How to Help Hurricane Harvey Relief Efforts

Being from Houston, I am pained by the devastation from Hurricane Harvey. Looking to help, I began gathering a list of organizations focused on the Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. Because I have seen numerous posts from people seeking similar information, I decided to post this list and share with anyone interested.

I will be updating this list over time. Currently, it focuses on the Houston metropolitan area. I plan to expand it to include the Rockport area, Beaumont/Orange area, and western Louisiana. Click on the underlined name to go to the related site.

While organizations like the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army are dong great work helping the victims of Hurricane Harvey, I have tried to focus on organizations based in the area. If you know of any groups in the area I have not listed, message me. 

Cash

It is counter intuitive, but cash donations may provide the greatest leverage for helping people. The reason is relief organizations can purchase goods in bulk at a discount. In addition, a nonprofit does not have to pay sales tax on items it purchases. There are many fine organizations working to assist with the Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. The following is a brief list of some of these organizations. 

• Houston Food Bank
• Galveston County Food Bank
• Corpus Christi Food Bank
• Coastal Bend Recover Group - Regional nonprofit that addresses the unmet needs of Coastal Bend area residents affected by disaster
• Texas Diaper Bank - Federal relief does not include diapers
• Greater Houston Community Foundation - Established by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner for Houston area victims affected by the floods
• United Way of Greater Houston - 100% of donations goes to help victims in the Greater Houston Area. You can designate the county in which the funds are spent.
• Coalition for the Homeless - Houston area organization helps homeless people get back into housing.

Amazon Wish Lists

If you're like me, you prefer giving goods to specific organizations to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey. These are some of the Amazon wish lists I have identified:

• Austin Pets Alive
• SPCA of Texas
• Animal Defense League of Texas
• Refugee Services of Texas
• Texas Diaper Bank
• Pughearts of Houston - Full Disclosure - Deb and I are active with this group, and fostered several pugs through the group before we went full time. The goods are being collected to help volunteers and the pugs they are fostering who are victims of Hurricane Harvey.
• Wolfe Elementary - School located in Katy, Texas providing shelter for displaced individuals
• Abundant Life Christian Center - LaMarque area church providing relief efforts to the area.
• George R Brown Convention Center - One of the largest shelters on the Houston area
• Port Aransas Hurricane Relief - A crowdfunding relief effort organized by Nathan Clark, a Port Aransaas resident and business owner

Disaster Averted. I WAS WRONG

Yesterday, while driving from Salt Lake City to Mountain View, Idaho to watch the eclipse, Deb noticed the 5^th wheel was leaning far to the driver side. I thought it wasn’t a big deal; she did. I was wrong. Let me repeat that – I WAS WRONG. One of the leaf springs had broken off the suspension.

We were only 2 miles away from the RV dealer/repair shop next to the RV park we had camped in, and we were able to get there before anything else happened. Further inspection found that a bracket on one of the leaf springs had broken and the leaf spring had twisted. That surprised me because we had replaced the leaf springs the week before. From talking to the person who replaced the springs and the head of the repair shop at the RV dealer, I realized our suspension was not strong enough for our trailer. The trailer weighs around 18,500 pounds, and the suspension was designed for a maximum of 14,000 pounds. That explained why we had had so much trouble with parts of the suspension breaking.

We have to replace the suspension. It will take about two weeks for the parts to get here. We are upgrading to 20,000 pound independent suspension. During that time we will remain in SLC. Have had to cancel our stops fpr the next couple of weeks. I t looks like we will not make it to British Columbia this trip.

We are fortunate on many fronts. (1) We could move the trailer to the RV park next door by replacing the leaf spring. (2) The RV park worked with us to find a space for our trailer for two week, so we can stay in our trailer while we waited for the part. (3) We didn’t break down in the middle of the nowhere, and are safe. (4) We can afford the cost to replace the suspension.

Trying to figure out if we can get up to Idaho to see the eclipse. It looks like hotel prices have started to come down. And we have a parking pass in Smiths Ferry to watch the eclipse. We may drive up to Boise on Sunday, then to Smiths Ferry the next day. Won’t decide until later today.