Editor's note: Harvey Howell is a volunteer PDA national team member and a member of First Presbyterian, San Antonio. His and other reports are edited and posted here as they are received. Presbyterians are known for long-term assistance. If you cannot volunteer now, there will be many opportunities later through PDA, and donations are always welcome at presbytery offices or PDA.

Massive mobilization and call for volunteers 

Update by Harvey Howell — Wed. a.m. 9/11/08

San Antonio urgently needs volunteers! Check news sites for needs in your city, as the State of Texas engages in the largest area evacuation it has ever conducted. Chief Jack Colley with the Governor's Office of Emergency Management has compared this Texas-wide logistical operation on a scale with US Operations in Iraq.

Volunteers and the volunteer community are  critical components. The large responding agencies are already engaged and Red Cross, Salvation Army and Texas Baptist Men are all asking us for volunteers.

Baptist Children and Family Services, which oversees the Special Medical Needs Shelters, has activated all of their church partners, and many San Antonio area multiple-denomination congregations are showing an outpouring of love and hospitality for our neighbors in their churches.

Overnight, Texas has conducted special needs evacuations from Corpus Christi to Brazoria. Beginning at 8 a.m. today (Thursday), an evacuation of the UT Medical Hospital from Galveston Island will begin. San Antonio had occupants in four shelters overnight and many more evacuees are expected to arrive today. Current San Antonio shelter capacity is 16,300. Additional shelter capacity is being prepared this morning.

What you can do to help (check news sites for volunteer opportunities in your area):

The Volunteer Operation Center (VOC) is receiving volunteers from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily through Sunday at the Frontier Room at Joe Freeman Coliseum, 3201 E. Houston St., San Antonio. Citizens willing to help in the shelters are urged to go to the VOC to be processed, screened, and trained as general or Red Cross volunteers.

The VOC phone number is 210-224-5365.

Calling volunteers to evacuee shelters 

Update by Harvey Howell — Wed. a.m. 9/10/08 

Good article in this morning's San Antonio paper seeking volunteers to help with up to 21,000 evacuees San Antonio prepares to shelter, as Hurricane Ike plows the warm Gulf towards Corpus Christi. Thank you, Orlando Hernandez, Bexar County emergency management coordinator, for supporting the SAVOAD efforts at the Volunteer Operation Center (VOC).

Julie Martinez, who leads operations at the VOC, reports light but increasing volunteer activity. Alamo Area Regional Command (AARC) has already sent us a large volunteer request; many volunteers are being deployed today; a significant increase in deployment has been requested starting tomorrow and through the weekend and is being processed now at the VOC.

As the additional shelters are brought into full activation, that need will increase.

To review: Texas is preparing for a cataclysmic strike by Hurricane Ike along the central to southern Texas coast as a Cat 4-5 storm. Persistent fluctuations in Ike's forecast path, ranging from Brownsville to the TX/LA State line, have forced local jurisdictions to make late evacuation decisions. Most computer models currently predict landfall somewhere between Corpus Christi and Port O'Connor; this may change. Wherever landfall ultimately occurs on Friday night/Saturday morning, Ike will significantly impact Texas as both hurricane and associated flooding events.

Volunteers are needed. The Volunteer Operation Center (VOC) is receiving San Antonio volunteers from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM daily, today (Wednesday) through Sunday at the Frontier Room at Joe Freeman Coliseum, 3201 E. Houston St., San Antonio. Citizens willing to help in the Shelters are invited go to the VOC to be processed, screened, and trained as general volunteers. The General phone number at the VOC is 210-224-5365.

Please see your city's news sites for potential volunteer requests.

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