Glad to hear that!
I hope the aftermath is as painless as possible for everyone.
I usually make donations to help people in need when stuff like this happens,
usually to the Red Cross.
To those of you in TX, which outfit seems to be doing the most to help those who need it?
My church is the disaster relief center for our part of the county. A few years ago, when a F4/5 tornado tore through the area, I was part of the team going out and determining what people needed, and reporting back to "disaster-relief central"...
In the past, I've been a huge supporter of the Red Cross organization. But what I found during our situation here changed that dramatically. The Red Cross set up a special room where they did their "relief work", and we had to screen every single person who went into that room. All the damages were verified by either myself or a couple of other people filling the same role (lots of damage). Not one single person or family received ANY assistance from the Red Cross. No temporary housing. No food assistance. No clothing assistance. Nothing. Every single person/family (all pre-screened, remember) was told they didn't meet the "threshold" for Red Cross assistance.
Most memorable to me was a family of six (with two kids under 4) who were renting a small two-bedroom "guest house" on someone's property. When the tornado hit their home, they were rendered instantly homeless. The entire roof was torn off, and two of the four exterior walls were totally demolished. During the storm, they huddled in a bathroom whose walls miraculously stayed intact enough that they received only minor cuts and bruises. But their clothing, furniture, appliances - every single thing of any value – was scattered and destroyed. Some of their personal effects were later found more than 20 miles away... The father worked (hourly) at a printing company whose building collapsed (trapping and killing the owner), so he was out of a job. The mother worked part time cleaning other people's houses, but of course that was also disrupted.
The Red Cross people told them that their situation didn't warrant any Red Cross assistance. No food. No water. No clothing. No shelter. Nothing. And this was between Christmas and New Year's, when the temps were still very low. Needless to say, our church felt otherwise, and we provided food and shelter for two days until one of our members found a job for the father, and a rental they could afford.
This entire incident left me seriously disillusioned with the Red Cross. Their blood centers do a great job, and continue to receive my support (in the form of donating blood), but I will no longer give even a single dime to the parent organization.
Instead, I've sought out groups that actually DO SOMETHING for the people impacted by these disasters. I've learned that one of the best organizations in terms of delivering services to storm-affected areas is the "Texas Baptist Men" organization. They travel all over the US, bringing portable kitchens to feed hundreds of people, repair crews to make emergency repairs, chainsaw crews to clear downed trees, and a hundred other things. All of this is at no cost to the recipients, and all without ANY paid management overhead. (By contrast, the American Red Cross organization paid their CEO almost $648,000 in 2018, according to their own website, and defended that salary as "appropriate" for a charity of its size.)
So, if you want your money to make a real difference, give to the Texas Baptist Men or other similar organizations that actually do good work, instead of to the PR machine that is the American Red Cross.