Jack Kost

Friday, September 29, 2017

Puerto Rico ... please help in any way you can:

Irma & Maria – Red Cross Relief Efforts Ongoing:

http://www.redcross.org/news/article/Hurricane-Irma-Affects-Caribbean-Southeast-Red-Cross-Responds

September 29, 2017

Three weeks after Hurricane Irma crashed into Florida leaving behind widespread devastation, the American Red Cross and a large team of partners continue to work around the clock to provide shelter, food and comfort to people whose lives have been turned upside down. It’s been more than a week since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the American Red Cross is working around the clock with government officials and disaster partners to help the hundreds of thousands of people on both island territories who are suffering right now.

Irma

In Florida, officials estimate that more than 195,000 homes were either destroyed or received major damage. In the Florida Keys, officials estimate that 25 percent of the homes were destroyed and 90 percent damaged. Red Cross workers are providing food, shelter, relief supplies, health services and emotional support in the hardest hit areas. Red Cross vehicles are delivering meals and relief supplies to people cleaning up their homes.

The Danish Red Cross erected a base camp in Big Pine Key, Florida to house Red Cross disaster responders. Housing resources and hotel rooms are in very limited supply on the Keys. This allows the Red Cross to free up valuable lodging spaces for returning residents. In addition, schools that were being used as staff shelters can now get back to normal business.

In Florida, hundreds of people remain in emergency shelters, and the Red Cross is there, making sure people get the help they need as they plan their next steps. Emergency shelters aren’t typically intended to stay open for long periods of time—that’s why organizations involved in relief efforts strive to help people find more suitable accommodations if their homes are left unlivable after a disaster. The owners of many shelter facilities are also ready to get back to normal business. Some of the people staying in shelters who can’t return home are being helped through government programs, which may include relocating survivors to hotels or other temporary housing solutions. Some shelter residents will be helped through other community programs.

Maria

Thousands of homes are destroyed or suffered major damage. People are living without power and water. Cell service is out, making it difficult for to connect with loved ones. Only one hospital is fully operational, with dozens more partially so. The storm also destroyed bridges and roads, making it difficult to get help to some areas. It could be months until power is restored with 80 percent of overhead transmission lines damaged. Fuel is available, but conditions make it almost impossible to distribute it. Even as river flooding continues in many areas, more heavy rain is forecast over the weekend, which could lead to additional flash floods and mudslides.

Officials estimate that emergency shelters and food support will be needed by a large portion of the population in both territories for weeks. The Red Cross has mobilized relief supplies to support our response efforts on the islands. This includes: 20,000 comfort kits; 6,000 blankets; 5,000 cleanup kits; 8,000 tarps; and thousands of flashlights, batteries, dust masks, and hand sanitizer. In addition, the Red Cross has sent in generators, laptops, satellite phones and radios to help our volunteers communicate and coordinate response efforts.

On Puerto Rico, nearly 400 Red Cross workers are helping to reconnect families and distribute critical relief supplies, including food and water. International Red Cross workers are restoring connectivity for people impacted by the hurricane and for humanitarian workers on the ground, installing satellites that are enabling Puerto Ricans to reconnect with family members, charge their phones and access information. The satellites and technology also help aid workers as they coordinate relief efforts. In coordination with government and non-profit partners, the Red Cross is helping to distribute water, ready-to-eat meals, fresh fruit and vegetables, tarps and comfort kits. Emergency distribution of water has been provided to several vulnerable communities which were running out of water.

The Red Cross has already mobilized more than 250 tractor-trailer loads of relief supplies to help Puerto Rico. Red Cross teams are also assessing what communities need, and providing health and mental health services.

On Puerto Rico, shelters are managed by the government, but the Red Cross is preparing to support sheltering efforts in case our assistance is needed. The Red Cross supplies our hospital partners in Puerto Rico with blood products collected in the continental U.S. With local blood collections on the island significantly impacted by Hurricane Maria, the Red Cross has provided more than 1,000 blood and platelet products to help hospitals the Red Cross does not typically supply. These supplies are in addition to ongoing blood product distributions to Red Cross hospital partners in Puerto Rico. While transportation logistics remain tremendously challenging both on and off the island following the devastating storm, the Red Cross continues to deliver blood and platelet shipments to Puerto Rico.

