Contact: Raymond M. Flynt, President
Travelers Aid International
Office (202) 546-1127
info@travelersaid.org

TRAVELERS AID AGENCIES HELPING KATRINA VICTIMS WITH TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION SERVICES

Washington DC, September 12, 2005 – It has been a challenging few weeks for many Travelers Aid agencies as they continue to field an avalanche of phone calls, Web site inquiries, and walk-ins from victims of Hurricane Katrina. Travelers Aid programs in Atlanta, Birmingham, Montgomery, Shreveport, Dallas/Fort Worth and Oklahoma City all report sizable numbers of requests that have strained existing budgets, and even Travelers Aid programs in Los Angeles, Detroit, Boston and Philadelphia report receiving calls from people needing to relocate from the temporary shelter they sought following the hurricane. “We’ve got a bathtub full of requests and an eyedropper full of resources to provide assistance,” reports Ray Flynt, President of Travelers Aid International. “Travelers Aid has the expertise to help move people into safe environments, but this disaster has put an unprecedented strain on our available funds.”

Travelers Aid is urgently seeking donations from the general public to redistribute to its neediest agencies in North America. Our needs include cash, donations of frequent flyer miles, and in selected cities, volunteers are needed. Donations can be made by phone at 202-546-0599 or through the website at www.travelersaid.org.

The Travelers Aid Society of Greater New Orleans has been decimated by Katrina, and the Travelers Aid network hopes to help them get them back on their feet when they are able to return to New Orleans. Their twelve-person agency staff evacuated the city before the hurricane hit on August 29th, and scattered to safety in western and northern Louisiana, Texas, and as far away as Georgia.

At JFK Airport, Travelers Aid of New York and New Jersey arranged air travel from Hartford to Gainesville, Florida for a Tulane University student who quickly applied for a transfer to the University of Florida. She had been evacuated to Connecticut, where she was living with the family of a Tulane schoolmate, while the rest of her family was relocated to Atlanta. Travelers Aid of Metropolitan Atlanta helped a 15-year-old New Orleans girl, who had been evacuated to Atlanta, to be reunited with her mother who had been evacuated to Corpus Christi, Texas. The Atlanta agency has helped 4,000 evacuees since August 29 and spent almost one-half its annual budget doing so. Director of Marketing and Development Michael Schoppenhorst stated, “This has been one heck of a two weeks since our first guests arrived here in Atlanta. I am so proud of our staff and how they have rallied together to meet the needs of these wonderful people who now call Atlanta home, no matter how long or short that might be.”

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