Crochet Me Crazy

We drove down to the area of the Astrodome where the Hurricane evacuees are being brought in. We were able to help two men with a young boy by filling up their car with gas and giving them some cash to try to make it back to Mississippi. We met a husband, wife, sister-in-law, several kids, and another family member that we talked to extensively in a Fiesta parking lot. There are evacuees of all types walking all over down there. This was part of a 15 member family. Some members were still at the dome guarding their few belongings. The Astrodome is not a place normal people would want to stay a long time. They said they just washed off because they weren't comfortable with the shower situation. It is completely open with no privacy. They don't get much sleep because they are so packed in there. We are meeting up with them tomorrow to take them to get some shoes which they needed badly and whatever other neccessities they might need. They are interested in finding jobs. One man is a roofer, the wife is a medical assistant and the husband is a elementary health/PE teacher. I gave them a list I had printed out of people I had found offering to open their homes up to families. They were very grateful for that. I hope we will be able to help them to find a place to stay, help them with transportation. You can imagine how hard it would be to be shipped into a foreign city with nothing and then try to start a new life with no transportation, etc. The electrical outlets in the dome are hot commodities so even though they do have a cell phone, it is difficult to get an outlet to keep it charged in. Who know how long they will have a phone since they have no address to send a bill to and no money to pay the bill. These people are the lucky ones...they managed to be rescued fairly early. They did swim in muck up their chins but were rescued by a boat. (I think it was Wednesday) They do have family that is still there though...they were very upset and tearful when they found out about the bus that wrecked in route. The wife has a Cocker Spaniel that she got out with but they only have 10 days to get the dog from the shelter that took it. Hopefully, I may have a temporary home for her dog that she was very fond of. There is no sense in these people losing any more.
Several of Jeff's fellow employees found out about Jeff taking the water to Louisiana and that we were planning on trying to find some families to help. Several people wanted to send money to us to help us to help people. I want to say thank you to those people. We will use every cent to help these people who need it so desperately. This is not going to be over for us people in Houston for a long time. These people are completely destitute and they are not going to be able to get back to any semblence of normality any time soon without citizens help.