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Survivors in Your City http://www.thegoldenthread.info/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=67&t=1413 |
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Author: | Bluebonnet [ Sun Jan 24, 2010 10:44 am ] |
Post subject: | Survivors in Your City |
We've talked about survival food, water, shelter, etc. I think now is the time to discuss the arrival of disaster refugees in your area. The State of Texas took in more thn 400,000 refugees from Hurricane Katrina and three weeks later even more refugees from Hurricane Rita. The cities of Mobile, Atlanta, Little Rock and points north, south, east and west also saw large numbers of refugees as well. What is it like to live with this number of refugees? First, housing shortages. Apartments, homes, hotel/motel rooms very quickly become scarce commodities. Hotel/motel rooms were already scarce in the aftermath of Katrina - add to that the evacuees from East Texas and the western Louisiana parishes from Rita and you have a nightmare scenario. Houston still has about 90,000 Katrina evacuees living here and most are likely to remain. Second, food, clothing, basic living necessities. After all the evacuees began receiving FEMA money we encountered not exactly shortages but increasing scarcity of items like towels, sheets, furniture and some food items. While I say scarcity - I don't mean shortages. The stores (Walmart, Costco, Sams, grocery stores) were still stocked but with, maybe, 1 item on the shelf instead of the usual 5 or 6. 48-72 hour stocks in most stores, remember? Automobiles became scarce as well - especially used cars. For a long time, frustration was to rule the day here in Houston and other Texas cities. Not only because of the crime rate soaring but simply because of the sheer numbers of people added to already crowded conditions. East Texas and I had (at one point) 17 family members living with us in a 1700+ sq. ft. home. The grocery bill alone was running about $500 a week to feed all these folks. They weren't allowed to return home for two weeks and then only in the daylight hours. For about 10 days, they were required to take with them food, water and extra gasoline as they made the daily trip to and from the Beaumont area. Gasoline prices soared after the storms. Milk, bread and fresh vegetables were not nearly as plentiful as before the storms. Tomatoes, especially, seemed to be hard to come by in the direct aftermath. Hurricane Ike Parts of Houston and the surrounding counties were devastated by Ike. But our neighbors to the east - Beaumont and surrounding areas - actually took the brunt of the storm because they were on the right quadrant. Again, we received refugees and dealt with them as well as dealing with our own troubles. Just throwing this out there so you can begin to understand that even though you, personally, may not go through the disaster - you may be affected by it. |
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