6 Quotes by Sharon Hess

When we went to talk to those families, we found out that one of the families was originally from Herrin, so we were able to quickly place them in one of our vacant homes in Herrin. Our agency covers 24 counties, and if we don't have a house available, we can still help a family by making referrals.

One man called us and said, 'I have a three-bedroom house I'm working on, and you can use it. He is letting us use his home for Katrina evacuees.

We have a total of 38 families here in Williamson County. We probably have such a large number here because of the interstate. Other surrounding counties have considerably fewer evacuees. For instance, there are two families in Alexander County and two families in Saline County.

We understand that these individuals have nothing, and we will help them as much as we possibly can. We will provide supportive services to them just as we would any other family that we have in our program.

Southern Illinois University donated five laptop computers to the Red Cross so that they could go out and register people for FEMA, since so many need help but don't have access to a computer. We are still trying to figure out what kind of housing is needed and trying to help anyone who comes to our agency.

It is unfortunate that we only have two homes available, but we will do everything we can to help the families.