Hurricane Harvey - Part 2

What was Hurricane Harvey is now a depression wending it's way up the Mississippi River valley, still dropping heavy rains and causing localized flooding; but nothing like before.
   Harvey pulled up water from the Gulf of Mexico, seemingly with frenzied glee, to drop it over a dry landscape.  The Houston area normally has about 50 inches of rain fall each year; in five days only, it had 51.88 inches fall.  In one week, just seven days, Harvey's system dropped more than 20 trillion gallons of water along coastal Texas and southwest Louisiana.  It would take New York City, New York, and it's suburbs, more than 50 years to use all of that water.  - And, yes, 51.88 inches in 5 days broke the standing record for rainfalls in the past - the closest being Hurricane Amelia, which hit Medina, Texas in 1978, and dropped 48 inches of rain.
    Other numbers are just as staggering: Harvey made landfall three times; twice as a Category 3 Hurricane, and once as a Tropical Storm.  At the height of the storms, first and second landfalls, more than 900 calls per hour were flooding emergency lines.
    Amazingly, 80% of Texans have no flood insurance.  According to Texas authorities on Friday, 185,149 houses were damaged or destroyed in the Houston area. Also, according to Texas authorities on Friday, 364,000 people had applied for FEMA emergency assistance; and the Governor stated that 42,399 people were staying in emergency shelters. FEMA has also provided over 1.9 million meals through Friday, and as distributed 1.96 million liters of drinking water.  It is estimated that, within the Houston metropolitan area, there are 1.3 million people without health insurance; and that 22.5 % of the Houston population lives below the poverty level.
   Friday's estimates were that there was more than $97 billion in destruction costs, alone; and $108 billion estimated in physical damages and work lost.  Outside of Houston, in Crosby, Texas is the Arkema Plant; people have been evacuated in a 1.5 mile radius around the chemical plant due to volatile chemicals.  Three, of at least eight expected, explosions have occurred, with flames reaching 40 feet into the air.  The company has refused to state what chemicals were stored there, and everyone is "just hoping for the best."
  Twenty-four thousand National Guard troops have been deployed to the area stricken by Harvey.  More than 200,000 people are without power, and there are 120,000 people without ptable water in Beaumont, Texas.
    There have been more than 10,000 rescues made by local, state, and federal authorities.  There have probably been that many rescues made by others, unsung and unknown heroes, like the Cajun Navy, and hundreds of local fishermen, who have gone out (and are still doing so) seeking those folks who need assistance.
    Currently, there are ten oil refineries that are closed down in the Houston and Galveston areas.  People are trying to get workers in and get those refineries back into business, as petrol (gas) prices are soaring here....
    If you wish to contribute to on-going assistance for those affected by Hurricane Harvey, I suggest you go to the following website, and follow their recommendations, so that you will not make a donation to a false charity entity:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/sleasca/2017/08/29/hurricane-harvey-donation-charity-scams/2/#bd67d9c5d76d

Hurricane Harvey

I don't really know how to phrase this without seeming callous and uncaring, in one way...  So I'll try to explain.  Hurricane Harvey.  People knew it was coming.  It did not appear overnight.  Yes, it suddenly grew in strength before it actually reached the coastline of Texas; but hurricanes are known to do that.  I feel very badly for every person and for every animal that has lost his or her life, who has lost their home, lost their belongings, lost their treasured items, lost their way of making a living, lost their vehicles, lost all the tangible items of value...  I, too, have lost everything, except my life, several times before.  I am a survivor.  I pull myself upright and I start making headway again.  I might have to borrow money and certain items, but they are always paid back, with interest.  Thirteen years ago, one national charity helped me with $250 in cash, to pay my rent.  I have given that charity more than $5,000 in the last 10 years, and not as a tax write-off either - it just makes me feel better.  I understand gratitude and feel it greatly.
   Hurricanes are a fact of life all along the water front areas of the eastern and southern United States.  My maternal family has lived on an island in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Virginia for 350 years.  My grandfather built a store-ordered Sears, Roebuck & Company house for my grandmother before he married her in 1915/6.  MomMom chose the wall paper for the "big kitchen" which was where the family ate; it had slate grey vertical stripes of varying widths, imitating a trellis, and large bunches of blooming pink roses, on an egg-shell background.  I can still visualize the five high tide marks on all the walls in the big kitchen - a reminder of the four hurricanes and the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962 that the house and all it's inhabitants weathered.
   If you knew a storm was coming with high water, your rolled up the rugs and put them in the attic.  You placed other movable items of value on the stair landings, around the bedroom (only one), and crammed the rest into the attic, also.  Once the water started rising, and was well above street level, you wore your hip-boots out, and waded to your dink (dinghy) or small run-about boat, like a bateau, and you poled it back home, tying it to the roof.  Sometimes the wind took bricks from the chimney.  Sometimes flying debris broke windows.  You just boarded up and carried on.
    I grew up with tales of big storms, high waters and hurricanes.  As a baby, we lived in Oceana, Virginia; then the Navy shipped Dad (and us) inland, to Millington, Tennessee.  I rememebr small flashes from living in Tennessee - but I remember a lot more from living in Kingsville, Texas.  And when I turned five years old, Dad retired from the Navy, and we moved to Florida.  I saw hurricanes first hand growing up, with school years in Florida and summers in Virginia, on the island.  I have to admit I was never in the exact path of a hurricane, but I've been too close for comfort several times.  I've also been through several outbreaks of tornadoes.  Yes, I am very lucky.
    What I've taken the long way around saying (or writing) is that I am just disgusted with some of the news reporting.  The word usage is awful.  People are repeating themselves over and over.  This landing of Hurricane Harvey is a natural, national disaster.  We all need to do what we can to help.  Donate to the Red Cross, donate to the Salvation Army, donate to smaller food kitchens; donate money, food, clothing, unused home items, time, and blood, sweat and tears.
   Please do what you can to help people impacted by this huge amount of water and wind.  Do NOT be like our President, and just Tweet - "Oh, this is so exciting!"  This is not exciting.  It's a disaster.