Here's the text of an email sent me today by a friend who works in disaster relief and long term recovery efforts. Thought Dave's perspective on what's going on in Lewis County (and other flood areas) is instructive. I witnessed exactly the second disaster thing in the Gulf Coast a few weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck, where entire semi-truck convoys had arrived stuffed with used clothing, at least half of it rags. The "generosity" of others ended up creating an enormous solid waste disposal problem.

In case it hasn't been clear from all the media accounts and press releases over the past couple of weeks, please consider from this point on an absolute embargo, prohibition, ban, whatever on any donations of clothing or household items of any kind, especially to Lewis County.

The donations issue has created a major crisis in Centralia and Chehalis in particular. In the disaster relief/response community, this is typically called the "disaster that follows the disaster." I'm not at liberty to hare all that I know about the extent of the problem politically or among the voluntary agencies in Lewis County, but the bottom line is "no donations, period."

more pics here