On the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Red Cross is supporting shelters, serving meals and snacks, and distributing relief supplies. More than 200 Red Crossers are working around the clock to support people who are living in very difficult conditions. Overnight, nearly 390 people stayed overnight in 7 evacuation shelters. After back-to-back hurricanes, the Red Cross has handed out more than 10,000 relief items; served more than 36,000 meals and snacks; and provided more than 1,000 mental health and health services to people in need. Some people are arriving at the shelters with medical needs and the Red Cross is helping them.

Red Cross Response

The Red Cross is mobilizing volunteers and relief supplies to help those in need. Getting relief materials to the islands is difficult, but the Red Cross is working with federal, corporate and community partners to get supplies to the region by both sea and air. The Red Cross relief effort stretches across multiple states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Hurricane Irma (Mainland Only)

Overnight, almost 600 people stayed in 7 emergency shelters in Florida.

Along with our partners, we have served more than 1.4 million (1,432,000) meals and snacks across six states.

We’ve distributed more than 647,000 relief items like diapers, bug spray, cleaning supplies, coolers, and comfort kits containing deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste and other hygiene items across six states.

Red Cross volunteers have provided more than 37,000 mental health and health services to support and care for those affected across six states.

More than 1,300 Red Cross workers are responding to Irma now, with more than 100 additional volunteers on the way.

127 emergency response vehicles are helping to deliver meals and relief supplies across the hardest-hit areas in Florida.

Hurricanes Irma and Maria (Puerto Rico and USVI)

In Puerto Rico, more than 11,400 people stayed overnight in 163 government evacuation shelters.

On the U.S. Virgin Islands, almost 390 people stayed overnight in 7 evacuation shelters.

More than 600 Red Cross trained disaster workers are supporting relief efforts in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and dozens more are on the way.

After Irma’s landfall, disaster workers in Puerto Rico assisted hundreds of families with necessities such as clothing, shoes, food and medicine. The Red Cross also distributed more than 14,400 relief supplies; provided 5,400 meals and snacks; and, provided health services and emotional support to families and evacuees.

To support people on the U.S. Virgin Islands after both hurricanes, the Red Cross has handed out more than 10,300 relief items; served more than 36,500 meals and snacks; and provided more than 1,000 mental health and health services to people in need.

The Red Cross is working very closely with the entire response community – government agencies, other non-profit groups, faith-based organizations, area businesses and others – to coordinate emergency relief efforts and get help to people as quickly as possible. The Red Cross is also working with dozens of disaster partners to support feeding, child care, disaster assessment and other disaster services. Some of the partners we are coordinating with include The Peace Corps, American Radio Relay League, Adventist Development and Relief Agency, All Hands Volunteers, the Salvation Army, Save the Children, Southern Baptists Disaster Relief, Team Rubicon, UNIDOS US and VOAD Puerto Rico.

How to Help

The need for blood is constant. The Red Cross depends on generous volunteer blood donors to provide lifesaving blood for those in need – each and every day – not only during times of disaster. We are grateful to our dedicated donors who roll up a sleeve to help their fellow American citizen.

Help people affected by Hurricane Irma by visiting redcross.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS or texting the word IRMA to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

Help people affected by Hurricane Maria by visiting redcross.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS or texting the word MARIA to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nation's blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or cruzrojaamericana.org, or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross.

‘The Salt Line,’ A Conversation with Holly Goddard Jones:

Mark Rubinstein

Novelist, psychiatrist, physician

September 18, 2017

Photo: Rachel McConoughey

Holly Goddard Jones, the author of The Next Time You See Me, received the Fellowship of Southern Writers’ Hillsdale Award for Fiction and the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award. She received her BA from the University of Kentucky and her MFA from Ohio State University. She teaches creative writing at UNC Greensboro.

