Dallas Relief Efforts
I took a break from the two articles I'm juggling for Tuesday deadlines to drop off some clothes, lamps, and drinks for hurricane refugees. According to a posting on the DMN's website, a local Residence Inn was collecting donations for a "free garage sale" for its Louisiana guests and other displaced persons. A clever idea, I thought, plus I might be able to learn more about ways readers could donate for hotel costs. No dice. The parking lot was completely full of stuff, with volunteers and a police officer turning away new donations. There certainly wasn't anybody with time to talk to a blogger.
So I went to Reunion Arena, where I joined a long line of cars and trucks of every make, model, and condition--from beater to high-end Mercedes--you can imagine. A flushed and sweating police officer (it's a relatively cool 95 degrees today) directed me to Parking Lot E, where the Salvation Army--and an army of volunteer sorters--was accepting donations: huge stacks of bottled water cases, a wall of disposable diapers, and untold numbers of clothing piles. Somewhere in the distance they were sorting housewares. Around the arena, there were TV trucks from as far away as Las Vegas.
The Red Cross is asking people not to bring donations to Reunion Arena, because it has an "equal treatment" policy for the people it serves and donations are necessarily heterogeneous. I guess the Salvation Army's role is to sort and distribute to people who aren't under Red Cross auspices. But that's just speculation.
According to this DMN report the Arena and adjacent convention center will soon overflow their 10,000-refugee capacity, and the city is expecting at least 25,000. Dallas officials are looking for help from surrounding communities. Tarrant County, home of Fort Worth, has taken 500. So far, according to this DMN report the arena is proving surprisingly comfortable--at least in contrast to refugees' expectations, and their experiences of the past few days. (Locals looking for an alternative dropoff site, go here.)