Still Dealing with Katrina and Rita

Here's the current status of the Katrina evacuees our church was helping at the Bethel Ministries shelter. After evacuating away from Rita, about 20 of them returned to Bethel when the storm had passed. I'm happy to report that all of the family groups found apartments in our area and are moving out of Bethel by this weekend.

Several of them now have jobs here, but they have no furniture for the new apartments. So we have a call out to the congregation and friends for usable furniture to get them started.

These folks may choose to stay permanently and they may choose to return to New Orleans at some time in the indefinite future. As they disperse across the city and away from the large, medium and small emergency shelters their plight will be far less visible.

Rita evacuees are also all over Houston from east Texas and western Louisiana. The cities of Port Arthur, Beaumont and Orange lack electricity, water and sewage and their residents are urged to stay away. People are sweltering in our unseasonably hot weather without air conditioning. Yesterday a FEMA site in Houston had to close when several Rita evacuees waiting in the long line outside fainted in the heat. Now they are trying to make fixed appointments so people won't be left outside in the heat.

Two families who have children in our school lost elderly relatives in the evacuation from Houston a week ago. One family's grandmother perished in that awful bus fire on the road to Dallas. The other family's grandmother suffered a heart attack while they were trapped in traffic. Emergency medical personnel were unable to reach them and she died. We are praying for these families.