"I Don't Have Anything To Start Over" - Harvey Victims Pray For Relief As 1000s Remain Stuck In Shelters

It’s been nearly a month since Hurricane Harvey, a storm that some expect to rank among the costliest natural disasters in US history, and still tens of thousands of Texans remain marooned in temporary housing, unable to return to their flood-damaged homes, while thousands more are struggling to secure hotel rooms and other types of temporary housing, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The scramble for housing has caused occupancy rates at hotels in the Houston area to surge as disaster recovery officials scramble to arrange short-term and permanent housing for those left homeless by the storm. The task of securing shelter for the displaced could take months.

“Lillian Godfrey has been sleeping on an air mattress on the floor of her friend’s shuttered night club, alongside her daughter and two pool tables, ever since floodwaters swept into her home here last month.

Ms. Godfrey, 74 years old, has a federal voucher for a hotel, but hasn’t had any luck finding a room nearby. Her daughter’s cars were lost in the flooding.

“’It’s heartbreaking,’ she said. “The Lord closes some doors and opens others. He’s going to pull me through this sooner or later.’”

As recently as Saturday night, 4,700 people remained in Red Cross shelters across Texas on Saturday night, according to the relief group. Initially as many as 450,000 Texans were displaced by the storm, while as many as 30,000 sought temporary relief in one of the state’s shelters.

Some of the displaced, uneasy with the prospect of living elsewhere, have remained in their water-damaged homes. Others were staying with friends, family or even strangers.

For the first full week of September, hotel occupancy in Houston grew to 80.5%, nearly double the occupancy rate from the same period a year earlier, according to STR Inc., a data company that tracks the hotel industry.

It is still unclear how many people in Texas will lose their homes because of the storm or how many eventually will be able to move back. But some estimates expect the total damages to property and the US economy in terms of lost productivity could tally as high as $190 billion.

“While the final scope and scale of the housing challenge is still being realized, it is already apparent that this will be one of the largest, most complex efforts ever undertaken,” said Michael Byrne, who is heading up relief efforts in Texas for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

According to data collected by WSJ from the state, city and county level, some estimated 50,712 homes suffered major damage in the storm. Meanwhile, 14,952 were destroyed and 76,364 experienced minor damage.

Local officials say 130,000 single-family homes in Harris County, which includes Houston, were estimated to have been affected by the rampant flooding. Between 2,000 and 3,000 large apartment buildings likely sustained damage, and up to 5,000 smaller apartment buildings may have been damaged as well.

“In terms of the sheer destruction due to the flooding, this is unprecedented in modern times for Houston,” said Tom McCasland, Houston’s director of housing and community development."

In some towns, the flooding remains so dire that even locations that were initially planned to be shelters flooded, forcing officials to convert public buildings like schools into back up shelters.  

“In Port Arthur, a coastal city of about 55,000, Mayor Derrick Freeman called the housing situation “dire” in the wake of heavy flooding damage.

This past week, one shelter at a middle school was full after the city’s main shelter had flooded weeks earlier, and some 250 people had been evicted from their homes by landlords because of flood damage, according to Mr. Freeman.

Another several hundred were being housed at shelters around the state, and between 4,000 and 5,000 people were still living in flood-damaged homes, Mr. Freeman said.”

In Port Arthur, city officials had hoped to temporarily house some of the displaced on two barges that a private company was going to transport from nearby Louisiana. However, by Friday, plans had shifted, and large air-conditioned tents were brought in by FEMA and the state to house the evacuees who had been sheltering at the school.

Meanwhile, many victims who were given hotel vouchers by FEMA are finding it difficult to secure rooms thanks to sky high occupancy rates.

“Debby Valsin, a 54-year-old retiree, had been living at the middle school shelter in Port Arthur with her nine-year-old grandson. She said her landlord terminated her lease after the floods because her apartment was uninhabitable, giving her five days to haul out her belongings.

Ms. Valsin qualifies for a FEMA hotel voucher but said all the nearby hotels she called are full. For now, with the start of school Monday, Ms. Valsin expected to be moved from the shelter into the tents.

‘Your life is upside down,’ she said. ‘I don’t have anything to start over.’”

However, while the situation remains incredibly dire for people on the ground, there may at least be a silver lining in the unprecedented damage brought by the storm – for auto manufacturers, that is.

As we reported last month, while terrible news to car dealers - many of whom face bankruptcy if their insurance policies don"t cover all the damages – the storm may be just what the struggling U.S. OEM and supplier industry ordered, according to a RBC.

That is, if locals have any resources left over to purchase new vehicles after their finished covering any out-of-pocket costs, which, despite President Donald Trump signing an aid package worth $15 billion.
 

