Helping Families Displaced by Texas Flooding

As severe weather continues to affect large areas of the U.S., Americares is rushing emergency kits and bottled water to help families displaced by another round of widespread flooding in Texas. 

Beginning May 26 and continuing through the Memorial Day weekend, heavy rains caused severe river flooding, inundating many Texas communities.  Eighteen people died, many were rescued by water and others were evacuated.

Americares has sent four truckloads of bottled water to our local partner, The Salvation Army in Arlington, Texas. Our first shipment arrived June 3, with an additional two truckloads of water to follow. Our Emergency Programs team has also sent 1,750 family emergency kits for distribution to people displaced by the storm.

The latest shipments follow our response to significant flooding across southeast Texas in mid-April, which killed nine people and affected more than 4,500 homes.  Americares responded to local partners’ requests for aid by delivering bottled water, hygiene kits and insulin and tetanus vaccines.

Americares works closely with the 800+ free clinics, community health centers, and health departments in our U.S. Program to make sure that they have the medicines and medical supplies they need and that they understand procedures for requesting medical and other assistance from Americares following a disaster.  Working with our partners, we can identify and meet the needs of affected communities.  Americares is the nation’s largest provider of donated medical aid to the U.S. health care safety net last year delivering $117 million in aid to a network of clinics and health centers serving 5 million patients in need.