Hurricane Harvey

I would like to give some attention to the devastation in Texas in this post and take a break from politics in this particular situation. Politics becomes irrelevant when so many people are in distress after catastrophes such as hurricanes. I started the process of writing this on August 31, which was on the tail end of the flooding.

According to the Wall Street Journal, "Hurricane Harvey is expected to be one of the costliest storms in U.S. history, affecting 100,000 homes and sending more than 30,000 people to emergency shelters around the state. At least 42 deaths have been attributed to the storm by local officials, a tally that is likely to climb." As folks return home to assess the damage to their homes and search for missing loved ones, they are, sadly, likely to discover more deaths.

The flood waters contain many things dangerous to health, such as germs, "toxins, solvents, chemicals, and pesticides." There is also much concern over infectious diseases, like West Nile and Zika. According to CBS, "West Nile Virus and Zika Virus are likely to be big players in the area as mosquito larvae hatch, and mosquitoes breed and bite as we get into September. In fact, after Katrina, cases of West Nile more than doubled within one month’s time." Other medical threats include mold, PTSD, and people going without daily medications. People didn't even have a chance to take medicines with them while escaping from the flood waters. The flooding isn't as bad now as it was days ago, however, it will still take ten to fifteen days for all the water to recede.

As far as rescue efforts go, the US Navy, the Texas Army National Guard, "a search-and-rescue team with 10 agents, 10 trucks and 10 boats from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries", the Charlotte Fire Department, and the Cajun Navy have contributed to saving the lives of Texans. For a little background, the Cajun Navy is a group of citizens (not affiliated with the US Navy) from Louisiana who are using their own boats on their own time to rescue people from the flooding. They originally formed during Hurricane Katrina for the same purpose.

Houston mayor, Sylvester Turner, said, "The city of Houston is open for business. Anyone who was planning on a conference or a convention or a sporting event or a concert coming to this city, you can still come," He also stated that "95% of the city [Houston] is dry."

According to ABC News, "Sunday was declared a day of prayer in Texas by Abbott and across the nation by President Donald Trump. He and the first lady attended services at St. John's, an Episcopal church in Washington a day after visiting Harvey evacuees in Houston and Louisiana." I encourage my readers to participate in this day of prayer and to continue to pray for Texas, because they genuinely need prayer. I'm going to suggest that my readers to donate to any particular charity. All that I suggest on that topic is do research into donating before you do as there is some fraud going on.