We are weeks away from the anniversary of Harvey’s visit to Galveston County and there is still much to be done. Texas City was extremely fortunate to have suffered much less than other areas and yet there are still hundreds waiting for walls, window units, flooring, appliances; and these are people still living in those homes. Right now, the number one impediment for these, our most vulnerable citizens, is an assessment of the damage to their homes that can be documented and presented to get Galveston Long Term Recovery to even begin to get them help.
There is one person currently responsible for assessing literally hundreds of homes and he is asking for your help. Speaking at Texas City Rotary Meeting this last week, Gary Scoggins, directory of the organization Galveston Long Term Recovery shared some disquieting numbers to explain the challenges facing the organization and large numbers of low to moderate income and special needs individuals that are still in desperate need of assistance.
Approved by FEMA, GLTR’s purpose is to coordinates functions such as rebuilding; disaster case management; volunteer labor; public, behavioral and spiritual health. Funding comes from various sources but as usual, very little of that funding is portioned out for administrative needs which slows the outreach portion of the challenge and has kept far too many of those homeowners from knowing how to ask for help and those want to help to find those in need.
That is why Gary Scoggins and his team are asking us, the citizens of Galveston County to step up, once again and volunteer on August 25th for half a day to come get a brief training and partner up with another volunteer to go to only five preset appointments and assess and document the damage at those homes and return with their findings. GLTR will take it from there. That is not to say there are not many more volunteer opportunities with the recovery effort. It to say however, that until we are able to document the need, the recovery will continue to be very slow.
They have provided an overview of the scope of the challenge included here. This kind of damage continues to be a drain on the communities impacted. Our willingness to come together and offer a Sign of Hope to those less fortunate, will also serve as a boon to each community as a whole. If you are interested and willing to be a Sign of Hope please RSVP by August 20th at volunteer@gcltrg.org
572
previous post
