The City of Austin is coordinating Katrina relief.
Volunteers look here.
Evacuees look here.

Also new Austin Helping New Orleans info site.
Lots of Austin relief efforts and fundraising events listed here.
More listed here.
Another blog with info on how to help in Austin.

If you wish to volunteer immediately, please contact the Austin chapter of the American Red Cross at 512-929-1229. It may be necessary to leave a message and may take up to 1 day to have your call returned.

The Austin JCC website has updates on local relief efforts. Also the JCAA is providing free access to fitness facilities and free use of towels and showers.
Please contact 735-8000 for more information.
Counseling and housing assistance coordinated through Jewish Family Services, 512-250-1043. That is also the housing hotline. Please leave a message and someone will get back to you ASAP, if you need or can offer space in an apartment, office, room in your home, etc., call 512-250-1043 or email Mitch Sudolsky at mitch.sudolsky@jcaaonline.org.

The Burger Center shelter is now closed and everyone is being sent to the Convention Center.

Capital Area Food Bank can use donations and volunteers. They collect and prepare nonperishable food boxes for local shelters and meal programs, and are helping with the Katrina effort.

Goodwill Industries is expecting to donate massive amounts of clothing and other items, so if you are in Austin and were planning to donate stuff, now is a good time to do it.

Beginning on Friday, September 2, there will be a United Van Lines truck stationed at the JCAA to collect items approved by the American Red Cross Disaster Relief, including: new or gently used clothing, staples such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, diapers and non-perishable food items: bottled water, peanut butter, tuna fish and granola/cereal bars. PLEASE separate clothing items and label for children, women or men. Clothing should be separated from food items or other necessities.

The JCAA will distribute these goods when more information is made available on which organizations will be accepting goods and what the local needs will be, as well as the regional needs.
For more information, please contact Liza Levine 512-735-8078, Alan Potash 512-735-8012 or Hayley Wasser 512-735-8082.

The Polo Club Apts. plan to shelter 800 refugees (and they will take pets!), and need volunteers to help to sort items. Call them at 918-1773.
Polo Club Apartments
8519 Cahill Dr.
Austin, TX 78729

Hotel rooms available as of this weekend:

Holiday Inn (working with Red Cross) 8901 Business Park Drive
$49/$59 night
343-0888

Renaissance Austin Hotel
9721 Arboretum Blvd
Hurricane Katrina Block: $59 night
343-2626

Doubletree Hotel beginning on Sunday, please call Jon McFarland on his cell: 470-5715
6505 North IH 35
Rate to be determined

AmeriSuites beginning on Sunday
3612 Tudor Blvd
Linda Wilson or Joan Buquet: 231-8491
$39/$49 night

From the First Baptist Church of Oak Hill:

We have a free standing house on the grounds of our church. It has 3 bedrooms A/C and a kitchen. We can take 6 moms and nursing babies under 6 months... (more if we have room). I will also start a waiting list. We are not taking men, we are not prepared for security issues with boyfriends or the like BUT mainly want to assure privacy for the other women. I am going to try and find near by housing for the Dad's with our church later this week, if possible. We are going to try and get these people placed with jobs and private housing as soon as we can. SUPPLIES WE NEED: comfortable nursing chairs and rockers, nursing foot stool, boppie, SLINGS and baby clothes, diapers. wipes and baby toys, changing table, diaper genie, bed rail, futon, sheets towels, nursing wear, new mom clothes...think elastic! Loose tee shirts, Nursing bras, nursing pads. Basically, imagine you were camping with a newborn.

Mail to or drop off:
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF OAK HILL
NEW MOM RELIEF SUPPLIES
6907 Convict Hill RD
Austin TX 78749

Call Ann Bennett at 301-8203 for more info.

AAIM - Austin Area Interreligious Ministries - is asking that clergy, religious leaders and members of Austin's faith community come together at First Baptist Church on Thursday, September 15th, 2005. We will begin with an interfaith service of reflection, song and prayer. Subsequently, we will have a strategy session focused on developing an infrastructure of care for the refugees coming to Central Texas and those remaining in their home states. We will also focus on developing a group of trained spiritual care responders, available to meet the pastoral needs of those in crisis.

What: Interfaith Worship Service and Strategy Meeting
When: Thursday, September 15th, 2005
5:30pm Service of reflection, prayer and song
6:30pm Strategy Meeting
Where: First Baptist Church, 901 Trinity Street, Downtown at 9th and
Trinity. Plenty of parking will be available.
Please RSVP if you can attend: aaim@aaimaustin.org or call 512-386-9145
Food will be provided for $3.00

Churches in South Texas which are taking in refugees.

The University of TX at Austin, Rice U, and Texas A&M are coordinating with Tulane to enroll college students displaced by the floods. Also Trinity U in San Antonio.

UPDATE: Via email:

The National Computer and Data Processing Center for the Red Cross needs "techies" who can help set up new laptops and test them and set up telephones and test them. They also need people to unpack the laptops and phones, and package them into a "communications suitcase" for the Red Cross field workers after the setup and testing is done. Once the Red Cross field workers begin registering people with their "communications suitcases" there will be a great need for volunteers with computer skills to do data entry on the information coming in from the RC field workers. There are many 3-4 hr. shifts for the weekend and next week. The warehouse is in South Austin at Silver Dollar and Old Burleson Road. Please email dr875-06ldv@usa.redcross.org or call Leo at (404) 242-6544.

