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Many health care facilities sustained severe damage from Hurricane Ike and in response AmeriCares will award recovery grants totaling $250,000 in the impacted areas of Texas. Hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and other organizations will be able to rebuild and repair facilities as well as replace urgently needed materials and equipment.
The grants are just some of the ways AmeriCares is working to restore health services in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike in Houston, Galveston and throughout the Gulf Coast. AmeriCares launched an extensive response which included sending a mobile medical clinic, health care staff and emergency response experts to Houston and Galveston. The mobile clinic provided medicines, medical supplies and a back-up generator to the communities impacted by Ike. In addition, AmeriCares worked with our partner Nestlé Waters to deliver over 15 truckloads of safe bottled drinking water to the region.
“The need for assistance and support is great as residents in the affected region return home,” said Curt Welling, president and CEO of AmeriCares. “We will remain in Texas as long as is necessary to support the individuals and families affected by Hurricane Ike.”
With at least five health clinics devastated by flooding due to Hurricane Ike, AmeriCares mobile medical clinic was sent to the region to support residents.
The clinic is serving a diverse group of recent evacuees. Patients include those seeking treatment for routine illness and some needing maintenance medications for diabetes, heart disease and asthma, as well as others with more urgent issues.
Pregnant women are able to receive much needed pre-natal care at the mobile medical clinic. Regular maternity check ups are essential, so a visiting obstetrician and the clinic’s ultrasound scanner have proven invaluable for several moms-to-be.
Hurricane clean up and repair efforts come with their fair share of related injuries. Clinic staff reported seeing several accident victims whose injuries were caused by clean up efforts. Tetanus and hepatitis vaccines, antibiotics and wound care were among the treatments.
Other aspects of our relief efforts carry on. Power outages still impact the flood plain and in response, AmeriCares donated an emergency generator to the United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Houston.
AmeriCares will continue to provide updated information on the support we are providing to the survivors of Hurricane Ike in Galveston, Houston and the entire Gulf Coast.