Dear Friends, Family and Supporters of West Street Recovery,

For the second year running our day team staff took a week off in July and we are back, recharged, and ready to tackle the challenges that are sure to come in the second half of the year.

Preparing Our Community for Disaster

As we move into the most dangerous part of Hurricane season we are putting a lot of energy into disaster preparedness. Northeast Action Collective members helped to pack and distribute over 50 “Go bags.” A second round of go bags is already in the works, and NAC members will be distributing these to people on their streets and in their families. In late June we started our other major prep initiative of setting up generators in the homes of residents who rely on electrical medical equipment to survive. For each generator we are working with the resident to hook up and test each device, practice starting it and troubleshoot any issues.

We think that disaster preparedness requires this type of material support, and that as a city so prone to disasters Houston is far behind where it needs to be to meet the challenges of future storms without unnecessary loss of life. During the winter freeze and during last summer’s Hurricane Laura we began this approach but had very limited resources. We were able to communicate within our network to understand needs and connect people to supplies and hotels. This worked to both keep equipment running and reduce anxiety. However, many were left rationing their oxygen supply and in the freezing cold, or out on dangerous roads trying to move resources to where they were needed most. We hope that other non profit organizations and governments take on this more proactive approach.