Iowans organize special clothing drive for hurricane victims

Recovery efforts are well underway in Texas and Louisiana after Hurricane Rita’s weekend strike, but Iowans are still reaching out to the victims of the earlier Hurricane Katrina’s hit on New Orleans. Billie Terrill, of Davenport, helped organize a drive for plus-sized clothing after seeing large evacuees wearing garbage bags because the donated clothes didn’t fit. Terrill says the Red Cross couldn’t take the clothes. She says the Salvation Army -can- accept the clothing donations which will be kept and given locally to people in need, or the leftovers will be sold in Salvation Army stores. Terrill, who works in the bariatric clinic of Davenport’s Trinity Hospital, says more than 25-hundred pounds of plus-sized clothing is being sent to the Gulf Coast by Quad Cities residents. She says “They were just absolutely touched by the fact women were in such dire straights.” Terrill says they’ve collected so many pieces of clothing, they can’t handle anymore, at least for now. She says it’s a “tremendous” amount of clothes and she’s overwhelmed by the generosity of the Davenport-area residents.