Texas Slammed by Hurricane Harvey

This storm was every bit as bad as the forecasters had been predicting. Indeed, parts of Texas have gotten rain that can be most accurately measured in feet, rather than inches. It has already been the cause of over half a dozen deaths, and there are more missing.

There are rescue efforts now underway to help the victims of this hurricane. Supplies, including medical gear, food, and drinks, and rescue workers are all heading to Texas.

On the news, we see images of people stranded on rooftops, and streets completely flooded, submerged under water to such an extent that you might be forgiven if you initially assumed that these lanes were originally rivers.

People are suffering. Many surely still need rescuing. Others have lost everything. Relief efforts are underway, but will it be enough?

From what we have heard and seen, this storm might devastate some parts of Texas at least as much as storms did in New Orleans and the New York and New Jersey shores years ago.

It should be noted that not long ago, we would have considered this a storm of the century, or at least one storm that might come every 50 years, or once a generation. Yet, we have seen at least three of these devastating kinds of storms in the last dozen years, just here in the United States. We had Katrina, which completely devastated New Orleans and the areas around the Mississippi Delta. It is safe to say that New Orleans has never fully recovered from that storm. Then, we had Sandy, which laid waste to the Jersey Shore, and parts of coastal New York. And now, we have this storm, which hit Texas as a Category 4, and which has just stuck around, pouring literally feet of rain over the course of several days, and which has not yet left, either. It is possible that it will go back to the Gulf of Mexico, and slam New Orleans, or other regions, as well. 

I really hate to say things like our thoughts are with them, mostly because it sounds like such a cop out, like something a politician might say, because it is expected. 

However, we have to keep affected Texans in our thoughts today, while Harvey continues to pound still more rain, and the damages continue to mount. 

There are so many things that we all disagree on, so many things that divide us. But if there is a silver lining in moments like this, it is the unity that we feel by trying to brunt some of the shock and pain that the victims of this storm are feeling, and in wanting to help, in hoping that the storm finally moves away and gives them some breathing room, and in wishing them a speedy recovery.