ShelterBox on Ground in Texas Assessing Emergency Shelter Needs
Santa Barbara, CA (PRWEB) August 30, 2017 -- With at least 30,000 expected to seek emergency shelter in the wake of Hurricane Harvey in Texas, a ShelterBox Response Team has been activated on the ground there to assess the need for emergency shelter in Houston and other impacted areas.
ShelterBox is positioning tents, school kits, and blankets near the hurricane-devastated region as it communicates with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state agencies to determine urgent shelter and aid needs.
“Houston has been inundated with unprecedented flooding after Hurricane Harvey, dumping torrential rain and displacing tens of thousands. ShelterBox is on the ground to help provide additional shelter options. We are conducting assessments to determine how best we can deliver aid in the effective and efficient ways. We continue to be in contact with FEMA on the coordination relief in the region and stand ready to provide what is most needed to bring comfort and warmth to those who have been displaced,” says ShelterBox USA President Kerri Murray, now in Texas.
The ShelterBox Response Team includes: Murray; Bruce Heller of Allen, TX, the treasurer of the ShelterBox USA Board of Directors and a Rotary Club member; and Tim Osburn, based in Lakeway, TX, also a Rotarian and former member of the Board of Directors.
Since 2011, Heller has deployed as a Response Team member of disasters in Kenya, Peru, Iraq, Kurdistan, and the Philippines. Osburn has deployed to disaster sites in Ethiopia and Nepal and participated in the domestic deployment following the 2011 tornadoes in Arkansas.
A businessman, Heller said he's devastated to see so much of Texas underwater. "As a Rotarian and a ShelterBox Response Team Member, I am proud to be able to respond in my home state of Texas, where so may are suffering as a result of this storm. As people of action, the best thing Rotarians can do to help in moments like these is to lend support to trusted partners, like ShelterBox, who are experienced in disaster response and who can make sure aid is being allocated appropriately, where need is greatest."
Founded in 2000, ShelterBox has helped more than one million people worldwide rebuild heir lives. It's provided help and hope following some of the world's most devastating disasters: Haiti's earthquake in 2010; Japan's Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011; Typhoon Haiya in the Philippines in 2013; massive flooding in Malawi and Malaysia in 2015; and the two massive earthquakes that shook Nepal in 2015.
ShelterBox is also providing aid to those displaced by disaster or conflict in Syria, Iraq, Cameroon, Niger, Columbia, and Somaliland. The organization responded to the last tropical storm to threaten the U.S. in 2016 as Hurricane Matthew cut through Haiti, Cuba, and on to the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. For the latest on ShelterBox deployments, visit http://www.ShelterBoxUSA.org.
###
EDITORS' NOTE: SBUSA President Kerri Murray is available for interviews in Texas and via skype. CONTACT: Susan Skog, ShelterBox Senior Communications Manager (970) 797-2270 or ShelterBox USA (941) 907-6036
Chris Alexander, ShelterBox USA, http://www.shelterboxusa.org, +1 9419076036 Ext: 102, [email protected]
Share this article