KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Jessica Cartwright talked to her sister Julie Barnett on Monday morning.
"She was speechless," Cartwright shared. "She said I had no idea it could be like this. The amount of devastation that this is causing."
Barnett lives in Baytown, Texas in the Houston area. Her family is part of the countless victims of Hurricane Harvey.
Julie Barnett and her family waiting out the storm in their Baytown, Texas home.
Lenexa, Kansas based Heart to Heart International is on the ground in Texas, helping out with tetanus shots and wound care.
"It's a constant moving target in this situation with the story sort of stalling and creating more of a disaster than it already is," said Susan Mangicaro, Heart to Heart's executive director of global response.
Heart to Heart has responded to every natural disaster in the United States and across the world for over 25 years. Mangicaro compares Harvey to Hurricane Katrina. Their team was on the ground in New Orleans for six months.
The Red Cross of Greater Kansas City is also pitching in, sending volunteers down to Texas on Tuesday morning. The agency is opening over 100 shelters in the affected area, with more than 200 emergency vehicles, helping more than 35,000 people.
Bill Regan, the Regional Philanthropy Officer for the Red Cross of Greater Kansas City said, "No one knows how this is going to turn out but we know that there's going to be more and more people in need."
The Barnett family has lost several cars, the floor boards in their home are floating in the floodwaters and mold is already starting to settle in. Cartwright set up this GoFundMe page to help them. It's one of 275 pages launched on the crowdsourcing site for Harvey Victims that have brought in over $1 million so far.
Cartwright is asking for compassion for her sister's family and others like them, especially from those who question why they stayed.
"I would hope that they understood that you're not in their shoes and until you're in that situation you have no idea what you're going to do. It's just easy to say you should've left but you're not in that situation," Cartwright said. "You're not going through what they're going through. You're not losing the amount of stuff that they're losing."
Donate to Heart to Heart International at this link.
To support the Red Cross, call 1-800-REDCROSS, text "Harvey" to 90999 or go to its website.
