Huge donation distribution center opens

BASTROP, Texas (KXAN) - It was like a magic trick: In three days, an enormous and empty North Austin warehouse was suddenly bulging with relief items and supplies donated by people all over Central Texas.

Even more amazing, all those donations were dropped off in just two days, Friday and Saturday, Sept. 9 and 10, in response to a hastily arranged partnership between the Salvation Army, Wal-Mart and KXAN, called the, “Neighbors Helping Neighbors” campaign.

• Photos: Camera captures the spreading fires

“The first message to the public is, "Stop! Stop! We have enough; we have more than enough,” said Salvation Army Capt. Mike Morton. “And really and truly, we have no intention of taking a baseball bat and beating them over the head and saying, 'You must take this stuff.' So, stop; we've got all the material goods we need.”

Now, the trick is to get all that stuff into the hands of people who need it.

“Austin's generosity has been overwhelming and we're now dealing with the disaster within the disaster, trying to get all this stuff processed,” said Morton, surrounded by endless piles of plastic bags filled with donations.

“What we do is use an army of volunteers and these guys have been troopers. Tuesday morning this place was empty. We have unloaded seven semis.

“And it is not just us. We've been talking to the folks up in Bastrop and they are overwhelmed with the donated goods.”

For the volunteers, the sheer volume of material to be dealt with is mind-boggling.

“It's overwhelming for me,” said volunteer Linda Knight, “but imagine how the people from the fire zones are going to feel when they come in here and see what we've all done, I mean what, you know, the people of Austin and the surrounding areas have done for them.”

For the victims, though, the process for getting help at the center is not complicated.

“All they have to do is prove residence,” said Morton. “We've got the list of who's been damaged. If they've got a FEMA number, that works; we'll use that. There's not a lot criteria here; we're just looking to get an answer and as soon as we get it, we turn them loose and let them just go get what they need.”

The first fire victims set loose in the warehouse were Russell and Elaine Drake, who lost everything they owned in the Bastrop fires.

“We were evacuated two weeks ago Sunday and we honestly thought we'd be back pretty soon,” said Elaine Drake.

It was not to be. As they days rolled by, rumors of their home’s destruction emerged, followed by the inclusion of their address on a posted list of burned houses. Thursday, the couple was finally allowed into their neighborhood and the Drakes got to see the devastation for themselves.

“Everything has burned down completely,” said Elaine. “None of our possessions are there. But we're sure that we're going to prevail and we're just going to pick up the pieces and go on.”

“As much as this is a terrible tragedy and a real bad loss,” added her husband, “on another level it's kind of freeing because it says that anything we want to do, we can do.

“It's a fresh slate, right? We're not hampered with a lot of different things that we have to worry about.”

Still the Drakes do need some “things.” And the Salvation Army warehouse was the place to find them.

“If you look at somebody who's lost everything,” said Morton, “they've taken a tremendous hit to their psyche. The pump that they get here almost helps to offset it; when they look at it and see this is how Austin loves me. They did all of this for me.”

There is no firm end date for the distribution center’s work.

“As long as they want to come, we're going to keep our doors open,” Morton said. “It could be two weeks; it could be three weeks; it may even extend to four. But after that, we've got Christmas to do and we start shutting down.”

Time’s a-wasting.