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I just wanted to share my experience from last night:
Since so many victims of Hurrican Katrina have come to Houston, the city has opened the Astrodome, the AstroArena, Reliant Center, and the George R. Brown Convention Center along with many other small shelters for housing. A co-worker and I decided to answer the call for volunteer workers and arrived at the Astrodome at 9:30 pm last night. We chose a night shift b/c so many people were volunteering during the day, they were being turned away. We did our orientation and within 20 minutes were on our way into the Dome. I was taken aback at what I saw. The entire floor of the dome (the size used for pro football games) and the first four levels of mezzanines were packed with cots. Since it was getting late, many people were trying to sleep. The first image that popped into my head was the one in "Gone with the Wind" where you see the rows and rows of injured soldiers lying on the ground. That sight was definately a shock.
Our task in the dome was to post informational signs in all the restrooms on the first to fourth floors. We decided to start at the top and work our way down. Since the escaltors weren't running, we definately got our exercise! Shortly after making our way to the 4th floor, we were stopped by a group of medics. We weren't allowed to go any further b/c someone had passed out in the middle of the aisle and was being treated. We went around the scene, finished our job after about another hour, and started trying to find our way out of the Dome. Being directionally impaired because it was so late past my usual bedtime, this took a while! Despite the sadness of the situation, though, most of the people had surprisingly great attitudes. One older man actually made us laugh pretty hard when he yelled to us, "wooo hooo, look at those beautiful women!" We wondered if we should get him some water since he was obviously delirious from dehydration!
After this first task, we spent the next three hours in the supply room sorting clothes. This room, about 3/4 the size of the playing area of a football field, was filled with piles of clothes to be sorted by sex, size, and type. I've never seen so many donations! When I say "piles," I mean some stacks were at least eight feet high! At 2:30 am, we were comtemplating heading home when we heard that a large group of elderly, disabled, and children w/out parents would be arriving soon (estimates were of between 1500-3500 people). We waited but heard nothing further, so we began checking with the Red Cross for more information. There was no way we could leave when that many people who would not able to care for themselves would be arriving soon. When we found out the ETA for the group wasn't until at least 6 am which was after our maximum allowed time limit for volunteering in one night. We would then be in our required rest period, so we decided to go. It would have been horrible to have to leave in the middle of processing that group b/c of volunteer time limits.
All in all, it was an amazing night. I met people not only from Houston and New Orleans, but Indiana, Illinois, Canada, Mexico, and Brasil. I couldn't believe people who lived so far away dropped everything to come to Houston! If you live anywhere near any of the shelters now scattered across the country, please try to free up some time to volunteer. I never imagined hanging flyers and sorting clothes could be so rewarding! If you have items or money to donate, you can call the Red Cross at 1-800-HELP-NOW for information on a drop-off point near you.
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