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Evacuees In Texas Need Many Things — Including Diapers

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

As Harvey delivers its wrath to the Gulf area, relief organizations are stepping in to provide assistance to thousands of evacuees. They're providing food, water and shelter. But one thing that they don't always provide are diapers. That can be a real problem for parents of young children.

JORGE MEDINA: It's not something that families, especially when they're coming to a shelter, that they pack up and bring with them. And then while they're at the shelter, whatever they did bring, they run out.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

That is the voice of Jorge Medina. He's the executive director of the Texas Diaper Bank. And originally, they began a few years ago. They mostly gave diapers to families who couldn't afford them in the San Antonio area.

CHANG: That's right. But they started a whole disaster relief program after floods hit nearby San Marcos in 2015. And with Harvey, as more families get evacuated from the floods, the need for diapers is only growing.

MEDINA: It started with, you know, we have a thousand families that are being evacuated and are coming to San Antonio. And now what we're learning is that the floodings have continued and we can anticipate an influx of up to 10,000 families coming to San Antonio.

GREENE: Yeah, the numbers are staggering. This is the first time they've dealt with anything on this scale. For now, Medina says that they are sticking with providing diaper kits to evacuees locally. The next step is to start getting diapers to surrounding areas. And then as flooding clears up here, they'll work on getting the diapers to the affected areas along the Gulf Coast.

CHANG: For Jorge Medina seeing the outpouring of support has given him a new faith in humanity.

MEDINA: The people that are sending donations to us - it really has been amazing. It runs the gamut from people across the whole nation and even people from abroad.

CHANG: If you want to help, you can visit texasdiaperbank.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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