Harvey--how to help

We’ve all witnessed natural disasters and many of us have experienced them, too; two of my family members lost their houses in Hurricane Sandy. I will never forget the scenes of suffering that courageous journalists brought to us as Hurricane Katrina destroyed so much of New Orleans, a city very dear to my heart. And now we had to watch again as destruction unfolded on an almost Biblical scale in Houston and surrounding towns. It is beyond heartbreaking and so many of the stories will haunt us for years to come: the family of six swept away, including four young children; the Houston police officer who died trying to report for duty; the woman who drowned trying to save her three-year-old daughter, who was rescued as she clung to her mother’s body. Who could ever forget stories like that?
But as always in times like this, heroes emerge. The torrential rain had not yet stopped before Houstonians were setting out to rescue their friends, their neighbors, and total strangers, using boats, canoes, even jet skis. It reminded me of Dunkirk. First responders reacted as they always do, risking their lives to save people in dire need. Volunteers drove for hundreds of miles to offer their help. Animal rescue groups arrived to rescue pets stranded by the storm. We owe a debt of deep gratitude to so many—the police and fire fighters and medical personnel, the Good Samaritans who responded to desperate pleas for help they saw on Facebook or Twitter, the Texans who opened their own homes to those who have nowhere to go.
Nor should we forget to acknowledge the journalists who have been working around the clock to cover this tragedy; just think for a moment how much greater the death toll would have been if there were no reporters to tell us how great the need was. The stories that have been playing out on television and on-line and in the newspapers have touched the hearts of Americans from coast to coast and evoked sympathy in people around the globe, for compassion knows no borders. We should thank the millions who have donated so generously to the Red Cross and other rescue groups, to those who have launched fund-raising drives and opened their checkbooks and their hearts to help their fellow citizens. To mention just one example, the NFL star, J.J. Watt immediately launched a fund-raising drive, hoping to raise at least two hundred thousand dollars. To date, he has raised sixteen million dollars.
We can help, too. We can make donations of our own, not just today but in the months to come. We can pledge not to vote again for any politician of whatever political persuasion who continues to deny that climate change is occurring throughout the world and at a rate far faster than the most pessimistic predictions of climatologists. We can collect toys for children and books for libraries inundated by flood waters. We can give to special needs charities like the Texas Diaper Bank. We can volunteer at animal shelters that are taking in dogs and cats from Houston shelters so that they will have room for all the pet victims of Harvey, animals that need to stay in the area so they can be reunited with their families. We can offer our prayers for those in such need of them. And we can be grateful for these glimpses of human nature at its best, for these reminders that most people are good at heart, for we tend to forget that in hard times.
Sadly, after a natural catastrophe, scams pop up like mushrooms and shameless con artists set up sham organizations to take advantage of our generous urges. So I try to donate to reliable charities like The Red Cross or Habitat for Humanity or Doctors without Borders. When I post about these tragedies on-line, I include a link to my go-to charity, the Red Cross. So I was rather shaken when I read that some questions had been raised about how much of their donated dollars go those in greatest need, in this case, the people of Texas. I would not tell anyone not to donate via the Red Cross, and I will continue to do so, but some of you might want to read the story in one of the links below.
Here is a very useful article about how to help in the wake of Harvey’s devastation, focusing upon local agencies. https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-dail...
Here is a listing of the charities considered the “best” by Charity Navigator.
https://www.directrelief.org/2017/01/...
Here is a link to my own favorite animal rescue charity, Best Friends.
https://support.bestfriends.org/site/...
And here is the link to the controversy about the Red Cross. https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/...
Lastly, people will be in need of assistance for many months to come. So rather than donating now, you might want to consider waiting a bit. I saw what Sandy did to my state and years later, there are people and towns that have not fully recovered from the devastation. That is true for New Orleans, too. So we need to be in it for the long haul.