Texas Flooding: Red Cross Opens Shelters around Houston After Dangerous Floods Engulf Region

WASHINGTON, April 19, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Nearly two feet of rain resulted in devastating floods around the greater Houston metro area Monday and the American Red Cross is on the ground, providing shelter, meals and comfort to residents forced from their homes.

Red Cross workers opened 13 shelters around Houston on Monday where more than 430 people spent the night. More than three million people live in the region and the Red Cross is deploying more disaster workers and relief supplies to the area to make sure people get the help they need.

"This is a very dangerous situation. People were forced out of their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs and we opened 13 shelters to help them," said Brad Kieserman, vice president, Disaster Services Operations and Logistics for the Red Cross. "We are deploying a substantial amount of workers and relief supplies to the Houston area and we'll be there for some time helping people recover."

Texas has been having a tough year with disaster after disaster impacting the Lone Star State and Red Cross workers have helped through all of them. As the year began, devastating tornadoes blew through the state. Only a few short weeks ago, Texas was one of the states impacted by the flooding that also ravaged Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. And this latest flooding has forced thousands of people from their homes, led to hundreds of water rescues, damaged roads, took out power and hampered travel.

"Thousands of people in Houston are depending on the Red Cross for help and we'll be working with our great partner – the Southern Baptist Convention – to serve hot meals in addition to delivering relief supplies to help families begin to clean up their homes," Kieserman said. "The Red Cross, people in Houston and all those affected by disasters across the country need the public's support right now."

HOW YOU CAN HELP

The Red Cross has responded to three times more large-scale disasters during the first months of 2016 than the previous three years combined along with helping at the scene of hundreds of home fires and other smaller disasters every day.

The Red Cross needs the public's help now. They can give to Red Cross Disaster Relief to support disasters big and small by visiting redcross.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS or texting the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Donations to Disaster Relief will be used to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from disasters big and small.

This week also offers another unique opportunity to help. The Red Cross will hold its 2016 Red Cross Giving Day on Thursday, April 21. People can #help1family who has lost everything to a disaster by participating.

Giving Day is a one-day fundraising campaign supporting the Red Cross mission to help people in need of emergency support. People can support the effort by visiting the Giving Day website, enter their information, and their gift will be on its way to helping people in need.

CORPORATIONS HELP The generous donations from members of the Red Cross Annual Disaster Giving Program (ADGP) and the Disaster Responder Program enable the American Red Cross to prepare communities for disasters big and small, respond whenever and wherever disasters occur and help families during the recovery process.

ADGP $1 Million members are: American Airlines; Anthem Foundation; Boise Paper; Caterpillar Foundation; Costco Wholesale; Delta Air Lines; Disney; Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation; FedEx Corporation; The Home Depot; Humble Bundle; LDS Charities; Lowe's Companies, Inc.; Mazda North American Operations; Merck Foundation; Nationwide Foundation; State Farm; Target; UPS; VSP℠ Vision care for life; and Walmart and the Walmart Foundation.

ADGP $500,000 members are: 3M; Altria Group; American Express; Anheuser-Busch Foundation; Aon; Bank of America; BNY Mellon; Capital One; Cisco Foundation; Citi Foundation; ConAgra Foods Foundation; Darden Restaurants Foundation; Discover; Edison International; Farmers Insurance; Ford Motor Company; Grainger; John Deere Foundation; Johnson Controls; Medtronic; Meijer; Mondelēz International Foundation; National Grid; PepsiCo Foundation; Prudential Foundation; Southwest Airlines; Sprint; Sunoco; The TJX Companies, Inc.; United Airlines; United Technologies Corporation; Visa; Wawa; and Wells Fargo.

Disaster Responder Program members are: Alcoa; Almost Family; Astellas USA Foundation; AT&T; AvalonBay Communities, Inc.; AXA; Ball Foundation; BHP Billiton; CarMax; The Clorox Company; Cox Automotive; Duke Energy; Entergy Corporation; General Motors Foundation; Hewlett Packard Enterprise Foundation; Hi-Rez Studios; HP Company Foundation; IBM Corporation; IKEA; Ingersoll Rand Foundation; Interstate All Battery Center; Land O'Lakes, Inc.; Marsh & McLennan Companies; MetLife Foundation; Morgan Stanley; Neiman Marcus Group; New Balance Foundation; Northrop Grumman Corporation; Northwestern Mutual and the Northwestern Mutual Foundation; Procter & Gamble Company; PSEG Foundation; PuroClean Disaster Recovery; Red Heart Yarns; Residence Inn by Marriott; Ryder; ScriptRelief; Sealed Air; Servpro Industries, Inc.; Southeastern Grocers Home of BI-LO Harveys Winn Dixie; Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Foundation, Inc.; T O Y O T A; U.S. Bank; and U-Haul International.

About the American Red Cross:
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nation's blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or cruzrojaamericana.org, or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090108/RedCrossLOGO

SOURCE American Red Cross

Related Links

http://www.redcross.org