Volunteering in Galveston

My friend Mercedes and I joined Diaster Relief volunteers from many states to prepare and serve meals for Galveston residents and volunteer workers.

This photo is an overview of the feeding site at the airport on Oct 18, 2008. The tan buildings in the background are airplane hangers. Yellow tents housed the cooking facilities. Visible are pot washing areas, red cambros (food storage containers) and a Salvation Army feeding unit.

We served three meals daily to Salvation Army and Red Cross volunteeers as well as Security personel.

The photo on the left is of the canteen were volunteers were served. Salvation Army trucked meals to 15 permanent sites twice a day, while Red Cross sent 50 trucks on search and feed missions twice a day.

It was a blessing to see the vast number of workers cooperating and working together. We provided a surprise bananna split desert one evening.

From Sept 24 to Oct 18, 670,000 meals had been served!!

Signing at Escapees

Mother joined me at the Escapees RV Club head quarters at Rainbowsend in Livingston for a book signing.

Met lots of new folks and renewed friendships.

Sold several copies of each book, too.

Wheee! Look Who's 90!! (not me!)

Yesterday we celebrated my Mother's 90th birthday. She is sharing her cake with great granddaughter Julianna who turned seven.

We evacuated from Ike to Lake Charles to

stay with my brother and family. While there we were invited to attended a Keenager outing and fish fry at Dry Creek Baptist Camp. With coaxing and help, we got Mother into the Paul Bunyon's style rocker on the porch. Anyone having this much fun can't possibly be ninty years young!

Happy Birthday, MOM!!

Feeding volunteers

By the end of last week, Southern Baptist Diaster Relief, feeding units had decreased as most families in Beaumont had electricity and no longer needed hot meals.

One of the Feeding Units from Washington State was reassigned to First Baptist Church in Vidor where I joined them to cook for other volunteeres.

Here we are serving three meals a day to around a hundred volunteers. These men and women from around the U.S. are with chain-saw units and mud-out units. The teams are goining into the community to cut trees and clean the homes of people who need help.

Laurie and Vernon from Southern Baptist Diaster Relief from Washington State and Betsy with New Jersey Red Cross are precious new friends who volunteered time away from their families to help us. Thanks to you all. I'll never forget our friendship and your willingness to give of yourselves.

I just learned that the March of Dimes is available to aid families with infants. If you know of a need contact the Hope Pregnancy Center at 4009-898-4005.

Disaster Relief

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Teams from Oregon/Washington, and Dallas,Tx, and Lindale, Tx met to work with Red Cross workers from many states at Weatgate Baptist Church.

We began the day at 6 AM with prayer.

Truck loads of equipment are unloaded.

Volunteers from many states gather to unload cans and boxes of supplies


and prepare meals using 50 gallon pots.

Pots and Pans and Dish Duty, Oh My!

Meals are loaded onto Red Cross ERVs (Emergency Response Vehicles) and taken to ten Beaumont locations. Over 7,000 meals were served each day with the numbers dwindling as homes gained electricity.




In the times of distress people look for joy as seen on this sign posted on the door of the church where we assembled the feeding units. It reads:

Why Christmas and Hurricane Seasons are alike.

1. Houses are decorated (boarded up windows)

2. regular TV shows are pre-empted for "specials"

3. You have days off from work

4. At some point you know you're going to have a tree in your house.

We all can use a good laugh and a helping hand. What a joy it's been to work with these dedicated people and to get to know so many of them.

Everybody Has a Story

Little did I know when I spoke for the Golden Triangle Writers Guild, 9/9, that we'd be evacuating ahead of Hurricane Ike on 9/11.

I talked about journaling events, writing memiors from journals and keeping family history. Did you journal your experiences during Ike? If not, it's not too late to catch up. Your memories, empressions and reactions are important.

Update those notes.

My home was not damaged. I was blessed to be safe at my brother's in Lake Charles. The biggest challenge I faced was boredem waiting for the power to be restored.

Since returning to Beaumont, I've assisted in tree and limb removal and am now working with Baptist Disaster Relief cooking meals that are served by the Red Cross.

Gustov? Evacuate for Ike?

Gustov was on everyone's mind. Stay or evacuate. Now we wait for Ike. Has it been a week ago that I got the RV packed? Mother, who will soon be 90, Sassie the collie and Frizbee the cat and I left Sat. at noon for Kilgore. Sunday we drove to Mother's sister's in southwest Missouri for a "vacation". We helped her pack for her move to Kilgore. Hearing about the threat of tornados we started south on Tuesday in heavy rain.

Back in sunny Beaumont I was confronted with swarms of a gazillion love bugs.

This is the only way I found to attack those nasty critters.

The long hours on the road gave me time to contemplate how people react to stressful situations. Here are some thoughts: Denial. Deliberate. Decision.

Let's consider Gustov, then Ike.

Denial: Rita hit, will Gustov? Do we chance it? Naa... . Ike won't come here, Gustov didn't.

In challenging situations do we first deny that we could personally be affected?

Deliberate: What if? What if Ike follows Katrina or Rita? Eveybody shares stories of their worst experiences: traffic jambs, power outages, fallen trees, homes damaged. Naaa.. it'll be another false alarm, or will it? Pros/cons. Should have and didn't. Didn't and should have.

Perhaps we should buy batteries and bottled water, just in case. Most won't want to evacuate again. Will you?

Decision: Action. (Or inaction). Planning and preparation based on past experiences. Once a decision is made and action is taken we have a temporary relief of doing something, anything. Even if we drive for days and the hurricanae takes a welcome detour.

Results maybe exhaustion and frustration, or relief.

And the cycle goes on, next hurricane season or Hurricane Ike.

Now if only I'd had my tape recorder so I could "write" while on the road.