Rhonda Beassie
Assistant Clinical Professor
University of Houston Law Center

The buses are on their way. A lot of buses are on their way.

While law schools across the country responded to the Gulf Coast disasters by providing legal assistance to victims through scheduled visits to the region, the University of Houston Law Center (UHLC) had the opportunity to help meet the most basic of human needs—shelter and sustenance. It began with the buses.

For many Houston residents the impact of Hurricane Katrina became more than just horrifying television images with the arrival of busloads of evacuees. Our city became temporary shelter for a great number of Katrina victims housed initially in the old Astrodome and later moved to the George R. Brown Convention Center, hotels, and apartments.

The school reacted swiftly. Several students and faculty members provided logistical support at the registration/housing centers. Student organizations staffed a joint hurricane relief effort collecting contributions of clothing, toiletries, non-perishable food, and cash. A Words of Encouragement Project invited students to stop in on breaks to write cards and letters to demoralized evacuees.

Knowing UHLC survived flooding during Tropical Storm Allison through the support of our neighbors and friends, then Associate Dean Seth Chandler was especially motivated to help the New Orleans schools. Through his leadership and with the support and flexibility of our faculty, staff, and students, we hosted Loyola University New Orleans Law School's fall 2005 semester on our campus. The call for shelter came even closer to home when several members of our law school community prepared to share offices and even their homes with our Loyola friends during their time in Houston.

Shortly before Loyola arrived on our campus, much of Houston experienced our own evacuation in expectation of Hurricane Rita. The hurricane shifted east in the 11th hour and few Houstonians experienced damage. However, our brush with Mother Nature and the destruction experienced in eastern Texas strengthened our resolve to help hurricane victims. With Rita sufferers joining Katrina evacuees, both the population and demand for social services, including legal services, swelled far beyond capacity.

Professor Richard Alderman, known throughout our region as "the People's Lawyer," organized volunteers to staff a Hurricane Relief phone bank and a special People's Law School Program for hurricane victims to learn about their legal and rights. Many of our hurricane relief and education projects continue today, such as our resource bank for children in disasters and conference on Children and the Law after Katrina, both projects of UHLC's Center for Children Law and Policy.

We could not meet all the shelter, sustenance or legal needs of the busloads of hurricane evacuees that traveled to Houston. However, we were fortunate to forge relationships with Loyola evacuees and experience the sense of purpose that comes through helping others. I think I speak for every member of the University of Houston Law Center community when I say we gained far more than we gave.