Sacred Heart
Disaster Action Team (DAT)

Relief Information

(Click for a printable version.)
If this is your first visit, please read this page in its entirety.  If you are a returning visitor, you will find updates in the colored section below.  Thanks for helping us make a difference!
Here are some ways you can help out...

1.  PRAY FOR ALL THOSE AFFECTED BY THE DISASTERS AND ALL THOSE HELPING THEM!!!!!!!!!
2.  Join the Sacred Heart Disaster Team email list to received updates about storms and disaster team activities, such as the activation of the Sacred Heart shelter.  To do so, email Ben Sultenfuss and ask to be added to his Sacred Heart Disaster Team emails.

**See the rest of this page for sample messages and attachments. (DO NOT RELY ON THIS INFO, AS IT IS NOT CURRENT!  PLEASE STAY INFORMED BY OTHER MEANS!"
3.  Once the shelter has been activated, you can call the church office or check back here to see what help is needed.  Our shelter will need volunteers to
- help in the shelter by serving food, handing out supplies, answering phones, etc.,
- donate or pick up needed supplies, 
- run errands, perhaps from one shelter to another
- or many other opportunities

There is a place for nearly everyone!
 
4.  Consider offering to babysit a friend's children, so they can go volunteer!
5.  Check back to this website!  It will be changing quickly as more information comes in!!!!
Thanks to all who volunteered to operate the shelter during Ike.  All total we sheltered about 300 persons.  At the peak of the storm we had about 200 evacuees in the shelter.  The population rose quickly as the storm approached, then fell quickly to less than ten, then rose again to about 60 before falling to zero.  The shelter was at zero population Friday morning, but remained as a stand-by shelter for the remainder of the day.

The evacuees in the shelter were great people.  No problems occurred. No disturbances.  The food was great, and there was plenty of it.

Special thanks to the members of Austin Heights Baptist Church and Christ Episcopal Church who volunteered and worked so hard to make the shelter a success.   It was through the combined efforts of the three churches that the shelter was able to function so well.  I look forward to working with the members of these churches if we ever have to do so again.
Need more information or see a need at the shelter that I should add to this page?
Email Jennifer at jennifer@ironsmith.us.