I visited the Galveston area earlier this week. I had hoped to get down there much earlier in order to view the area and help lend a hand.
My company, equalhealth.com, had decided to make the Oak Island Community our charity drive for November. This community of about 300 families is located about 20 miles east of Galveston and was just ravaged by Hurricane Ike in September. The pastor of the baptist church there is running center point for a community that has basically nothing left. Only two homes remain liveable. People are living in tents. They need everything. My company had donated enough funds to buy about 50 portable heater so we loaded them up and I drove them down there Sunday.
I was amazed at how much damage there was and how much was still left to be done. Clean up will take years. Rebuilding will take a long time as well.
Galveston was under repair and was cleaned up quite a bit though the west side was still ravaged. Words to describe the entire area would be: ravaged, devastated, shredded, thrashed, and leveled. So many businesses and historical things are gone forever. Places I grew up seeing and knowing. Though the Island is recovering, it is sad to know it will never be the same.
Oak Island however is in need of help and if anyone wants to do so, please contact me and I will put you in contact with the pastor. They need clean up and work grews bad and all of the media is now gone.
Photos are here: http://www.thefamilypost.com/Speersfamily/albums.php
Here are some videos of the area I shot:
1 comment:
West Columbia, where I grew up, was hit too and although not as hard as Galveston, still had major cleanup to do. Someone recently put a YouTube video up of W.C. and it was touching. So sad that people are so soon forgetting how much work is involved in cleaning up. Galveston will never be the same again...but they WILL bounce back. They've done it before...they'll do it again! People in South Texas have a whole different mindset...they get the job done and don't rely on government to help them. Everyone bands together and works double hard to get the job done. I'm proud of my home community and of Galveston...those people are amazing folks.
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