America's Second Harvest Food Banks Prepare for Emily
CHICAGO --- July 19, 2005 --- With Hurricane Emily threatening Southern Texas, food banks and food-rescue organizations in the America's Second Harvest Network are shifting into "disaster mode," getting ready for the second major storm of the season.
The Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley, Inc. in McAllen is in the potential path of hurricane Emily. "We have boarded up everything, we have generators in place, and we've sent our staff home until the storm passes," said Terri Drefke, Executive Director of the Food Bank. "All of our member agencies are standing ready to help anyone impacted by the storm." The food bank expects to reopen on Thursday, July 21.
The America's Second Harvest Network has 16 food bank members in Texas ready to pool resources to help the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley, Inc. and hundreds of agencies that will provide food, water and grocery supplies to individuals and families throughout affected areas.
Preliminary reports indicate that Southern Texas will take the brunt of the northeast quadrant of the storm – meaning heavy rain, tropical storm force winds, and tornado activity.
In the United States, hurricane warnings are in effect from Port Mansfield, Texas (on the coast about 75 miles north of Brownsville) southward to the Texas/Mexico border. Tropical storm warnings and a hurricane watch extend another 100 miles or so north along the coast to Baffin Bay TX. Brownsville faces a 30 percent chance of being the point of landfall, which should occur tonight and into Wednesday morning.
The national office of America's Second Harvest will assist affected food banks by helping them secure and distribute food and grocery products needed for disaster-relief efforts and assist with the management of distribution of food.
Funds are needed to help offset the costs of transporting food and grocery products to all affected areas. To find out how you can help, visit www.secondharvest.org.
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America's Second Harvest -- The Nation's Food Bank Network is the nation's largest charitable hunger-relief organization with a Network of more than 200 regional member food banks and food - rescue programs serving all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The America's Second Harvest Network secures and distributes nearly two billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually. The America's Second Harvest Network supports approximately 50,000 local charitable agencies operating more than 94,000 programs including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, after-school programs, and Kids Cafes. Last year, the America's Second Harvest Network provided food assistance to more than 23 million low-income hungry people in the United States, including more than nine million children and nearly three million seniors. For more on America's Second Harvest, please visit www.secondharvest.org.
Contact:
Ross Fraser
Media Relations
312-263-2303, ext. 127
rfraser@secondharvest.org
