Day 2 in Houston 9/5/05 - by Jaya & Patty

From Jaya Mejia and Patricia Barraza:

We went back to the Convention Center to check on some people we met the day before including an elderly woman in a wheelchair who was caring for her disabled son, and two elderly men who were at the shelter alone and hadn¡¦t contacted any of their families. So far we know the woman is on her way to family, we could not locate the rest.

Monday we helped set up the new registration site for people just arriving at the Astrodome from Louisiana or other shelters, and hotels. At the beginning of set up in the afternoon there were over 200 volunteers (in this one area, there were thousands elsewhere), and there was not enough work for everyone to do, and little direction from any leader. Little by little over four hours later we had converted an empty stadium in the Reliant Arena into an evacuee reception site with an entrance where police had to search everyone arriving, a sign-in area, supplies station (they could get food, clothing, diapers, baby formula, and water), medical check in and transportation area. By the time buses started arriving few volunteers were left, there was no leader, no Red Cross people, and much confusion about where people were to be sent. DMAT (Disaster Medical Assistance Team) from Colorado were doing the medical check ins and were doing a good job making sure those who needed medical attention got it, though there were times we felt they were overwhelmed and understaffed and so we had to advocate for a few individuals including infants to get care.

One older gentlemen who was an evacuee told us that no social security, birthdates, or identification cards were being checked (if they had any). He was concerned because he had witnessed a lot of confusion and frustration since there are many people with the same name and no way for people looking for each other to find out who's who. There was no one assigned to collecting the registration forms or escorting people to get beds and medical care after the initial sign-in process. There was a family of nine from New Orleans including small children and babies who almost got split up by a National Guard because they didn't know where to send them and some of them needed medical attention. Jaya went to help get them to not get separated and to find accommodation and medical care. Upon arrival, they found they needed to get tetanus shots and the line was very long. They became discouraged about the whole process and decided to leave with a friend who lived in Houston but that person could not keep them for much longer. They left without receiving any services.

One young woman who came in complained of a toothache and was able to get medical care and then went to find information on enrolling back into college but there was no central place to go. There were posters with some college information randomly on the walls. We have spoken with many youth interested in reenrolling in school.