Williamson County Relief Teams Still Providing Aid In Hurricane-Ravaged Areas

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TX — A pair of Salvation Army volunteer teams from Williamson County continue to provide meals, drinks, clean-up kits, food boxes and emotional and spiritual support to survivors of Hurricane Harvey, officials said.

One team with a mobile kitchen is serving in Houston and the other team with its mobile catering truck is serving in La Grange. In addition, The Salvation Army will begin providing some financial support to Harvey evacuees in Austin on Monday at the Multi Agency Resource Center.

As relief efforts for Hurricane Harvey continue across Southeast Texas, the international leader of The Salvation Army, General André Cox, visited Houston late last week. Cox spent the day meeting with The Salvation Army leadership team, visiting with survivors, and encouraging Salvation Army officers, staff and volunteers involved in the response efforts, according to officials.

Since Harvey first struck the Texas coast, the Austin area volunteer mobile kitchen and catering truck have provided more than 8,000 meals to first responders and survivors, serving in the impacted communities of Victoria, Cuero, Port Lavaca, Seadrift, La Grange and Houston, officials said. The Austin teams are two of 95 mobile feeding units deployed from all over the United States and Canada to support disaster recovery in Texas following Hurricane Harvey and now in Florida in the midst of Hurricane Irma, according to officials.

As of Sept. 10, The Salvation Army has provided 439,000 meals, 355,000 snacks, 474,000 drinks, 6,312 food boxes and 2,830 cleanup kits to those devastated by these storms. Monetary donations are needed to meet survivors’ most immediate needs:

• A $10 donation feeds a disaster survivor for one day

• A $30 donation provides one food box containing staple foods for a family of four, or one household cleanup kit containing brooms, mops, buckets and other cleaning supplies

• A $100 donation can serve snacks and drinks to 125 survivors and emergency personnel at the scene of a disaster

• A $250 donation can provide one hot meal to 100 people or keep a hydration station operational for 24 hours

• A $500 donation keeps a Salvation Army canteen operational for one day.

Donations to support the relief work of The Salvation Army can be made online at helpsalvationarmy.org, by phone at 1-800-SAL-ARMY, by texting STORM to 51555, or by checks designated “Hurricane Harvey” which can be mailed to PO BOX 1959, Atlanta, GA 30301. For the latest information please go to www.disaster.salvationarmy.org and watch for regular updates on Austin social media pages at Facebook.com/SalvationArmyAustin and Twitter.com/SalArmyAustin.

>>> Photo courtesy of Salvation Army