Houston rescue workers: ‘Red Cross and FEMA were virtually nowhere to be seen during Harvey’

A U.S. Soldier with the 20th Engineer Battalion, 36th Engineer Brigade, waits to load supplies that will be distributed the towns effected Hurricane Harvey in a in a reconnaissance mission to asses the damage and combat the affects of the hurricane at an American Red Cross Distribution Center in Sugar Land, Texas Sep. 3, 2017. The Department of Defense is conducting Defense Support of Civil Authorities operations in response to the effects of Hurricane Harvey. DSCA operations are part of the DOD"s response capability to assist civilian responders in saving lives, relieving human suffering and mitigating property damage in response to a catastrophic disaster. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Hubert D. Delany III)

HOUSTON, Tex. (INTELLIHUB) — Anna Khait, Brian Richmond, and other volunteer rescue workers helped to hand out emergency food and supply kits to hundreds of people who were displaced by Hurricane Harvey’s devastating winds and floodwaters offering the group an opportunity to traverse various parts of the city during their efforts where they claim that both the Red Cross and FEMA were virtually “nowhere to be seen.”

“Red Cross was nowhere to be seen,” Khait explained on a recent Leak Project videocast hosted by Rex Bear. “You didn’t see Red Cross out there [at all].”

Khait and Richmond told Bear that FEMA’s presence was lacking as well which begs the following question: Where in the hell is all of the disaster money going?

To put it all in perspective, the CEO of Red Cross Gale McGovern appeared on CBS News last week where she explained that 91% of the donations that the Red Cross receives goes to “Red Cross services.” What ever that means.

“Like I said, on average ninety-one percent goes to our services,” the CEO said. “I am very proud of the fact that we are good stewards of our donors’ dollars.”

But a little research shows that Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern’s base salary is $500,000. Does that sound like good stewardship to you? Not to mention that over $4 million yearly is paid out to members of the upper echelon of the organization. Again, does this sound like good stewardship?

So what else did Richmond and Khait encounter in Houston after Harvey hit?

Khait told Leak Project that during the crisis their group was “armed up the butt” and was prepared to deal with any situation in which they may have encountered but realized in retrospect just how dangerous and intense those few days really were.

Richmond said at one point they were in a strip mall with a heavy National Guard and State Police presence where they were asked if they would be willing to run private security.

“The police actually inquired with us to be a private citizen security team on the ground there,” he said. “Even with of that police and National Guard presence in that small strip mall they were still wanting more armed security and they were inquiring with me because we had small arms.”

On a good note, Richmond said that their team planned the “citizen” operation so well that in most cases people wouldn’t even have to exit their vehicle to be loaded up with food and other goods they needed.

©2017. INTELLIHUB.COM. All Rights Reserved.

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Shepard Ambellas is an opinion journalist, analyst, and the founder and editor-in-chief of Intellihub News & Politics (Intellihub.com). Shepard is also known for producing Shade: The Motion Picture (2013) and appearing on Travel Channel’s America Declassified (2013). Shepard is a regular contributor to Infowars. Read more from Shep’s World. Follow Shep on Facebook and Twitter.

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Don’t Trust the Red Cross, 10 Ways YOU Can Help Harvey Victims Without Enriching Scammers

Houston, TX — It is time to strike while the iron is hot. Media coverage of the devastation in Texas is at a peak right now and history shows us that people will help when they see it on TV. However, when coverage stops, so does most of the support. Knowing this, it is time to make your move and show your support to your fellow humans who are suffering dearly right now after being hit by one of the worst storms in US history. But, before you simply click the link and donate to the Red Cross, you should know their history and know there are far better ways to help.

The Red Cross is no stranger to scandal. Putting them on the corruption map was their reaction to the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti. In 2010, hundreds of thousands of Haitians lost their lives in a tragic earthquake. Gail McGovern, the Red Cross’ CEO, and her staff quickly responded with a massive marketing push to raise funds. They received countless celebrity endorsements and even President Obama jumped on the train. In just a few days, they raised a half a billion dollars.

However, of that half billion, the Red Cross kept $125 million for themselves and didn’t disclose it until they were investigated. An investigation later revealed that the rest of the money the Red Cross spent in Haiti resulted in just six permanent homes, NPR and ProPublica found.

But that’s not all. The Red Cross’ response to Katrina was so horrific that some observers noted they were on the verge of criminal wrongdoing. Years later in 2012, it failed again for Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Isaac.

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The response was “worse than the storm,” one Red Cross driver told ProPublica during its jaw-dropping investigation. The Red Cross was more concerned with their public image than helping the storm victims so much so that they ordered employees to drive around empty trucks to make it appear like they were responding. “We were sent way down on the Gulf with nothing to give,” the driver said.

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But that’s not all. Fast forward to 2016 and the Red Cross was responding to the 1000-year flood in Louisiana. Despite Nancy Malone, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross, saying that it was misinformation, there were countless reports of Red Cross stations turning down donations of supplies. Wheel chairs, crutches, canes, diabetic supplies and other goods like clothes and water, were just some of the supplies refused by the Red Cross.

What’s more, when they did take donations during the flood, many of them were reported for throwing them away. 

As Justin Elliott notes, writing for Pro Publica, the Red Cross stopped helping people once it was taken over by a team of former AT&T executives who tried to turn it into a profit machine instead of a charity.

