Harvey and Helpful Resources

Hello all! Things are starting to get back to normal in my city, thank goodness. Most of the roads are opened back up and the stores are pretty well stocked again. 

I thought I'd share a few facts about Harvey. We received 9 trillion gallons of rain!!! Just look at this comparison...

What?! Unbelievable!

Here's a screenshot from my phone in the middle of the storm. We got so many tornado warnings and flash flood warnings...

And where would we be without a little humor...

We DO love our Whataburger in the south. ;) Someone texted this to me and I thought it was so funny!

The stores were out of bread for several days, so I resorted to making my own...

It tasted a lot better anyway. :) I've posted this easy recipe before, but in case you missed it, click HERE for a link. You'll also find a recipe for a very easy Tomato Basil Soup recipe in that post. 

Here's how Holly felt after all the stress of Harvey...

My city has a program that I signed up for where they email/text me any time they need to share important information. This could be anything from an interruption in garbage service, to flood advisories, to the library hours changing. It's very helpful and this is how I found out about two local food pantries that needed donations. The email gave a list of things they needed, but I decided to visit them in person first, to get the latest info on specific needs. 

I'm so glad I did that too because the email said they needed diapers, but I wanted to ask if there were specific sizes they were running low on. I'm glad I asked because they told me they had just received a huge donation of diapers, but were in need of Pull-Ups. They were also able to give me a current list of things that weren't included in the email, like can openers, ketchup and pet food.  

A lot of my local friends have been asking what they can donate, so I thought I'd show a pic of some things I recently donated to a couple of food pantries...

Some items in need: baby formula, pull ups, can openers, soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soup, canned meats, diaper cream, baby food, baby bottles, pet food, bandaids, ketchup, toilet paper, cereal, disposable razors, ziplock bags, paper towels, gloves, etc. 

Saturday morning, I loaded up my car with these things to take to two different food pantries. After I dropped off the first donation, I went to Dollar Tree to pick up some markers I needed. While I was there, I ran into the sweetest lady that was loading up her cart with laundry detergent, ziplock bags and toilet paper. I asked if she was collecting donations and she said she was. She said she was going to Mary Queen (a local church) and that just happened to be the other food pantry I was donating items to next! 

She said she was just there and they needed laundry detergent, toilet paper and quart size ziplock bags, so I loaded up my cart. We followed each other over to the church and I just added those items to the rest of the stuff I had already bought for that food pantry. So glad we were able to help out a little. 

I bought canned pet food because that way, it's easier to divide up between families. Can openers were going fast too. You have to remember some people lost everything and don't even have the basic kitchen utensils. 

One more thing...does your neighborhood have the Nextdoor app? It's very useful. You just sign up for it and you're automatically connected to hundreds of people in surrounding neighborhoods. It has many uses. I've seen numerous lost pets reunited with their owners after a pic was posted on this app. It's also used as a neighborhood Craigslist. People post pics of things they want to sell/give away. Neighbors keep each other updated on all sorts of things.

Anyway, I recently got this app and it proved to be very helpful during the hurricane. People were posting which streets were flooded, which stores were open, etc. I recently saw this on my app and thought I'd share for any local people looking for help with flooded homes...

So many homes flooded that have never flooded before. Because of this, many didn't have flood insurance and need a lot of help. Flood insurance isn't required in my neighborhood, but we always purchase it for peace of mind during storms. And let me tell you, it provided SO much peace of mind through all this. :) 

You can still text HARVEY to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross. Every bit helps. 

~Lisa