More Hurricane Evacuees Come to Tyler

TYLER – Hurricane evacuees from the Gulf coast continue to seek shelter in Tyler. To help them, the city activated its Emergency Operation Center on Tuesday to coordinate local agencies’ relief efforts. On Wednesday, a Transition Hub opened at the Faulkner Park Police Station. Since then, 586 have come through the Police Station for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assistance and received an Emergency Tracking Network (ETN) wristband tied to services available in the area. The ETN wristband will allow access to evacuees for services such as free meals at the Salvation Army, basic necessities at Colonial Hills Baptist Church and clothing needs from Cornerstone.

The City of Tyler Transit Department will be offering free bus rides to all evacuees with ETN wristbands.

Colonial Hills Baptist Church, 7330 South Broadway is serving as a distribution center for evacuees. They are no longer accepting donations at this time. With an ETN wristband, evacuees will have access to donated items like non-perishable foods, diapers (adult/infant), basic toiletries, coloring books/crayons, dog food (10 pound or less bags) and stainless steel dog bowls. Operations will be open seven days a week from noon to 5:30pm through September 10.

Salvation Army has meals available for evacuees at 11:30am and 5:00pm daily.

At this time, hotels in the city limits are at 61% occupancy.

The American Red Cross will be working with the Salvation Army to coordinate meals for evacuees staying in our area. Any restaurants wishing to donate meals to help in this unprecedented disaster can call 903-730-5117. Call volume may be high, and callers are asked to please leave a message.

The City published a webpage that centralizes information about available services for evacuees at https://www.cityoftyler.org/Departments/Communications/HurricaneHarveyReliefInformation.aspx and this page will be updated daily to give the most up-to-date information.