Local café raising funds for Hurrican Harvey relief

A Wrangell café is raising funds for disaster relief, following the hurricane and deadly floods affecting Texas last month.

Zak's Cafe owners James George and Katherine George-Byrd plan to send all earnings from their Tuesday and Wednesday sales this week to a response fund benefitting Hurricane Harvey victims. On August 24 the storm system became the first category 4 hurricane to make landfall in the United States in over a decade, and the biggest in Texas since Hurricane Carla in 1961. Within a couple of days the deadly storm and related floods had displaced tens of thousands of residents in the Houston area, coastal Texas and neighboring Louisiana.

The Wrangell restaurateurs have in the past raised money for various events, with their most recent raising about $1,500 to combat child hunger last October.

"If there's a fundraiser where we think money is needed now to help people – and we actually have friends that live in Houston, and we've seen their posts on Facebook about how urgent things are – once the water started receding people that live there started seeing real damage," said George. "Right now it's still just covering the basics of survival, people need to get food, clothing and shelter."

George-Byrd said she consulted a friend, formerly of Wrangell now living in Houston. "She's there, she's in Texas. I just asked her, 'We want to donate but we don't know where to yet.'"

Her recommendation had been to contribute to the Houston Flood Relief Fund, an online effort hosted on website YouCaring.com. The fund was put together by professional football player J.J. Watt, whose Justin J. Watt Foundation had previously raised $3.3 million for middle school after-school programs. A defensive end for the Houston Texans, Watt has as of Tuesday raised $20.1 million on the online account.

"He knows where money is needed in that area," said George. "His organization was the first one that popped into my head."

Serving Jamaican grilled sandwiches – using homemade coconut bread, with a recipe George had picked up while visiting the island nation – and tacos on Tuesday, and a halibut basket and burgers Wednesday, the couple hoped to raise something to contribute to the disaster relief effort.

"If it stays busy during the afternoon we're going to try to stay open later," George said. "As soon as the fundraiser's over we can get right into it." He expected whatever they had raised would be sent out sometime this morning.

The Zak's owners had begun raising money for different causes last year, after a several-year hiatus. Medical concerns during the interim had diverted their focus closer to home, but George-Byrd said everything has since improved.

"We finally feel we need to get back out there and start fundraising and helping," she said.

For those interested in contributing to Harvey relief or to learn more about the J.J. Watt Foundation, visit http://www.youcaring.com/victimsofhurricaneharvey-915053. The Federal Emergency Management Agency also maintains a page on the crisis with suggestions for how best to assist, at http://www.fema.gov/hurricane-harvey. The agency is also reaching out to residents in Florida and other Gulf of Mexico borderers to the threats posed by Hurricane Irma, an even larger, category 5 storm making its way through the Caribbean Sea this week.