Posted on 09/08/2005 7:17:13 AM PDT by WestTexasWend
For many victims of Hurricane Katrina, an exodus from Lubbock may be days away.
A fourth of about 400 New Orleans residents driven here by Hurricane Katrina will be reunited with their families through donated Southwest Airlines tickets.
"The Southwest tickets have allowed us to take care of people that need immediate attention," Lubbock American Red Cross Chairman Greg Bruce said.
Volunteers identified the residents - who could join family members or who had medical needs - as candidates for the tickets.
Already 20 residents have left Lubbock on the tickets: Six left by 1 p.m. Wednesday and another 14 departed Monday.
More are expected.
Lubbockites have donated about 50 round-trip airline tickets - enough to provide 100 people sheltered at Reese Technology Center one-way flights from the Hub City.
"Within a very short time we will see most of the people going through Southwest gone," Bruce said.
Sonya Herring and her family, including her children, 4-year-old Anthony and 2-year-old Amber, will join her sister in Atlanta on Saturday.
"It gives me so much joy," she said as she stood with her two children at Reese on Wednesday afternoon. "We can get to our family and go from there."
Herring grew up in New Orleans. She plans to return to check on her house, but she did not know if she would return to the city permanently.
She has cried often over the generosity Lubbock has shown her family.
"You guys have given it your all," she said.
Frequent fliers donated the tickets earned through Southwest Airlines' "Rapid Rewards" incentive program.
Edna Ruano, a Southwest Airlines spokeswoman, said customers throughout Texas have used the tickets to benefit evacuees.
"It's definitely happening throughout the state as a grass-roots effort," she said.
The program allows Southwest Airlines customers to earn free round-trip tickets after making eight round-trip flights on the airline.
The tickets can be given as gifts or donations.
Philip Wischkaemper, a Lubbock attorney, travels frequently for work. He and his wife, Lois, thought the best use of their tickets would be to help the evacuees get home.
"It feels good to give something besides time or money," he said.
Bruce said the tickets have had an immediate impact on the shelter residents but that additional tickets are no long-er needed.
Representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency began making travel arrangements for remaining evacuees Wednesday.
Great news
At the suggestion of writer Michelle Malkin last Friday, I have cobbled together a blogsite called Texas Clearinghouse for Katrina Aid to serve as a clearinghouse for refugee efforts in Texas.
Texas is getting more refugees than any other state -- that's fine, we'll take them all -- but we need help providing them with food, clothing, medicine, and shelter. We need help taking care of their pets, too.
If you are a refugee, you can information that will help you find relief. If you want to donate or volunteer, you can find someone who needs you. Believe me, there are a lot of organizations who need your help.
Right now the site mostly covers Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas but I'm adding more every night. My wife was down at Reunion Arena in Dallas Tuesday handing out care packages and spiritually ministering to the refugees as a representative of her employer. She says that the situation is tragic and that there's a lot of work to be done. There are so many children who don't know where their parents are or even if their parents are still alive.
There are a lot of churches and other organizations in Texas that need help in dealing with the problem and I would appreciate it if you would get the word out.
Many thanks,
Michael McCullough
Stingray blogsite
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