Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You don't have to give blood if you don't want to.
As a person whose life was saved by a blood donation, I agree with above. Don't donate if you don't want to but don't pretend to know the inner workings of blood donations/shortages. Its not like they are vampires. Blood is always needed. So give blood or don't, but being skeptical of a call for donations is the stupidest thing I have heard.
Yes....and the Red Cross, itself, is drawing more scrutiny and criticism for how well it uses the massive donations it receives in times of great disasters...
Personally, as someone with family and friends directly in Harvey's path who suffered damage (major and minor) as well as are dealing with the aftermath of flooding...they are getting more help from volunteers in their area a local Govt than from the Red Cross...
From what I hear...
Personally I think the Red Cross is like many financial institutions too big to fail...
Give it 5 million dollars and it wil likely hire someone at 100k to "administer" the money
Someone on FB posted this comment by woman directly involved in disaster relief, working with all the clothing donations being made... It is eye opening because some people are maybe using this disaster/need as excuse to clean out their closets...IMO... https://angeliagriffin.wordpress.com/contact/
But it is a reminder that not all donations are about the needs of those impacted...
If you want to donate give locally, directly to churches or other volunteer agencies--
Humane Society of Houston, Food Bank of Houston, Houston ISD has employees and students in desperate need of many items...other ISDs suffered great harm...
I sent money via PayPal to friend in Houston for lunch today for her and friends helping demo houses of their fellow teachers or parents of her school in Meyerland area (Google photos of Meyerland Plaza flood and you get idea of their damage/need). She was lucky --water up to her front door but not,inside and they kept power (and cable) all the time...
In Aransas ISD, Aransas county basically, all 3K students have NO schools...most are low income and their school gave them 2 meals a day and a secure place...that is blown away.
The district has insurance but also a 3million dollar deductable to meet...
This is not a high income area...no big industry...blue collar, some shrimp fishing, small businesses which might go out of business because they suffered personal damage and their customer base has been disrupted. This is where FEMA could have strong impact if ready.
The Rockport area was decimated by Harvey and Rockport-Fulton chamber of commerce is desperately seeking donations...and basically forgotten by MSM because of the more physical threat still existing in Houston area...same with Victoria...thankfully Victoria's power was up Friday...that was earlier than expected...
Years ago, my husband was in NG unit in Austin TX area. They got called out to for Hurricane Celia (I think it was) which was in Corpus area about 3 hrs away. No,real disaster management back then really, certainly no FEMA. They brought their food trucks but were often guarding areas away from their staging location. He said the Red Cross and Salvation Army both had food trucks in their area and other places...Red Cross you had to buy your food/drink... Even VICTIMS who lost homes had to buy...Salvation Army was giving food and drinks away...
So we don't donate to Red Cross...
You share a commonality with a lot of WWII veterans who were overseas and had to pay for things like socks and shaving kit that were donated back home while the Salvation Army issued those things free of charge. Many of the returning veterans had no use for the Red Cross after that experience.
This has been like nothing I have every seen before. The hurricane and an 800 year flood are crazy enough, but I have been amazed by the outpouring of not only Texans helping Texans, but volunteers from other states just packing up and coming over to help. I have friends from HS that have now moved out of State or out of the area. Many of them have held donation drives at their place of business to get supplies and donations directly to those in need. I don't recall seeing that happen at this level in other natural disasters here or else where.
I saw video of 7 big rigs from various state universities all in convoy to deliver much needed supplies to the effected areas. One of the major Texas grocery stores had truck after truck shipping stuff to the areas in need. I'll try to find a great article on how they have done it. The same grocery store also have several food trucks that feed displaced flood victims, as well as volunteers and first responders. (The store is covering all expenses.) A Houston area furniture store opened their doors for displaced people and first responders to rest.
My hometown has a grassroots volunteer program going, and there are constant updates for needs on their FB page. Someone posts that a group of first responders have not eaten in several hours, and a few posts later someone is taking care of getting them fed.
