From Kimberly L. Keith,
Your Guide to Parenting of K-6 Children.
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In small and large communities across the U.S., local families are reaching out to help evacuee families from Hurricane Katrina. In our town, county and city officials have been working from the beginning on a coordinated effort among businesses, churches, agencies, schools, and individuals to help evacuees in our area. Local social workers and counselors organized Evacuee Information Centers at each motel and shelter. In working with this effort, we are finding that there are many ways that local families can help meet the needs of evacuee families in their towns.

How You Can Help Evacuee Families in Your Community

Be informed. It's important to share accurate information only. Monitor your local newspaper, TV, and radio stations for the latest information about resources for evacuees. This information will help you find ways to volunteer time and resources toward your town's organized relief efforts.

Decide how you will help. Many of the evacuees' needs are similar when they first arrive - food, shelter, clothing, and rest. As their stay in your community lengthens, individual family needs emerge - health care, school, caring for pets, locating friends and relatives from home, accessing financial resources, long-term housing, jobs, and grief counseling. If you have the ability to help in one of these areas, focus on that. Don't try to do it all yourself. These families will need sustained assistance, so we must do our part but not become overwhelmed early.

Recognize secondary trauma. You can't help being touched by the stories of loss you will hear from evacuee families. Realize that you will feel some emotional effects from helping evacuees. You must take care of yourself. Get plenty of rest, stay nourished, and don't overwork on the relief effort. Spend time with your own family doing the things that nurture your well-being.

Communication is critical. Circumstances change quickly, and good communication is vital to an effective local relief effort. We have a simple message board at our local shelter, so that people can communicate with each other when questions are answered or resources are identified. Updated information and daily announcements are posted on the board so that everyone gets the message. A TV and radio on site help evacuees stay informed. While there is concern for evacuees' additional trauma watching the terrible events unfold on TV, the New Orleans radio station 870AM is providing a valuable service with their neighborhood-by-neighborhood condition reports. This station is also available on the Internet if you can't pick it up locally.

Provide Internet access for evacuees at local businesses, libraries, and universities so that they can use the resources that are available online. We have found these Internet resources to be the most useful for information for evacuees.

Information on Local Conditions

• New Orleans Radio Station 870 WWL-AM - Listen online; check local parish updates; find information for evacuees.
• New Orleans TV Station WWL-TV - Message Boards about Louisiana conditions organized by parish
• Slidell Hurricane Damage Blog

Finding Friends and Relatives

• Red Cross
• National Next of Kin Registry
• Hurricane Katrina Survivors.com
• MSNBC - Looking For and I'm Safe Lists (Leave a message for missing friends and relatives.)
• CNN Hurricane Katrina Safe List (Post your name or search for a loved one.)

Helpful Information

• FDIC Bank Contact Information and Branch Status PDF
• FDIC Frequently Asked Questions for Bank Customers in Areas Affected by Hurricane Katrina PDF
• NAIC Insurance Company Phone Numbers and Instructions for Evacuees PDF
• FEMA The Disaster Assistance Process for Individuals