SAN JOSE: Over 14,000 people were evacuated from their homes, on February 21, in Rocksprings, near San Jose, California. A local gurdwara and an Indian-American organisation immediately sprung to action after a mandatory order was issued by the City of San Jose to evacuate homes on account of the floods. "Our doors are open to all. We can house and feed about 500 people here. We will provide food and shelter to people for as long as they need it," said San Jose Gurdwara treasurer Sohan Dhanota.
Flooding has left several areas of the city standing in at least four feet of water. The situation worsened after waters in nearby Coyote Creek began rising because of a breech on a spillway on the Anderson Reservoir. More than 36,000 people have been placed on a voluntary evacuation order. San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said the residents were not properly notified to evacuate during the emergency. "If the first time a resident is aware that they need to get out of their home is when they see a firefighter in a boat, that's a failure. We are assessing what happened in that failure. We've got to address the needs of the families who have been displaced first. We'll have a lot of time to analyse what went wrong," he said at a press brief. Several evacuees are set to be homeless indefinitely, until their residences that may have encountered seeping sewage and other toxins from murky water flowing into their homes are de-contaminated.
Meanwhile, Dhanota said the gurdwara volunteers spent their own money on Feb 21, to buy $3,000 worth of blankets and children's clothing to donate to James Lick High School, one of the main temporary shelters. He has also called upon people attending Sunday services to bring 10 extra blankets with them. Meanwhile, Community Seva, a California-based non-profit organisation which has been donating backpacks to homeless people in the city since last December, stepped up efforts when the evacuations began.
The American Red Cross and the City of San Jose reached out to the organisation to help with relief efforts. Founded by Nathan Ganeshan, volunteers of Community Seva have so far, taken 160 backpacks to two of the biggest emergency shelters in the city, James Lick High School, and Evergreen High School. Ganeshan said he aims to distribute 1,000 backpacks to people displaced by the flooding. Inspired by Shirdi Sai Baba, he began distributing hot pizzas and peanut butter sandwiches to homeless people living in parks. "But the hunger to feed the hungry grew," he said.
Gradually, he founded Community Seva, which holds over 700 volunteers, who serve 1,500 meals per month at homeless shelters in San Jose.
