Friday, April 19, 2013

Aidmatrix Travels to West, TX to Assist with Recovery Efforts

I was deployed the afternoon after the explosion in West, Texas.  Along with our team’s national and technology efforts, some of us are being field deployed to help manage the logistics around the significant donation relief efforts associated with the tragedy.

Keith Thode, Aidmatrix COO with the Watts Family in Hillboro
My first 18 hours in the region are really a matter of “Too Much and Too Little” – initially starting efforts and assessing with our partners at Adventist Community Services (ACS).  Working with some of the same individuals from my initial Katrina deployment – the team set up a donation station in Hillsboro, 15 miles north of West, Texas in the Hillsboro Shopping Center.  The hope is, this station can receive some of the donations coming down from the D/FW area, so they will not clog up the efforts directly in West at the wrong time.

Then, I was off to the main relief campus in West.  There it was a matter of processing the massive outpouring of help that was starting.   By 10 pm there was more water on site than the town would need for the entire response effort – and more was coming. The young people of the town and neighboring cities were out in droves being the hands and feet of the operation.

From this abundance of help, I am pivoting this morning to focus on where there is a shortage – pet and livestock supplies.  I’ll be working with the local team leading that response briefly this morning.

 - Keith Thode, Aidmatrix COO/CTO

No comments:

Post a Comment