I though I would share with FTE about Hurricane Harvey in Texas. I was deployed a week ago as a Critical Care Trauma Medic with American Medical Response's Disaster Response Team. As of about 5 hours ago, we finally were able to get get voice cell service as well as net connections. The rains have somewhat stopped and some water is receding. There are still thousands in need of rescue as well as just as many in need of basic necessities ! I have been rotated out for the next 12 hours for rest so I am taking the time to post.
Please....If you can see your way to help in anyway possible, I urge you to do so. These Americans have been stripped of EVERYTHING they have known. They have the wet clothes that they are wearing.
AMR now has over 800 DRT responder's in the area as well as well over 400 vehicles, rotor aircraft and fixed wing aircraft working 24 hours to assist in evacuations and rescue efforts. No contribution or donation could be too small in the effort to assist these victims ! Contact your local Red Cross for information about how to contribute.....Please !

 

Thanks for your fantastic service WAC! We are high and dry in Houston and my wife, a school counselor, has initiated a food/clothing/personal items drive that has really taken off. We have been distributing to those who have lost everything and don't have the means to immediately recover. The help that is coming in is fantastic and many have been helped already. The good people outnumber the bad many times over here in the middle of this disaster and you are proof!

 

Thank you both for sharing your on-the-ground experience, and expressing how dire the situation still is for many. Too often these events get swept from the headlines before even the basics are provided for many. And too often people provide the wrong things - when what is really required is time, and money. You have expressed how you are contributing time - for those of us further away it's quite obvious to me at least what we need to do.

 

Dave,
You are so correct on news dropping coverage before the work is completed. My wife's family is from New Orleans and went thru Katrina. The only thing that stuck with the Big Easy was the bad PR. I still talk to people that think New Orleans is demolished.
Hopefully the Nation has learned from its mistakes and stays with Texas till the end.
Topmoo & WhatsAChevy thanks for the updates!

 

Thank You All for the appreciation and encouragement..
I've just come off of a 14 hour to hear the news that I'm being prepped to head to Florida in the morning.
Things here have calmed to a certain degree (for us, not the residents) and I feel sick leaving, knowing that these folks are still so very much in need. I will try to update when possible but mother nature has a way of interrupting the best of intentions with no regard. 2017 will certainly stick with me. I hope everyone affected and everyone to be affected, stays safe and well !....Don