Weather Thou Goest: Tracking the Skies

[Deleted]

Metairie,Onyxrose and CyberCathy hope you and all of yours are OK and safe, your homes and pets too.

Metairie, I was reading your post and seeing footage over here and I have no words to how scary it all must be. Too you all best wishes and stay safe x

[CyberCathy]

Our home stayed dry. It was tense Saturday night but we made it. In my immediate area we've had almost three feet of rain so far. Probably will reach that when this bastard passes Wednesday. We average 50" annually and it's rained 31" since Saturday. I can't believe we stayed dry. So many didn't.

It's raining right now, dammit. I made this comment on Facebook: the eclipse was one week ago but it feels like a lifetime to us.

[chonies]

Strongest possible vibes to the Texans (and now Louisianans) affected by Harvey, flooding, infrastructure, the heat that will return without air conditioning or the possibility of laundry or clean water, and more. It's horrible and scary and like CyberCathy said, it's the longest of days. I was affected by Katrina, which was 12 years ago today, and some years I remember, and some years I don't. Now is not the time for that, but what I will say is that it strikes me as a miracle or feat of strength that the death count is so low. Katrina killed 1500-2000 people, and the number of fatalities I saw this morning is 8. I am really not trying to play trauma olympics--I hope that the difference between these two numbers does not lull people into the importance and urgency of weather and climate-related disasters.

Related: can anyone recommend local charities to donate to? I've already donated to the Texas Library Association, but I'd like to donate to more places that work directly.

[Deleted]

Houston Food Bank and Texas Diaper Bank have gotten my money so far. I like donating to orgs that provide direct services. Sadly, I don't trust the Red Cross after Haiti.

Thinking about yas, Metairie, Onyxrose, and CyberCathy, and sending MEGA DRY vibes.

[CyberCathy]

Thanks everyone. Houston Food Bank is an excellent organization.

I just checked the nearest official rain gauge to my house: 45" since Friday morning.

[chonies]

My family has a multigenerational, bullet-pointed hostility against the Red Cross that dates at least to the 1960s but that's a conversation for another time. Thanks for the info, my friends!

[carrier76]

Can someone refresh my memory about the trials of the Red Cross?

[chonies]

The basic criticisms are "they trade on their reputation to raise a lot of money they don't actually use to help affected people." There's also the "first to show up and talk to the press, first to leave." I also remember some BushII era tidbit that they had some condom drama about safe sex.

[Deleted]

Over the years, there have just been way too many stories about the money they raise not getting into the right/neediest hands. Their Charity Navigator score is 83, which isn't good for a huge, international outfit like the Red Cross. They spend WAY too much money on promotional materials and marketing, in general. I've read they don't give away the blood we donate; they sell it to hospitals. BUT I don't know if that's true. I looked into donating directly to/at local hospitals and they don't seem to do that around here, so I'll keep donating blood to them, just not money.

[kateln]

Aug 29, 2017 14:06:02 GMT -4 chonies said:

The basic criticisms are "they trade on their reputation to raise a lot of money they don't actually use to help affected people." There's also the "first to show up and talk to the press, first to leave."

So The Roomie actually works for the Red Cross, and this may biased, but I have seen first hand that they're often (on a local scale) not really all that press hungry (ok, he was on the local news recently, but not interviewed). I've seen him called away at 3:00 AM--and when the shooting happened in Alexandria, they stayed onsite for days making sure that the first responders and investigators were fed/had water (and we're talking all hours support). In Charlottesville, they were on the scene helping out. For this incident a lot of people from our area have gone down there to help out. I'm not saying they're perfect, far from it, but the people actually doing the work really put in a shit ton of time/effort/energy and do help a lot of people. It's a never-ending job (no really, we were getting registered as domestic partners, and the Roomie got a work call).