Katrina Victims Continue Receiving Help in Tarrant County
Residents in Tarrant County TX generously donated money, food, clothing, toys, and personal hygiene items to victims of Hurricane Katrina who fled to Fort Worth and other parts of the county.
To donate items and non-perishable foods only go to the Tarrant County Disaster Relief Fund, 100 E. Weatherford Street, #404, Fort Worth, TX. No clothing will be accepted.
Items most needed are packaged food, canned goods, personal hygiene items, diapers, baby products, coolers, insect repellant, hand sanitizers, flashlights with batteries, work or plastic gloves, feminine hygiene items, socks, and underwear.
Temporary shelters that are open to support those fleeing from states affected by Katrina are the Wilkerson Greines Athletic Complex at 5201 C.A. Robertson Boulevard and Wichita (receiving and intake area) in Fort Worth and Meacham International Airport, 4201 N. Main Street, Fort Worth among other shelters. The phone number for the airport is 817-871-5400. For more information go to fortworthgov.org on the web.
Before Katrina victims were cleared out of most shelters, the Worth Heights Community Center at 3551 New York Avenue was at capacity. Their phone number for future shelter needs is 817-871-8722.
As of Sept. 22nd all hotels were full in Tarrant County.
One hotel was threatened by a woman over the phone who told them Sept. 21st that if they didn’t rent her a room she was going to come there and pull a gun on them.
It was reported this week that some male Katrina victims in one state were using the $2,000 debit cards given to them by the state for topless dances and alcohol. As a result a task force has been formed in Texas to monitor how victims are using the cards.
In Dallas last week a male Katrina refugee was arrested after he tried to kidnap a 14-year-old girl from the apartment complex where he had been relocated thanks to relief efforts. His family said he hadn’t taken his psychiatric medications in two weeks and before the hurricane had been released from a state mental hospital. As a result of the near abduction shelters were circulating lists to weed out any males who were registered sex offenders in
other states. In some shelters sex offenders and minor children along with their parents were being housed in the same facilities but some staff members said there was no choice and no way to monitor some men’s’ criminal status at the time that refugees relocated to Texas. The problem arose, however, that men who had no criminal history were starting to be turned away from some shelters for fear that they might be sex offenders.
Also this week a male high school student hurricane survivor was reprimanded after bringing a weapon to his new school. A few weeks ago an evacuee who was allowed to live with a resident he didn’t know raped the man’s daughter in the middle of the night. As a result some people got scared and asked only the men in the families they were housing in their homes to leave because of a perceived threat of violence. Some residents thought they might only be housing refugee families for a week or so in their homes and were getting frustrated when they realized what a commitment it was to give someone temporary housing in these situations. Relief organizations told host families they could not charge rent to evacuees living in their homes temporarily.
A Fort Worth manual labor worker reported that he had heard that some Katrina refugees were using their $2,000 gift debit cards, buying items, then returning the purchases for cash.
More than 20 dogs and cats displaced by Hurricane Katrina were looking for permanent homes in Fort Worth on Sept. 6th and since then the city has been flooded with so many animals that KittiCo Cat Rescue in Dallas is asking for people to volunteer to be pet foster parents.
Those interested in adopting the animals that were displaced or other animals in Fort Worth should go to the Fort Worth Animal Care and Control Center at 4900 Martin Street. Adoption hours are from noon to 5 p.m. on weekends and noon to 6 p.m. on weekdays. For more information on adopting an animal call 817-392-3737.
Some Katrina victims who had relocated to parts of Texas had to turn around and move again at the threat of Hurricane Rita arriving there. One man had just moved to Texas three weeks ago.
More Fort Worth shelters opened to house Katrina victims on Sept. 6th and an additional 12 buses carrying evacuees from Louisiana began arriving in Fort Worth in addition to the 18 buses that arrived there two days before.
Three hundred additional evacuees arrived at the Will Rogers Memorial Center at 3401 W. Lancaster Avenue in Fort Worth shortly after the disaster struck.
About 3,000 evacuees were processed at the Wilkerson Greines Athletic Center that same week. Then more than 350 people were calling the place their temporary home.
The City of Fort Worth and Tarrant County established shelter management teams to manage operations including staffing and supplies as well as planning transition housing for evacuees.
As of Sept. 6th there were approximately 4,000 evacuees in Tarrant County.
