Heading to Bayou la Batre: How You Can Help Update

Today, our family is traveling across Mobile Bay and then back down to the Gulf Coast to the little village of Bayou la Batre, Alabama. Bayou la Batre was the setting of the Forrest Gump movie. It is a fishing village, full of shrimpers, who have all lost so much in the storm. Along with their houses (80% of the homes in Bayou la Batre are now uninhabitable), most of the shrimpers lost their boats in the storm, even though they had taken the boats up rivers and canals to try to save them.

They were never a rich bunch to begin with, these shrimpers. Now they have even less. The shrimp processing plant is destroyed, the boats are destroyed, and the homes are destroyed. Most of the shrimpers are your regular Southern folk, but there is also a large Vietnamese community among them, all fishermen.

We have heard that Bayou la Batre is only receiving FEMA food and water. They are not otherwise getting much aid. So, we'll head to Bayou la Batre today and take some of your donations with us. We created "family care packages" and "kids care packages" and "baby care packages" all day yesterday. We'll be able to help quite a few families in Bayou la Batre. Look for photos at http://survivedkatrina.org , which is our new website that a kind blog reader donated to us.

We could still use a few items:

Any baby items, including bottles, formula, toys, diapers, wipes, lotion, shampoo, bibs, blankies, pacifiers, and clothes
Snacks: small-sized packages are easiest to distribute, but we'll take any snacks you send, such as crackers, chips, cookies, candy, fruit snacks, etc.
Bibles: We give one to each family, so we cannot have enough of these. Also think of sending children's Bibles and baby's Bibles
Socks: All sizes, new
Underwear: All sizes, new
Adult t-shirts, gently worn or new
Shaving cream and disposable razors
Towels, sheets
Hand sanitizer
Cleaning supplies such as antibacterial wipes, rags, sprays (if you can ship them)
Feminine products (no pads, we have enough): Tampons or feminine wipes, especially
Paper goods: paper plates, cups, napkins
Toys, for any age
Books, for any age
Send items to us here:

SurvivedKatrina.org
Tim and Lori Seaborg
18930 Highland Drive
Fairhope, AL 36532

As always, CASH is the most useful thing, as we are using it to buy items that we have run out of in creating our care packages. We are also using cash to buy water, gas, and tire care products to take to the ones who need it (since you cannot ship those items). When we see a family who needs it, we hand out $50 shopping cards to WalMart, gas, or home improvement. The families in our area have not received any debit/credit cards from the Red Cross or FEMA yet. 100% of your cash is used to help the hurricane victims. To send cash, go to http://paypal.com , click on Send Money, and send it to: seaborgs@bellsouth.net You should see SurvivedKatrina as the account name.

I will update my website tonight or tomorrow, so look for news from our trip to Bayou la Batre! Go to http://survivedkatrina.orgfor the most current news from our family.

Thank you all so much for your generosity!

by Lori Seaborg