The Salt Line is set in an undisclosed future. The U.S. has been divided into zones with metropolitan areas behind “salt lines,” rings of scorched earth to protect people from a deadly disease-carrying tick. People behind massive walls inside the salt line live a safe and comfortable life. Only adrenaline junkies venture beyond the lines into the American wilderness.

When one group of thrill seekers ventures beyond the line, they find themselves not only facing deadly ticks, but are held captive by a community of outer-zone survivors determined to protect their own existence.

What made you choose to make ticks such a deadly force in a dystopian novel?

I’d finished my last novel in the summer of 2012 and was between projects. I’d read Scott Smith’s novel, The Ruins, which is a horror novel. I’d never written in the horror genre, and thought it would be fun to do between more ‘serious’ projects. I was in Tennessee and spent a lot of time hiking the trails. I was trying to think of a monster that was small in scale and an everyday phenomenon—one that takes you by surprise. Ticks seemed like a good choice. The feeling I had when I suspected I had a tick on myself was probably the closest I’d ever gotten in real life to that of feeling a monster was behind the door.

The book started out as sort of horror story with four characters going into the woods. But, because I was inexperienced in horror fiction, I began writing in a more literary style. When I started going down that path, I began adding dystopian elements into the story. I really sort of backed into the notion of these ticks having such deadly powers because I was trying to justify the horror element of the novel. Then, the dystopian aspect of the novel took over.

One can’t help but think of real-life current events when reading “The Salt Line.” Will you talk about that?

I started the novel in 2012, and finished the rough draft in 2015. I was influenced by the events in the news at the time, such as the Ebola epidemic and the notion of protective walls, which go back to ancient times. There were discussions in the news about the relationship between Mexico and the U.S. and drug trafficking. I was looking at that long before Trump became a serious political candidate and the notion of building a wall became part of the news.

In 2016, while revising the novel, Trump became a viable candidate for president. There were already coincidental elements in the book that paralleled things playing out on the national stage, but as I revised the novel, I incorporated more current events into the story. Seeing Trump get the Republican nomination influenced my portrayal of the characters in the book.

Your previous novel, “The Next Time You See Me” is more of a thriller/suspense read as compared to “The Salt Line” which is more dystopian. How did writing this novel compare to or differ from your earlier work?

I’ve been creeping toward genre writing over the course of my writing career. My first book was a collection of short stories with some crime elements. They were somewhat literary with dark themes, but they were handled in a conventual literary way. When I was younger, I read a great deal of genre fiction, but in graduate school, literary fiction was emphasized, so I got away from genre fiction both as a reader and as a writer. With The Next Time You See Me, I still approached writing in a literary way, but when I wrote The Salt Line, I knew much more about the craft of writing speculative fiction. In both books, I enjoyed writing in the third person and doing ensemble points of view in the narratives. I love getting into the heads of characters who aren’t obviously like me—that remained the same in the two books.

Your prose is quite lyrical. Who are your literary influences?

Margaret Atwood, who tries many different modes of writing, inspires me as a writer. From one novel to another, she may write speculative fiction, a thriller, or historical literary fiction. She’s one of my biggest inspirations. I love her work.

I grew up reading a lot of Stephen King’s books, and he’s also influenced my work.

Who are the novelists you enjoy reading these days?

Lately, I’ve been gulping down books. I’ve read all of Tana French’s books. I’ve enjoyed Fiona Barton’s two novels. I feel she has something of a Kate Atkinson vibe. I’ve been reading Ruth Ware’s books and loved Otessa Moshsegh’s book, Eileen.

If you could re-read any one novel as though reading it for the first time, which one would it be?

There are books you read when you’re young and unformed, like Stephen King’s The Stand. I adored it, but I think if I read it for the first time now, some of its magic would not work for me—especially the portrayals of women. I think the book I’d want to re-read would be either Cat’s Eye or Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.

What’s coming next from Holly Goddard Jones?

I have a contract for a book connected to The Salt Line. It’s not a sequel, but it’s set in the same world, with a different set of characters.

Congratulations on writing “The Salt Line,” a deeply imagined, dystopian novel with beautiful prose and a superb understanding of human psychology.

Mark Rubinstein’s new suspense thriller is “Mad Dog Vengeance,” coming October 15th.