Students, museum gather supplies to provide relief
Elm Street Elementary School students toted case after case of bottled water to a 1952 C-45 parked at Richard B. Russell Regional Airport on Monday evening through a partnership with the Museum of Flight to provide aid to victims of Hurricane Harvey.
On Sunday, directors, pilots and members of the Museum of Flight talked over the phone about how they could use the resources at their disposal to help out residents of Houston, after one of the largest downpours in U.S. history flooded the city.
Word got to Elm Street Elementary officials that day and they started calling out for donations of bottled water. And in one day’s time, there were enough cases that — even with the delivery of a trailer’s worth to the airport — the school’s back office was still packed Monday, said Principal JoAnn Moss.
Matt DeVille, director of development for the museum, said three loaded box trucks will leave from Chattanooga, Tennessee, around 5:30 a.m. today. Those drivers will then begin finding areas to land two planes, a Cessna Citation Jet and a C-45, filled with more disaster-relief items would most likely be leave from Rome on Saturday, he said. He said it was like the C-45, which was flown during the Korean War and is designed to land on smaller fields, was continuing its mission.
All together, the museum of flight has 120 volunteers committed to the effort, DeVille said. If every community steps up like Rome is, he added, Houston will be taken care of.
Moss said the school’s assistance will be ongoing as they strive to provide thousands of more water bottles for as many trips are made.
Donations of propane and canned food can be delivered to the museum at 304 Russell Field Road. It will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today through Saturday,
and from 1-4 p.m. Sunday — it is closed Monday. However, DeVille said arrangements can be made to better suit those wanting to bring items in — he can be contacted at 706206-6285.
Elm Street Elementary is continuing to accept cases of bottled water, and they can be dropped off at 8 S. Elm Street.
The Associated Press reported that floodwaters reached the rooflines of single-story homes Monday and people could be heard pleading for help from inside as Harvey
poured rain on the Houston area for a fourth consecutive day after a chaotic weekend of rising water and rescues.
The nation’s fourthlargest city was still largely paralyzed Monday. And there was no relief in sight from the storm that spun into Texas as a Category 4 hurricane, then parked itself over the Gulf Coast. With nearly 2 more feet of rain expected on top of the 30plus inches in some places, authorities worried about whether the worst was yet to come.
Harvey has been blamed for at least three confirmed deaths, including a woman killed Monday in the town of Porter, northeast of Houston, when a large oak tree dislodged by heavy rains toppled onto her trailer home.
A Houston television station reported Monday that six family members were believed to have drowned when their van was swept away by floodwaters. The KHOU report was attributed to three family members the station did not identify. No bodies have been recovered.
Police Chief Art Acevedo told The Associated Press that he had no information about the report but said that he’s “really worried about how many bodies we’re going to find.”
According to the station, four children and their grandparents were feared dead after the van hit high water Sunday when crossing a bridge in the Greens Bayou area.
The driver of the vehicle, the children’s greatuncle, reportedly escaped before the van sank by grabbing a tree limb. He told the children to try to escape through the back door, but they were unable to get out.