First Hand account - the Astrodome

<p>I posted this on the parents forum, but thought I would start a thread here. I am trying to find the best place to offer this, if people want some on-hand accounts:</p>

<p>My s. and his roommates (in Houston) were scheduled to travel to San Antonio this weekend. Instead, they cancelled their plans and will all be volunteering at the Astrodome. They are in the process of finalizing their shifts as I type. I will be happy to post updates and reports from "the front" as he reports in.</p>

<p>Wonderful. Great kids</p>

<p>Thanks. They are good kids. I believe they plan to let people make calls out on their cellphones, and they plan to bring their phone chargers. I'd heard that some people have cellphones with them, but no way to recharge the dead batteries. All these things we don't think about....</p>

<p>exactly, let us how it goes</p>

<p>My son is a student at Rice in Houston. He, along with fellow students from his residential college, plan on going to the Astrodome at 1 a.m. this morning to volunteer. </p>

<p>I'll also provide any updates as I hear them.</p>

<p>So many Rice students have been going... it's so nice to see my classmates coming together and coming through in the face opf such tragedy.</p>

<p>I'll be there tuesday.</p>

<p>edit: i'll be there wednesday</p>

<p>Haven't heard from my son yet. My guess is that he is sleeping, considering that they were planning on being at the Astrodome until at least 8 a.m.</p>

<p>Hi peariceparent-
I haven't heard from my son yet either. I am not sure what shifts he took, so I will wait to hear from him. I am proud of all the Rice students for stepping up to the plate. I am sure the other Students in Houston have done likewise.</p>

<p>I just finished IMing with my son. He said that he was with a group of 30 Rice students who left at 1 a.m. for the Astrodome. He, and a group of about 10, were assigned to the Relient Arena where they sorted through donated clothes and shoes. They worked until 7 a.m. this morning. He said that he only got one view of the inside of the Astrodome. His reaction was, there were a LOT of people there. I don't think he's been keeping up with all the coverage on TV, mostly on the Internet, so I'm sure it was rather an eye opener to see the masses in person.</p>

<p>He said he probably was going to go back at some point to volunteer again. Certainly makes a parent proud.</p>

<p>Owl students give a hoot :)</p>

<p>I haven't been able to volunteer myself yet, but have spoken to a number of people who have, and the accounts are sobering. One friend who volunteered in triage (a non-medical person) was overwhelmed by the sad condition of the evacuees who arrived and the dignity with which the medical personnel treated each individual, regardless of how bad they looked, smelled, etc. </p>

<p>Here's a link to blogs of folks who have volunteered: <a href="http://blogs.chron.com/domeblog/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://blogs.chron.com/domeblog/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>For those donating relief items, I have been hearing that there is a desperate need for new underwear and socks, as well as a need for backpacks or duffle bags for people to hold things. While there have been a massive amount of clothes donated, people haven't donated socks and underwear.</p>

<p>Underwear and socks, and add diapers and formula to that list of most critically needed items.</p>

<p>Our church and all Catholic churches in the Houston metroplex area had a second collection today for Catholic Charities which is running shelters and supplying needed items to the evacuees. The parish hall was opened up for donations and will remain open through Monday, when at least one more truckload of items will be sent to the CC receiving location. We received a list of much-needed items - personal care items are on the list, as well. Apparently different groups are being asked to send volunteers at different times to help with feeding the evacuees - the Catholic Church will be feeding and serving meals next weekend, other groups will be on duty on different days. The archbishop has asked and received permission to say a special Mass tomorrow at the Astrodome. Everyone in the Houston are is pitching in to help.</p>

