Helen Marshall Urges Help For Hurricane Victims

Borough President Helen Marshall urged Queens residents and businesses this week to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina with monetary donations to relieve the suffering of thousands of survivors in need of food, water and shelter.
“As I have often said, whenever a disaster occurs anywhere in the world, there are relatives grieving in Queens,” Marshall said. “It appears that most of the organizations involved in relief efforts are currently asking for monetary donations.”
Published reports last Thursday indicate thousands may have died in the disastrous hurricane that struck three states and left $25 billion in damages in its wake.
Marshall said that her office has reached out to the Queens Chamber of Commerce and plans to work with other organizations to find out how best to raise funds and coordinate local relief efforts in the borough.
She also spoke last week with Commissioner Joseph Bruno of the City’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) to inquire how Queens residents can help victims. “After the 2004 tsunami disaster that devastated areas in southeast Asia and Africa, nonprofit organizations mobilized and we worked with them and the local banking community in Queens to provide relief for victims of that wave of death, she said.. “We will now look for similar ways in which Queens residents can join in the national relief effort to help entire cities in need.”
“I also encourage our borough’s businesses, churches and synagogues to replicate their wonderful efforts after the tsunami to now do what they can to support victims of what has been described as one of the worst natural disasters in our nation’s history.”
Marshall said that a partial list of organizations that donors can contact include: United Way of America Hurricane Katrina Response Fund; America’s Second Harvest; Catholic Charities; the Salvation Army; Queens Chapter, American Red Cross; and branches of Chase Bank.
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