HOUSTON – Houstonians are known for getting to work when it comes to helping others. There are already several ways you can help those who are dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Laura. (We will continue adding to this list as we hear about more opportunities.)
If you’d like to look up many of these nonprofits and charities, go to Charity Navigator, a nonprofit which evaluates charities for their record of giving among other metrics.
American Red Cross
The Red Cross is already headed to the storm zone so the fastest way you can help is with a financial donation. You can make a $10 donation by texting LAURA to 90999. Other donation options include online giving at redcross.org or by calling 800-RED-CROSS. You can also check for potential volunteer opportunities.
Health-focused relief help with Americares
One organization is organizing help for impacted health care centers. Americares is responding to Hurricane Laura and preparing emergency shipments of medicine, PPE, bottled water, relief supplies and offering support for storm-damaged health centers. If you would like to help with this health focused relief effort, they’ve established a designated fund to support the response.
In the aftermath of Harvey, Americares supported more than 70 nonprofit organizations in the Houston area and beyond. Response included shipments of medicine and medical supplies, facility repairs, mobile health care and more than $3.6 million in financial support for local organizations serving Harvey survivors.
Lakewood Church
Lakewood Church is collecting supplies and filling up as many trucks as they can. Donations will be accepted from 9 a.m. Thursday to Saturday. Specifically, they are asking for bottled water, baby wipes, baby formula and diapers. The church address is 3700 Southwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77027. There will be COVID-19 safety precautions in place.
Please join us as we help our neighbors in E Texas & Louisiana who are affected by Hurricane Laura. Beginning tomorrow 9am (and for the next 3 days) we will be collecting supplies and filling up as many trucks as we can. Items we need:
— Lakewood Church (@lakewoodchurch) August 27, 2020
Bottled water
Baby wipes & formula
Diapers pic.twitter.com/Su3GKxbru1
Houston Food Bank
The Houston Food Bank is starting the process to collect donations of water, cleaning supplies and ready to eat food. They already have some supplies and you can volunteer here to help sort and organize the items. They are also accepting monetary donations.
The Houston Food Bank will be setting up donation bins at various areas around town, so be looking for those. (You can check here for updates.)
Supplies are already prepped and ready to head out to the hardest-hit areas of the hurricane. Forty trucks are loaded and staged for disaster response with more than 600 pallets of supplies. The Houston Food Bank serves 18 counties, including Jefferson County where Beaumont is located.
Project HOPE is a 60-year old global humanitarian organization that provides emergency medical relief as well as support to local health providers and disaster-affected health systems.
Project HOPE has deployed an Emergency Response Team to support local relief efforts in hurricane-affected communities on the Texas-Louisiana coastline. Project HOPE is working to provide relief to families affected by the storm and is also scaling up support for hard-hit community health systems, many of which are likely to see a spike in COVID-19 cases in the days to come.
How can I help hurricane victims?
We will continue to monitor any other opportunities for donations and will add to this as soon as we hear about anything else. If you know of a way people can help, drop them in the comments below.
Before making a donation, we recommend everyone research charities that are soliciting donations for Hurricane Laura relief efforts. It’s common for scammers to exploit people’s charitable nature during a disaster.