Long Beach Rallies To Help Hurricane Harvey Victims

Residents of Long Beach are no strangers to the damage and suffering that a sever hurricane can cause. When Hurricane Sandy struck in 2012, every building on the Barrier Island was damaged by flood waters. The recovery is still ongoing.

When residents saw the pictures and videos coming out of Texas of the flooding and devastation being caused by Hurricane Harvey, they knew exactly what those residents were going through, and what they were in for in the coming weeks, months and years.

And so Long Beach residents, along with people from all over the Island, got together and started collecting goods and gift cards to send to the people in Texas. They were paying forward the kindness and generosity that were shown to them in the wake of Sandy, and wanted the people of Texas to know they weren't alone.

It was an effort spearheaded by Long Beach residents Tim and Christina Kramer, who organized for the first truck to arrive and asked people to start donating goods. He created a GoFundMe page to cover the $5,000 rental fee for the truck, and that goal was surpassed in just a few hours.

All last week, goods were being collected at St. Mary of the Isle Church, as well as at City Hall. On Saturday, volunteers descended to help pack pallets high with all of the collected goods and load them into trucks. So many people donated so many goods that what started as one truck became five and a half 53-foot trailers heading down to Houston, carrying an estimated $1.5 million in supplies.

And Long Beach isn't done giving. On Sept. 21, Jet Blue is covering the airfare for some Long Beach residents to head down to Texas to distribute all of the gift cards that were collected. So far, Long Beach has collected nearly $39,000 in gift cards. People who still wish to donate can drop gift cards off at the Long Beach Printing Company, Wild Feast Foods and SCOUT Design Shop. You can also make a donation to the GoFundMe page right here.