I now live in Austin, and my church here joined other churches and private plane pilots, and they have been shipping plane load after plane load of supplies down to my hometown. Since I have so many family and friend connections down there, all my donations have gone directly to people in need, or to friends/family that will get it to people in need. I wanted what I send to have the most impact and not get lost in administrative costs, or left in a warehouse somewhere.
There is no doubt that Texas will need a lot more help, and the outpouring of love and support from every where has been greatly appreciated. It has just been cool to see that when we pull together we can accomplish so much more than when we are divided.
Yes... Texas and Texans are amazing in capacities for resilience, compassion, and courage.
But it amazes me that the same people who risk their lives and donate so open-handed and open-hearted will vote for legislators who are some of the most mean-spirited, narrow-minded, hypocritical people you can imagine. The Tier II legislation is perfect case in point.
It is a dichotomy I can't understand at all.
I was happy to donate to flood relief but it got me thinking.Does anyone ever follow up to see where all this money is going.It seems like every major sports franchise is donating a million $.......JJ Watts alone raised 12-15 mil
I remember the "We are the World" concert that raised millions for Africa and heard that most of the money ended up in the hands of local chieftains,warlords and rebel groups.
Not thinking there is dishonesty here but resourceful people can invent many ways to find "expenses"
Yes....and the Red Cross, itself, is drawing more scrutiny and criticism for how well it uses the massive donations it receives in times of great disasters...
Personally, as someone with family and friends directly in Harvey's path who suffered damage (major and minor) as well as are dealing with the aftermath of flooding...they are getting more help from volunteers in their area a local Govt than from the Red Cross...
From what I hear...
Personally I think the Red Cross is like many financial institutions too big to fail...
Give it 5 million dollars and it wil likely hire someone at 100k to "administer" the money
So we don't donate to Red Cross...
In the Haiti relief effort they collected 5 million dollars.......spent 1.25 million internally!
Said they were building housing for 35,000 people......they built just 6 shelters.
Red Cross has a great name recognition but after publishing false expense reports (US Senator discovered/reported it) I wouldn't give them a dollar.
TV on MSNBC and one of morning shows did interview w/Red Cross director of communication ( the one who couldn't tell reporters a couple of days ago,how much of every dollar was going to Harvey relief vs admin costs) how Red Cross was helping those in need...
Not very convincing IMO and weak effort to counter some of the negative publicity...
They--MSM--should do more to show ground level groups doing hands on assistance...
AND to focus on how well big relief organizations do...I was frankly disgusted to read that Tyler Perry was donating a million and 250k was for Joel Osteen's church...
The man lives in a BIG mansion, is worth XX millions, and is checking his church members' tithe history to see if they are giving enough...he is an abomination to true Christianity
And the idea that Perry defended Osteen's charity efforts made me want to vomit...
His money--he can do what he wants--but spare me proslytizing for Osteen...
I was happy to donate to flood relief but it got me thinking.Does anyone ever follow up to see where all this money is going.It seems like every major sports franchise is donating a million $.......JJ Watts alone raised 12-15 mil
I remember the "We are the World" concert that raised millions for Africa and heard that most of the money ended up in the hands of local chieftains,warlords and rebel groups.
Not thinking there is dishonesty here but resourceful people can invent many ways to find "expenses"
You are so right
AND there are thousands of scam artists moving into damaged areas ready, willing, and mo' def able to take your money...
In large part due to Texas legislature's lax oversight for things like licensing contractors...
I don't see how FEMA is responding to this major crisis any better than Katrina...
There are many similarities but Katrina flooding in NO was a man-made disaster created by CoE for most part
Harvey's flooding created a1000 yr flood--only God or Mother Nature (depending on your belief system) can do that...
Katrina was much more immediate--after all the levees burst--definitely not the same lead time as Harvey
But people and especially authorities did not really believe it would be "that bad"...
They need a better game plan because this can happen again in the Gulf Coast or DFW or San Antonio/Hill Country or even El Paso....all it takes is a BIG, slow moving storm system..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
