If each family in this country donated just $1, that would be $114.8 million going towards helping put people back on their feet, returning animals to their owners and cleaning up the mess Mother Nature made.   That's a lot of power to do good for just $1.

I've included of list of reputable organizations you can make donations to, that have proven track records of effective emergency help:

Global Giving
Red Cross
Salvation Army
LDS Church Humanitarian Aid Fund (100% of funds donated are used for relief services, not administration)
Houston SPCA
Houston Humane Society

US Only

Text HARVEY to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross adds $10 to monthly cellphone bill.

Text STORM to 51555 to donate $10 to the Salvation Army adds $10 to monthly cellphone bill.

Keep in mind -- donating money without making sure where your money goes risks it going to the wrong people and there will always be people whose purpose it is to defaud others at the expense of people who could use it more!  Do your due diligence before handing over your cash or credit/debit card numbers to anyone!

I never want to see Katrina happen again.  I have family and friends that live in the Houston and southern Texas areas, or personally know people who were displaced to different states because where they lived was destroyed or no longer safe to live in.  Most of ones I know that lived in Texas during Harvey had the ability to get their families to safety, but not everyone has the means or the ability to do that.  Let's make sure everyone gets back on their feet - in a safe home, with food, clothes, pets and family members.

See you at 8pm EDT on my Twitch channel! - www.twitch.tv/scrappywheelz


**  Disclaimer:  I am an affliated broadcaster with Twitch.  Any monies raised during this event will be strictly for relief effots and will not be used for personal gain or to pad Twitch's pockets!  This is not a Twitch sponsored event.

~~~   Scrappywheelz  ~~~