Disaster assistance

[Terri Kiszer]

Hey y’all! Many of you helped during the Katrina disaster. They are now gearing up for assistance for the flooding in central Texas. If any of you are interested in helping with donations, physical work, anything you can think of, certainly let me know. I am working with a group with Stephanie May to assist or needed. 

[Phil Bautista]

Hi Terri,

I am already on the first of our TCARES Teams to be deployed in Texas for TDEM to support S&R efforts at a moment's notice and can't commit due to the current commitment I have to the State of Texas.

Glad you are rounding up volunteers.  Keep up the good work!

Best regards,

Phil Bautista - Bull Creek Data, Senior Consultant

https://www.linkedin.com/in/philbautista/

On Tue, Jul 8, 2025 at 12:04 PM Terri Kiszer <terri....@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey y’all! Many of you helped during the Katrina disaster. They are now gearing up for assistance for the flooding in central Texas. If any of you are interested in helping with donations, physical work, anything you can think of, certainly let me know. I am working with a group with Stephanie May to assist or needed. 

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[texastuma]

Thank you for that dedication. 

Our contacts there have asked us to hold off on committing as they are overwhelmed with volunteers and donations. I do not say this to discourage, but to build expectations.  We learned from Harvey that people are more than willing to help and donate. We had 18-wheelers bringing in supplies. Christina and I had to get a handle on volunteers and donations so that they are distributed efficiently.

Please keep us updated on what’s needed and we will rally what we can. 

Cheers...

Scott

On Jul 8, 2025, at 1:36 PM, Phil Bautista <phil.t....@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Phil Bautista]

Scott is correct.  

I applaud Terri and those she is working with to help organize and connect volunteers with organizations as well as any one who is interested in volunteering.

If you are interested in physically being present as a volunteer, it is critical that you work with either a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) such as the Red Cross, Salvation Army, or one of the Federal/State agencies such as the Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM), FEMA or others and do NOT simply get in your car/truck and set out to "help" with things to hand out or looking to "do good" by yourself.  All of the agencies, Government and Non-Government are trained and certified in the Incident Command Structure (ICS) and have completed training in the ICS 100, 200, 700, and 800 protocol and Command and Control organizational structures to properly organize volunteers and communication.  You will be disappointed if you just show up with expectations to become involved without a plan/sponsor/request to help.

Even with all of our resources we (TCARES) do not "self deploy" (the first rule) so you don't become "part of the problem" without a coordinated effort in conjunction with an official request to deploy and integrate our team(s) as part of the coordinated effort.

Best regards,

Phil Bautista - Bull Creek Data, Senior Consultant

https://www.linkedin.com/in/philbautista/

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[Terri Kiszer]

While there may be an overwhelming number of people wanting to volunteer … there are many smaller areas that have received no assistance.   We were made aware of another area a mile down from where we were that has no one helping them. Our big need right now are chainsaws to help cut up trees so that we can clear a path from the creek so that cars can be removed. 

Terri

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