Saturday Scribbles Vol. 3.2

Hello my reader friends. It's been a long time since I wrote a Scribbles post.

Hurricane Harvey. That's a storm I don't think I'll forget anytime soon. You see, I've never liked storms. But this one, I was thinking it's just rain, I'll ride it out at home.

That was my plan. Then Friday August 25, 2017, my brother called me. He pretty much convinced me that I needed to go to Mom's. Because my parking lot floods. So I packed up Kiki and we went.

So the storm hit Rockport, near Corpus Christi. And the rain. Oh the rain. It started raining on Friday morning before it made landfall. It stopped some on Saturday, but then Saturday night came. And with it the rain. It wasn't just part of Houston being hit, it was all of it. The weather forecasters were say 30 or more inches before it was supposed to stop. So days of rain. Soon places that didn't flood were flooding.

I watched with mom as the water crept up to about halfway up the driveway and came within inches of coming in through the backdoor. This was early Sunday morning.  A miracle in itself is that my place had zero damaged, and this is with a parking lot that floods. We were blessed. But others weren't.

Just across the freeway from my apartment, the neighborhood was under water. My brother and sister-in-law had water in their home and evacuated first to the high school he teaches at and then to a hotel they'd booked. Friends from church had several feet of water in their homes. It was like that all over the area.

Then I watched something beautiful happen. While the rain still came down on Sunday, people were helping each other. I saw people with boats who didn't care if the person was male or female, what political party. It didn't matter about race or religion or sexual orientation. They helped. No questions asked, really. I have a friend who worked the shelter at Dobie High School feeding those who showed up while her husband was driving around picking up people who needed it. This continued into Monday and Tuesday. Shelters opened up across the city, and volunteers showed up. Then there was a problem of having too many volunteers, too much supplies. What a problem to have.

People in line to volunteer at the George R. Brown Convention Center shelter.

Then the rain stopped. At least in Houston. Total rainfall was over 50 inches, and the weather people had to invent a new color for rainfall.

Harvey moved on towards Louisiana, and continued to dump rain. And once again, people helped each other.

I 10 east near Winnie. This is the road.

I see on social media things saying #HoustonStrong  And #TexasStrong and that's what is happening. For a few days, my city didn't care about politics or the hate that surrounds so many. My city showed the world what it means to see past all barriers and to the heart. That everyone is important. My city will rebuild and will be stronger for it.

Now that the rains have stopped and some roads are becoming passable again, I still see people helping others. I know of several churches who have crews of volunteers assisting people with the ripping up of carpets and floors. Cutting sheetrock. Washing clothes. Feeding the crews. Offering cars. I've seen it all across the area, and not just the churches. But neighbors.

One of my brother's dearest friends set up a go fund me page to help my brother and sister-in-law with expenses.  If you want to help, consider them. Here's the link.