Tiffany Hamilton, former Port Arthur city councilwoman, has done a little bit of everything as part of relief efforts before, during and after Tropical Storm Harvey.

 

As floodwaters from Harvey started to rise on Aug. 26, she became a dispatcher and administrator from her home, informing residents on what to do via the phone and social media.

She said the first person she called was Larry Richard, Port Arthur fire chief, to see what people needed and where.

“I would take calls and send a message,” she said. “He was laser-focused on survival. Our first responders were doing everything they could. It was scary because of the desperate phone calls.”

Hamilton organized with the Cajun Navy to pick people up from the flooding. Though she never met them before, she said they felt like family to her.

“I hugged all of them,” she said. “These volunteers are coming from all over the country. We even had supplies come from Canada. We are so grateful.”

Because there were no shelters to be found in the beginning, Hamilton and the Frontliners — a not for profit organization from Port Arthur based that has been providing basketball, athletic training, academic tutoring and mentoring since 2013 — created a shelter at Mid-America Construction in Groves.

They set up a barbecue pit for and kept the firewood high and dry for cooking. Three days later, the evacuees were transported to the city shelter at Thomas Jefferson Middle School.

Mid-America, in the meantime, became a first responder shelter where they could catch a short nap, eat, take a shower and wash their clothes before heading back out.

Hamilton, family members and Frontliners stayed with the evacuees at the school for three days. People from Mid-County also volunteered to help and bring supplies to set up a makeshift store.

The NAACP Youth Council took down names, addresses and phone numbers of the evacuees who needed aid.

Hamilton helped assemble bags of toiletries, clothes and shoes to take with them. Hamilton said the point of giveaway was a under a tent and it became known as the Relief Box or simply the Box.

The Box was located in a structure on Bluebonnet Street. However, they have outgrown that space and they’re looking for a larger space in Port Arthur to distribute supplies.

The Cajun Navy, likewise, brought in food for 3,000 people and Hamilton called her friends so they could make room for the food in their houses so it wouldn’t go to waste. Some of the food was brought to inmates in jail to feed them. And the food kept coming.

Over the next two weeks, there was enough food given to feed 1,500 people everyday, delivered at various times. Some of the food was brought to apartment complexes or given to people outside in their yards.

While at the Thomas Jefferson shelter, Hamilton met a woman who needed a special baby formula for her baby who was born prematurely a week earlier. The volunteers couldn’t find the formula at the shelter so Hamilton posted a request on Facebook.

A firefighter and his wife who is a nurse in Lafayette, Louisiana saw the post and brought a crate of the baby formula to the shelter.

Hamilton said some homeless people also helped at the shelter.

Frontliners worked with the Cajun Army who are volunteers that gut out sheetrock in houses.

Their goal is t to get houses in a safe and sanitary condition with a functioning bathroom with food. The houses aren’t refinished, but they’re livable.

“We have to learn a new normal,” Hamilton said. “There may had been a $2,500 front door there, but if a $200 door fits there that is what you’ll have.”

Hamilton’s church, Thomas Boulevard Church of Christ, also housed supplies.

Some friends from Austin once set up a mobile Internet café there so residents could apply to FEMA, the Small Business Administration and/or the American Red Cross and other social services while enjoying a cup of coffee.

Frontliners are making wellness checks on the elderly and the disabled by knocking on doors in the community and elsewhere. She also assisted an elderly woman in Vidor who was living in a tent in her front yard because her house was unlivable.

“We are our brother’s keeper. We have more than enough to share,” Hamilton said.