As part of her effort to run the Red Cross more like a business, McGovern recruited more than 10 former AT&T executives to top positions. The move stirred resentment inside the organization, with some longtime Red Cross hands referring to the charity as the “AT&T retirement program.’’

McGovern laid out a vision to increase revenue through “consolidated, powerful, breathtaking marketing.”

“This is a brand to die for,” she often said.

The bottom line is that the Red Cross has become a massively centralized bureaucracy that is seemingly more concerned with self-preservation and corporate salaries than they are helping victims of natural disasters.

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So, where can you go to help? Well, the answer is not simply donating to a single company who may or may not use that money to help victims. Luckily, there are smaller organizations—far more transparent than the Red Cross—who specialize in certain areas that you can choose to fund.

Below is a list of 10 ways you can help the victims of Harvey.

If you want to help the those who can’t help themselves, Portlight Strategies is working to help to help older adults and those with disabilities. Donate here.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Texas is helping displaced animals. You can donate at www.spca.org/give or sign up to adopt a displaced animal at www.spca.org/foster. Austin Pets Alive, which transferred more than 200 pets to its shelter as of Saturday morning, is also seeking help, as are the Animal Defense League of Texas and the Houston Humane Society. If you see a stranded marine animal, call the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southeast Regional Office at 1-877-942-5343.

Because these aid efforts will be prolonged for months or even years, it is best to give cash so it can be determined how to be spent in the future, which is unknown. However, if you only have supplies, donate food or cash to food banks in your area. Or you can donate to Feeding Texas, a network of food banks across the state. Find your local food bank here.

The Salvation Army says it is providing food and water to first responders and preparing for massive feeding efforts for residents. Unlike their competition, the Salvation Army has a history of giving back as much as possible. Donate here.

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You can give blood. Outside of the Red Cross blood drives, there are also local organizations accepting blood donations, such as Carter BloodCare and the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center.

The Texas Diaper Bank, based in San Antonio, works to meet the basic needs of vulnerable babies, children with disabilities, and seniors. It focuses on providing partner agencies with diapers and goods. Donate here.

Have no cash and no supplies, but lots of time? Volunteer. Volunteer Houston has launched a VIRTUAL Volunteer Reception Center to aid nonprofits and agencies in finding and deploying people to hard-site areas.

The Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund set up by Houston’s mayor, Sylvester Turner, and administered by the Greater Houston Community Foundation is also helping victims. Donate here.

If you want to help children with complex medical needs you can give to the organization Little Lobbyists. Donate here.

If none of the above fit your donation fancy, then perhaps you can try GoFundMe. The crowd sourced group has compiled a list of Harvey Relief Efforts that allow you to pick individual cities, families or homes. You can view the list here.

Please share this article with your friends and family to show how they can really make their donations count—instead of padding executive salaries and massive marketing budgets.

Blood Profiteering

Blood is a river of life, providing nutrients to every cell in our bodies while carrying away waste products.

Its composed of cells and plasma, the latter its liquid component, comprising most bodily blood volume. It contains other substances vital to life.

Other than physicians, especially hematologists and surgeons, few people think about blood unless they bleed, have blood tests, need transfusions or discover they have a blood disorder.

Otherwise, the river of life is ignored. Not to pharmaceutical companies and other blood profiteers. For them, blood is a commodity to be sold for profit.

It’s big business, netting billion dollars in profits annually. In America, facilities mostly in poor communities pay donors for their blood, a practice European countries forbid.

For impoverished Americans, it’s a source of income, along with a health risk for repeated donations, even when not in the best of health.

An earlier Forbes magazine article headlined “The Guys Who Trade Your Blood For Profit,” saying “the American Red Cross controls 44% of the blood supply and has the ability to distribute nationally, depending on the needs of particular areas.”

Private companies profit from blood sales. Tainted blood is an important issue, posing safety threats to patients, potentially risking disease from transfusions.

Viruses, parasites, bacteria and other pathogens show up in donated blood, including in red blood cells, platelets and plasma.

Blood centers involved in collecting and testing blood say they can’t afford expensive new technologies not mandated for their work.

The American Red Cross has been fined millions of dollars for violating blood safety laws, “including mismanaging certain blood products and violating best manufacturing practices,” said Forbes.

The organization was founded as a voluntary relief agency, providing aid to victims of war and national calamities. Its main business now isn’t disaster relief. It’s selling blood for profit.

Blood donations remain a vital resource for many surgery and cancer patients, trauma victims, and others needing transfusions.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Office of Blood, Organ, and Other Tissue Safety director Dr. Matthew Kuehnert earlier stated the obvious, saying “(b)lood saves lives.”

“But transfusions have risks, and they can transmit infectious disease and cause reactions. And that requires careful screening and monitoring.”

Given the number of possible risk factors, it’s cost ineffective to test for everything.

Patients with planned surgeries are safest by donating their own blood in advance, if their doctors advise it may be needed.