In ways ranging from opening their homes to assisting the evacuation of medical patients, NASA Johnson Space Center employees are supporting relief efforts for those affected by Hurricane Katrina.
More than 350 JSC employees have volunteered space in their homes to house NASA and contractor coworkers who have been displaced by the storm. Some NASA facilities, including Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss., are located within the storm-damaged areas. An emergency operations center at JSC has been manned to take calls from NASA coworkers in those areas seeking shelter, coordinating the placement of those evacuees both at JSC and at other NASA centers around the country.
JSC’s Aircraft Operations personnel and facilities have been supporting the Veterans’ Administration and other agencies in a continuing evacuation of medical patients from the storm-ravaged areas. NASA’s aircraft Hangar 990 at Ellington Field, Houston, is a primary triage location through which patients that are being evacuated by air pass as they await ground transportation to other facilities in Houston. Aircraft from JSC also have been used to airlift a variety of support equipment to the NASA facilities damaged by the storm.
Employees at JSC also are donating food, money and time to organized relief efforts in the community. Food is being gathered at the center for evacuees. The donations will be delivered to the Houston Food Bank for distribution. Monetary contributions also are being collected and employees are volunteering their time in support of many shelters for evacuees that have been set up in the areas around JSC and in Houston.
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