Yesterday my wife and I and two friends went down to Kelly A.F.B. here in San Antonio to volunteer to help Katrina survivors. Kelly is housing the first survivors to come to San Antonio: 5,000 of the 25,000 who will come here. Being a Saturday, there were hundreds of people there to volunteer. Our friend also went on Friday and she said there weren't nearly as many volunteers then.
The scene was orderly and calm but extremely disorganized. No one seemed to be in charge, but volunteers got to work wherever they could; mostly handing out food, toiletries and clothing and helping whoever they could to try to find what they needed.
The building we were in was a huge warehouse which was being quickly converted to housing. Cots were being set up in the middle, volunteers handed out items on both sides. HVAC guys were putting in ducts for AC; SBC was there wiring up hundreds of red phones(???); Time Warner was putting in internet and maybe cable too. There were huge generator trucks outside. It was quite an amazing operation.
There seemed to be plenty of food and water. Pizza Hut and Dominos delivered hundreds of pizzas. Some BBQ joint chipped in a bunch of chicken, brisket and beans -- but no plastic forks and knives which was a major faux pas since no one could find any cutlery anywhere. Plenty of snacks, candy, juice boxes. I didn't spend much time in the toiletries area, but it looked well stocked.
The four of us spent most of our time handing out clothing. The clothing was all Goodwill-type donated stuff. There were plenty of women's, girl's and toddler's clothes. Not much, though, in the way of men's and boy's. There was way too much stuff like dress pants, sweaters and jackets -- this is September in San Antonio after all, it was 95 here yesterday! Jeans, short sleeve shirts, t-shirts, shorts and sleepwear were the most popular items. There was one thing which almost everyone requested and we didn't have at all -- socks and underwear. Imagine if you had been living and sleeping in the same underwear for 6 days, after having waded through a hip-deep, toxic cesspool. Then, when you finally get a chance to shower and sleep in a clean cot, you're not going to want to put back on the same skivvies you were wearing. Of course, no one is going to donate, or want, used underwear. They need new stuff.
We also had two guys asking about work boots. They wanted to get down to the day laborer site and start making some money for their families as soon as they could. That was inspiring.
So there you go; there's a short list of the most needed stuff -- at least clothing-wise here in San Antonio. Anyone volunteer in Houston or somewhere else find the same thing? Something else?