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AOC Helps Raise $4 Million for Texas Relief Effort, Visits The Troubled State

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Houston distributing food and water to Texans in need (twitter@aoc)

Feb. 22, 2021 By Christina Santucci

Queens Congress member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has helped raise more than $4 million for relief efforts in Texas, where a winter storm and ensuing power outages wreaked havoc last week.

Ocasio-Cortez announced the fundraising milestone in a tweet Saturday. Donations will be split evenly among 12 food banks and organizations that help the homeless.

“These groups are working around the clock to assist houseless, hungry and senior Texans in Travis and Dallas County, and beyond,” the fundraiser page states.

Ocasio-Cortez flew to Texas Friday, and visited food distributions, water delivery sites and the homes of impacted residents Saturday with fellow U.S. Reps. Sylvia R. Garcia and Sheila Jackson Lee, who represent Houston.

“Charity isn’t a replacement for good governance, but we won’t turn away from helping people in need when things hit the fan,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

Meanwhile, Queens community groups also organized their own fundraisers for Texans, using the hashtag: QNSLovesTexas.

For instance, the Sunnyside-Woodside Mutual Aid Network teamed up with eight other organizations collected raised more than $6,000. The organizations wrapped up the drive once they reached their goal, but asked residents who wanted to donate to give directly to the six Texas organizations that received the funds they raised.

The winter storm led to dozens of deaths in Texas, and knocked out power for millions of people in the state for days. At one point, four million people were without power, and 14 million Texas residents still didn’t have running water or were under boil water notices as of Saturday.

There are also reports of widespread property damage across the state as water pipes froze or burst. President Joe Biden signed a major disaster declaration Friday for 77 counties in Texas, which allows impacted residents to file for federal assistance to cover temporary lodging, home repairs and uninsured property losses.