A personal report. Donation and shelter updates:

Shelter: Reception Center A.I.S.D. Delco Center, 4601 Pecan Brook Dr.
No-medical attention: Toney Burger Center, 3200 Jones Road, off U. S. 290 West in Sunset Valley.
Low-level medical attention: Lester E. Palmer Events Center, 900 Barton Springs Road, will be available on Sept. 3, 2005.
Austin Convention Center, 500 E. Cesar Chavez St. stil taking people

To Donate Supplies: Contribution Center at Freescale, 3501 Ed Bluestein Blvd.
The Center will be open for donations from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Friday, Sept. 9. Donation requests include cots, air mattresses, blankets, sheets, sleeping bags, towels and wash cloths.

More email:

The Texas Dept of Transportation is posting 2-1-1 (and the backdoor number to 2-1-1 -- 888-312-4567) on the electronic signs entering Texas from Louisiana. Anyone dialing 2-1-1 and pressing option 1 for hurricane relief will be routed to the first available agent in the state, so someone calling from Austin may be routed to Lubbock. An additional temporary, 24/7 call center has been added in Austin.

FEMA is turning to scout families in Austin to ask for donations of used cots, bedding and sleeping bags. (It is uncertain if bedding and cots will be returned. In the event that they are able to return these items please mark your name and phone number on the items.) Jim Behrens, Assistant Scoutmaster of Troop 31, is coordinating these efforts. Donations can be dropped off at the CeBar Fire Department 353 on South Commons Ford. If pick-up is required, Jim can be contacted on his mobile at 512-656-1155.

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), represented by the Reverends Amy Elder and Frank Goldsmith, volunteered to be the coordinating interfaith group for the Hurricane Katrina Relief effort - they will coordinate communication among VOAD members/faith community and coordinate the raising and collection of funds for relief efforts. They are setting up an office, staffed with computers, phones, and volunteers. They will try and utilize the Red Cross's database. They're at 6909 West Courtyard Dr 78730, near the intersection of 360 and 2222. The interfaith alliance will be called Texas Interfaith Disaster Response. Contact Amy Elder or Frank Goldsmith at southwestwoc@hotmail.com, 343-7858.

. . . there is plenty of shelter space in Austin, and that housing someone in private homes puts the evacuee and homeowner at possible risk; in addition, evacuees will likely be here for months, and
homeowners need to consider that before offering space. Mitch [Hibbs of the Red Cross] said that every evacuee he has spoken with would rather not stay in someone's private home.

Please do not bring donations directly to the Convention Center, Burger Center, or other shelter-related sites!!

Many evacuees want to remain in Austin, so that presents a whole host of long-term issues. Red Cross is working with city and county health and human service departments to provide services, including employment.

Wed, Sept. 7, 9am-6pm - Salvation Army accepting donations of NEW clothing (including school clothes, socks, and underwear, personal hygiene items, baby items (diapers, wipes, lotion, ointment, formula), insect repellant, flashlights with batteries, and work/plastic gloves. Drop off at 6510 S. Congress Ave., between Ben White and William Cannon.

Interfaith Hospitality Network through Foundation for the Homeless -(512) 453-6570, contact@foundationforthehomeless.org,

Gateway Community Church is requesting donations of gift cards, which they will give to the Red Cross, who will distribute them to evacuees at shelters. The following types of gift cards are requested:
Gas cards in $5 and $10 denominations
Phone cards in $5 and $10 denominations
Grocery cards in $25 and $50 denominations
Wal-Mart or Target gift cards to be used for clothing or household goods in $25 denominations

Contact Kenny Martin, Pastor of Involvement
512.837.2162 ext 229

Evacuees may call Goodwill Industries of Central Texas at (512) 480-0772 to register for employment. Goodwill will hold a job fair the week of Sept. 5-9, location to be announced soon. Participants in the employment program will receive bus passes.

Drop off clothing, toys, shoes, housewares, etc. at any Goodwill thrift store in Central Texas. Be sure and specify that items are for victims. Shelter evacuees will be screened and then be given vouchers to take to
any Goodwill store for clothing and other items.

Heriberto Martinez of Church World Service said that they have Gift of the Heart kits, baby kits, school kits, and health kits to donate if anyone needs them. Call him at 917-434-1433.

Call Capital Area Food Bank at 282-2111 for future food drop-off sites to donate the following foods/items: peanut butter, canned meats, bottled water,
cereal/granola bars, and diapers/baby wipes. Bulk items are great.
But CAFB can purchase huge amounts of food more cheaply than the general public can buy in grocery stores. If checks are earmarked for Hurricane Katrina, every amount will be used for hurricane victims.
CAFB is maintaining a list of people who call to offer help with transportation, so if you have a need, please call them.

If you are interested in being trained as a Red Cross caseworker, contact Vallie Wasp ; they are loaning their trained volunteers to the American Red Cross and other organizations that need them.

Volunteers are needed to staff the City/County EOC (Emergency Operations Center) starting Monday from 8AM to 8PM - longer if possible to say midnight. The EOC is located on Old Manor Road about a block from Manor Road to the right off of 51st Street.
You would be representing CTXVOAD and TIDR. The phone number at the VOAD desk at the EOC is
974-0618 and the email is ctvoad@yahoo.com.

20,000 evacuees come to San Antonio.