Houston's Religious Communities Scramble to Help Evacuees
"We're in this thing for the long haul" without government money, church leaders warn.
by Deann Alford in Houston
posted 09/02/2005 12:00 p.m.

As the flood of 100,000 New Orleans evacuees continued into Texas' biggest city, what may well have been Houston's most religiously diverse gathering with a purpose took place Thursday morning.

The sanctuary of Second Baptist Church, one of the largest churches in the country, filled with Christians from mainline, evangelical, and Pentecostal denominations, plus those from other faiths, including Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Bah'ai, and Unitarians.

Their sole order of business: Feeding the 25,000 homeless, destitute evacuees, many of whom had earlier taken shelter in New Orleans' Superdome and were brought to the city in expectation of being housed in Houston's Astrodome. Many are the poorest of New Orleans' poor. Many will never go back to Louisiana because they have nothing to go back to. Meanwhile, groups such as the Red Cross won't help match evacuees with Houston residents who offer housing because they are concerned about liability.

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