<p>I just spoke to my s. who spent 14 hrs at the shelter. First he was at the food bank, and was then sent to the George R. Brown Convention center. He has emailed me a number of pictures which I will try to figure out how to send a link to.
They are still expecting, and are quite well prepared for, busloads of people at the convention center. He said they are well stocked with food, clothing, toys, etc. They have set up "shopping areas" for people to pick up the free clothes, toiletries, toys, etc. The "food court" and playground areas for the kids are on the 3rd floor. They have set up a movie theater, laundry service and showers. They have also set up a health clinic and rolled in a "pharmacy on wheels". He unloaded cases or canned water from Oprah's organization, and bales of jeans (yes, bundled in bales). There are rows and rows of cots and air mattresses. they were short on pillows, but a truckload arrived. There were so many donations they had to close off a road just to handle the donations that were being unloaded. </p>

<p>He also helped set up the computers in the IT area for the on-site health department, but some of the equipment is arriving damaged, and they are working to get all the necessary parts or replacements.</p>

<p>There are heartwarming stories and sad stories. He was working as a greeter to process and orient families. He was helping a vietnamese family who were trying to locate their aunt and uncle, who are deaf. The were not able to locate them at the coluseum, and assume they are at the Astrodome. Unfortunately, the communications systems were not yet linked, so they could not access the database of people processed at the Astrodome. But, they are setting up computer startions and celllphone charger stations, and hopefully they will be able to improve their ability to locate poeple at other shelters.</p>

<p>As they were leaving at 2:30 last night, they caught a couple of local teens trying to steal donated clothes. Their mother was waiting in a car outside for the ill-gotten goods. They had slipped in as "volunteers" but had no ID when confronted. That is patheric-- both that these people would do such a thing, and that they are also in need and would even consider such a thing. </p>

<p>He came home for a few hours sleep and is going back later this afternoon. He said there is a huge police presence. All people are searched/patted down before entering-- No contraband, no cigarettes are allowed in. So far, except for the theft, things have been going well. The local private schools will be taking in some of the kids Wednesday. He hadn't heard of any schools being set up on site at his facility, but I'd heard this would be in place at the astrodome.</p>

<p>The pictures re incredible. I will work to get a link to them. And, I'll keep everyone posted.</p>

<p>thanks for posting, jym. I am glad to hear that the good people of Texas are responding so quickly, and especially that the children are getting toys.</p>

<p>Evitajr - I thought the churches would respond - very cool that they have things going so quickly.</p>

<p>My s. rounded up a bunch of kids from his residential college yesterday afternoon to go back for another shift. I believe they worked 4-10 p.m. I am sure he is still asleep, as it is only 8:30 am in Houston right now. He may try to post his pictures on the flickr website if he has time later today. In addition to the photos from the shelter, he has photos that he took as we drove to Houston a few weeks ago. He took several from the big highway causeways that ran right across/through the water. He wasn't able to get his camera out fast enough when we were on the bridge over the floating casinos. I told him not to worry, that we'd get those shots "next time". Who knew..... Hard to believe there will be no "next time"....</p>

<p>ohiomom -- just to clarify, it's the Interfaith Ministries (not just churches) that have pulled together in Houston to feed the evacuees from Louisiana. Thousands of members of churches, synagogues and mosques have been attending a 2-hour training program so that they can take turns serving meals and "just listening" and providing support.</p>

<p>Here is a snipit from the email I received from my son. I've edited out some personal references, so it may be a bit disjointed. I asked him to see if he can put the photos on flickr.com, but I sent my note to his regular email, and he responded to me today from his school email, so he didn't see my note. Stay tuned... (Note: this is his email-- the pictures are not attached)</p>

<p>" I took these last night when I went to volunteer with the 6 people that responded to my message. XXX and his friend also joined in later. The shelter is now much more full, so there are more people in the pictures of beds, but they now keep the lights lower in the bed area so that people can sleep easier, so the pictures don't come out as well. Most of the effort yesterday was in packing up donations and shipping them out the storage and hopefully other shelters, so that they could free up space to put down more cots. This means that the clothes pictures are also less impressive. I don't know how many people they had as of last night, but I heard that they are expecting to reach a capacity of 5,700 people."</p>

<p>He promises to call later tonight with some stories-- I'll pass them along.</p>

<p>blackeyedsusan -
interfaith is even better - thanks for the clarification!</p>