Soapbox: Let's Not Forget About Hurricane Recovery!
With all the news of our imploding economy and the presidential election, it’s easy to forget that the Gulf Coast states (particularly Texas) and several Caribbean islands have been hit hard and even locally devastated by hurricanes Hanna, Gustav, and especially Ike.
In Haiti, more than 1000 people have perished, and more than a million people are homeless. Haiti is in desperate need of food, drinking water, medical supplies and shelter.
In the US, gasoline, electricity, and water continue to be scarce for thousands, sewer systems are damaged and fears of a health crisis are spreading through affected regions. In coastal Texas, almost 30,000 people are still in emergency shelters. As of this writing, almost 2 million people are without power. Ike is likely to be the third costliest US hurricane of all time.
In this latest round of storms and suffering, I am particularly saddened to hear stories of people who have lost their homes (which in many cases were trailers). For many of these people, their homes were literally all they had. Now they will have to start over from scratch. I can only imagine how stressful and emotionally devastating such a prospect would be.
I want to encourage Kibbles readers to join Small Dog Electronics employees in donating money and even time to hurricane relief agencies.
Also, consider giving blood. The Red Cross says “with power outages widespread in the aftermath of Hurricanes Ike and Hanna, blood supplies, which were already low in many parts of the country, continue to drop. Dozens of blood drives across the country were cancelled thus far, causing a shortfall in planned blood collections.”
You can visit the Red Cross here:
For Haiti, consider donating to Doctors Without Borders directly at Smalldog.com; we will match your donation, up to $200. Click here to donate to Doctors Without Borders on Smalldog.com.
Read about the Humane Societies efforts to rescue abandoned pets after the hurricanes: