While Wilton has seen its share of natural disasters — Irene and Sandy to name just two in recent memory — we have seen nothing that is the likes of Hurricane Harvey which battered south Texas for days. We hope we never will.
This hurricane has left thousands, and in some cases hundreds of thousands, without homes, electricity, clean water, food, clothing and more. Many, many lives will be disrupted for a long, long time. Surely, many people in our area are looking for ways to help.
The best way to help from afar is to send donations to reputable charities that work in the immediate area. Gov. Dannel Malloy has issued a list of such organizations:
CT 211
Red Cross
- Online: http://redcross.org
- Call: 1-800-RED CROSS
- Text: HARVEY to 90999 to make a $10 donation
Americares
- Online: americares.org
- Call: 1-800-486‑HELP
United Way Houston
- Online: unitedwayhouston.org/flood
- Text: UWFLOOD to 41444
Food Banks in impacted areas
- Houston Food Bank: houstonfoodbank.org
- Galveston Food Bank: galvestoncountyfoodbank.org
- Food Bank of the Golden Crescent (Victoria): victoriafoodbank.org
- Corpus Christi Food Bank: foodbankcc.com
- Southeast Texas Food Bank (Beaumont): setxfoodbank.org
- Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley (Pharr): foodbankrgv.com
- Brazos Valley Food Bank (Bryan): bvfb.org
- Central Texas Food Bank (Austin): centraltexasfoodbank.org
- San Antonio Food Bank: safoodbank.org
More are:
- The Salvation Army — helpsalvationarmy.org; or 800-SAL-ARMY
- The United Way — uwtexas.org/hurricane-harvey; or text UWFLOOD to 41444
- The SPCA of Texas — spca.org/
- The SPCA of Louisiana — la-spca.org/
- The Houston Humane Society — houstonhumane.org/
- The Louisiana Humane Society - http://news.humanela.org/
Other Texas organizations vetted by FEMA can be found at http://bit.ly/2wiF4Kj.
Unfortunately, during times of trouble like this, there are charlatans out to take advantage of the generous. Remember:
- Use caution when opening email attachments.
- Do not log onto an unsolicited web link.
- Keep antivirus and other computer software on your computer up-to-date.
- Verify the authenticity of any email solicitation by contacting the organization directly through a bona fide contact number. The BBB National Charity Report Index is an excellent resource.