Best place to send clothing donations, etc. for Houston?

[speeder]

I've seen a couple of random places on FB but just wondered if anyone down there has a good suggestion? I have a ton of nice clothes, either my own or left over from dad's closet that I've never gotten around to donating or having a yard sale with.

I'd be happy to send some nice men's clothes and shoes directly to an end user as well if anyone has a name/address for a flood victim? Mostly men's large shirts and slacks either for a 5'9" slim guy or a 5'11" average build.

TIA.

[speeder]

Also have some nice bedding and other stuff. I'll send to a large org if no one has an end user for me here.

[fingpilot]

Don't.

Don't take this wrong. The clothing will end up in a landfill or bulldozed into a pit and burned. CBS Sunday Morning YESTERDAY did a full length article on this. It was jaw dropping. Send money to an org you trust. Even water sent is crazy. In Katrina, 100,000 bottles of water in cases lasted two days. Each bottle shipped ended up costing $2.

Watch the special on CBS.com You'll see, I know it feels good to see and send something personal, but it ends up being a nightmare.

[fingpilot]

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The link to the show, you really need to see it. Start at the 12:00 minute mark. The segment is 8 minutes long.

[Evans, Marv]

I saw that too, and it makes sense. Money is the most efficient way to help in these situations. I always wondered what happened to those tons of random clothing items and suspected the result was what I saw in the program. I'm amazed the emergency agencies haven't figured out the most efficient ways to do these things and ask donors to follow through that way.

[speeder]

Ok, thanks. I will make other plans.

[red-beard]

Red-Cross is the gold standard. The shelters are overflowing with clothing. They announce on TV that they need "X" and they are inundated with it, locally.

I know the news shows total devastation. It was localized to certain areas. The biggest issue around here is similar to earthquake issues in California. The roads are screwed up and they take a while to get fixed. In our case, with the exception of Sam Houston Tollway (Beltway 8), the roads are fine, just flooded. And the water takes a while to move around here.

The TOP of the dam here is 122 feet ASL. The bottom is 68 feet. Galveston is 60 miles away as the crow flies, but more like 65-70 miles by the water ways. That is roughly 1 foot per mile.

The dam is a local aberration, in that South to North the ground rises 40 feet over 4 miles, and 42 feet over 5.6 miles East to West.

We do appreciate the help!

[thingmon]

From Harris County... http://harrisrecovery.org/volunteer-opportunities/

Please note that Rockport, Aransas Pass, Victoria, Wharton, Galveston, and the Beaumont Area (and pretty much everything in between) has been affected. This thing was huge and continues to be an issue for those downstream from dams that need to be released. Trillions of gallons of water. Hard to grasp that.

Thanks.

[Holger]

TEAM RUBICON http://bit.ly/TRHarvey

https://youtu.be/7uOk3erdEWs?t=400

[74-911]

What is really needed right now are packing boxes and cleaning supplies: buckets, mops, bleach, etc. so yes, cash donations help the most.

And as Thingmon says, From Corpus to Beaumont is one huge disaster area.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by thingmon

Trillions of gallons of water. Hard to grasp that.

I calculated the water in my dam (Addicks) and at it's height, was 66 Trillion gallons. One dam.

[David]

I've been helping friends and strangers for the last week and the destruction from a flood is devastating.

What scares me the most about all this is when you drive down a street and almost all have 6 foot piles of debris in front but several houses don't meaning they haven't started ripping out the sheetrock yet. The house I worked on yesterday was already showing significant damage to 2x4 framing. Many people don't realize the damage that's occurring with every passing day and hour. I'm sure many houses will have to be bulldozed.

Really the best thing to send is money to help the recovery organizations recover from the cost of all they've sent and are still sending in.

But the most important thing is to stop using sheetrock in the rest of the US for a little while so we can recover.

[sammyg2]

I'm back.
Agree with the above, they have mountains of bottled water and blankets.
They need $$$$$$. And fuel (same same).

We were handing out personal items, tooth brushes and toothpaste, hair brushes, hand wipes..... those were the most popular. Moistened hand wipes. By the pallet-full.
Sad when such a simple thing and being able to clean up a little becomes such a high necessity.

Also amazing was the contrast. Some areas look totally normal as if nothing happened. A few blocks over, devastation. And it seemed random.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by red-beard

Red-Cross is the gold standard.

Not so sure...
Houston Councilman Martin Tells Houstoninans to Avoid Donating to Red Cross | Houston Press
"The criticism mounted most pointedly in 2015, after NPR and ProPublica released a series of damning reports targeting how the Red Cross responded to the hurricane that devastated Haiti in 2010. In their joint investigation, "In Search of the Red Cross' $500 Million in Haiti Relief," the news outlets found that despite claiming it had provided homes to more than 130,000 people, the Red Cross had built just six homes. "

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-corporate-takeover-of-the-red-cross

[island911]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

I'm back.
Agree with the above, they have mountains of bottled water and blankets.
They need $$$$$$. And fuel (same same).

We were handing out personal items, tooth brushes and toothpaste, hair brushes, hand wipes..... those were the most popular. Moistened hand wipes. By the pallet-full.
Sad when such a simple thing and being able to clean up a little becomes such a high necessity.

Also amazing was the contrast. Some areas look totally normal as if nothing happened. A few blocks over, devastation. And it seemed random.

You went there to help directly? Wow. Impressive.

[island911]

Originally Posted by speeder

I've seen a couple of random places on FB ...

Can't you just splash a Texas flag over your FB avatar to complete the FB virtue signaling requirement?

[Jolly Amaranto]

I have been involved in handing out "Flood Buckets". These are standard 5 gallon paint buckets filled with cleaning supplies like bottled bleach, rubber gloves, paper masks, brushes, sponges etc. Once the base boards, carpet, padding, wood flooring and lower drywall have been removed, a good bleach bath will help arrest the mold and rot from setting in on the lower wood framing.