AMURT & AMURTEL volunteers were active in Baton Rouge, Louisiana about 80 miles from New Orleans as well as Houston and Dallas, Texas.

The volunteers worked in refugee centers sorting and distributing in-kind donations, providing medical assistance, locating housing and administering compassionate counseling for trauma and stress.

Our volunteers are cross racial and cultural, professional and lay, men and women, and range in age from early twenties to their fifties.

Our volunteers worked with individuals and families to make them feel as comfortable and as cared for as possible. Verna, an elderly woman in a wheelchair, spent 4 days on the roof of her New Orleans home without food and water. She was deeply traumatized when she arrived at the Houston Convention Center. Our volunteers comforted her and met all her immediate needs, helping to ease the pain of her struggles.

Our volunteers were vigilant for people who are falling through the cracks of the shelter system. They worked one on one with mothers with children and the elderly who did’t know where to go or what to do. Not only did they steer them through the system, helping them find and use the shelter’s services, they took everything a step further than the system offers.

They noticed that children are drawing pictures of their houses and drawing each family member standing in front of it. Some children can’t draw and begged adults to help them. Some of our volunteers are specially trained to work with children.
 

In Houston our team did an hour-long radio program about our work in the shelters, finding and addressing the needs of evacuees who are falling through the cracks. After the show several local people volunteered to train and work with us. After that, each day our team has grew as a direct result of the radio show and by word of mouth from the earlier local volunteers from the radio show.

One of the tragedies of this disaster is the separation of loved ones. An AMURT volunteer worked most of the day in the Port Allen shelter to help a family locate their 14 year-old who was hospitalized somewhere. Toward the end of the day our volunteer located the teenager and informed the extremely relieved family.

Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast and wreaked havoc in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Thousands died and more than a million are displaced. A Massive relief operation, the largest in U.S. history, is under way. Government agencies, community groups, and organizations such as ours work hand in hand to overcome the incredible logistics involved. We need your help to give the displaced people a safe and uplifting environment.