Effort underway to get donations from Houston to Guatemala volcano victims

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A Houston donation drive to help victims of the Fuego Volcano in Guatemala has had an overwhelming response, according to organizers.

The issue now is getting the goods to the estimated million people displaced by the volcano, which continues to spew burning sediment and rock.

The most recent report states that 110 people died after the eruption and more than 200 are missing.

Cesar Espinosa, of FIEL, said the donation drive has been temporarily suspended.

"There's somebody out there that has a connection to an airline or shipping mechanism that we ask come forward and they help us in that effort," he said.

A news conference was held in an empty office space on Hillcroft Sunday, next to the Guatemalan Restaurant that's become the unofficial meeting place for the relief effort.

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee is trying to find carriers to get huge stacks of bottled water, baby formula and supplies, and canned goods to the Central American country.

"I'd like our hometown airlines to help get these goods to where the people need them," she said. "They did so with Puerto Rico and I hope they'll consider our request with Guatemala."

Jackson Lee is also asking the government to grant Temporary Protected Status to the disaster survivors, which would allow them to come to the US on a temporary basis, until the country recovers from the disaster.