Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Red Cross checks damage before distributing aid

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Saturday, August 28, 1999

Red Cross checks damage before distributing aid
Disaster relief teams visiting residences to determine families' needs
By Guy H. Lawrence
Caller-Times

Hurricane Bret pounded Rhonda Pittman's Flour Bluff mobile home all night after she evacuated just after midnight Sunday in her car with several relatives.
   When she returned Tuesday, she found a personal disaster.
   "It is terrible. The roof has some big cracks on it, and the siding on the skirting is all tore off of it," said the 38-year-old Pittman, who spent a night in her car with her son, nephew and mother after the car ran out of gas in the southern part of Corpus Christi.
   "My clothes and shoes and most everything was there, and it is just ugly now. ... I was just sitting, and wondering what I am going to do."
   Answers to Pittman's questions might lie with the American Red Cross.
   The Red Cross is assisting thousands of South Texas residents who have lost personal belongings. Damage assessment teams have begun to visit the homes of victims, said Barbara Jean, acting public affairs officer.
   The organization is dispatching teams of case workers, damage assessors, mental health workers and nurses to victims' residences.
   Once a team determines a family's emergency needs, the Red Cross provides the family with vouchers to pay for emergency housing, new clothes, groceries, medical items, basic household furnishings and supplies and minor home repairs.
   Residents can contact the Red Cross to request a team visit or go to their offices, Jean said.
   Also, the organization is taking donations to help the victims, she said. The United Way of the Coastal Bend has donated $10,000 to the Coastal Bend chapter of the Red Cross.
   The Red Cross is asking for financial donations, so victims can use purchase vouchers to replace clothing or furniture, rather than choose from donated goods, she said.
   "From the mental health capacity, that actually puts them back in control, and it puts money back into the economy," Jean said.
   Red Cross teams will deliver cleanup kits to families in hurricane-damaged homes. Each kit includes a mop, brooms, a pail, scrub brush, sponge, cleaning solutions, disinfectant, gloves and garbage bags.
   For the victims whose needs are beyond the Red Cross's services, the teams will refer victims to other agencies, Jean said.
   The Red Cross operated 61 shelters for 13,258 people who fled Hurricane Bret. More than 620 staff and volunteers assisted the needy during the disaster. Of the 586 volunteers who helped during the disaster, 197 were residents of areas outside South Texas.
   Where to find help
   For Red Cross assistance, call 1-800-656-9991
   How you can help
   To donate money to the American Red Cross disaster relief fund, call 1-800-HELP-NOW (435-7669)
   Spanish speakers can call 1-800-257-7575
   Credit card contributions can be made at www.redcross.org



Staff writer Guy H. Lawrence can be reached at 886-3792 or by e-mail at lawrenceg@caller.com

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