Hurricane Central

So one of the big news stories of the year is the impacting Southeast Texas coastal cities by Hurricane Harvey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Harvey. Lubbock http://www.fox34.com/story/36237396/lubbock-responds-to-hurricane-harvey-disaster-relief sent much help: police, sheriffs, firemen, individuals, agencies.

Governor Abbott  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Abbott of Texas pre-declared a disaster, and President Trump almost immediately declared a national disaster, allowing FEMA https://www.fema.gov/ to start helping almost immediately.  Not only did the Governor deploy all of the 12,000Texas National Guard https://www.nationalguard.com/, Guards from other states helped.  The American Red Cross https://www.redcross.org/donate/hurricane-harvey?scode=RSG00000E017&utm_campaign=Harvey&gclid=Cj0KCQjw3MPNBRDjARIsAOYU6x9ZG5Lc6mUdm6waeS3kaQt3Lpfmf31VZdyJDkbOxDgHGjlSFo0xpy0aAqcJEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CIHajqG3lNYCFU8DgQod1gkPrQ, Catholic Charities https://www.catholiccharities.org/, the Salvation Army http://www.salvationarmy.org/ and the South Plains Food Bank https://www.spfb.org/ all deployed. 

Governor Abbot waived the hotel tax for all evacuees and rescuers.

Many hospital patients were evacuated, and while there was no mandatory evacuation of Houston, people were encouraged to consider it and at least prepare.  Shelters were opened and more shelters were opened.

Private individuals put their boats in the water, and made rescues.  The Louisiana Cajun Navy http://mashable.com/2017/08/29/Cajun-navy-houston-harvey-louisiana/#b4TfxR2mvOqF came to help.  

Corporate America helped.  HEB https://www.heb.com/ donated food and water to rescuers and evacuees.  WalMart https://www.walmart.com/ did a fundraiser.  Local businesses in Lubbock have done fundraisers. To name two:  Cantina Laredo https://www.google.com/search?q=cantina+laredo+lubbock&ie=&oe= and 

West Crust Pizza https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g56208-d2199840-Reviews-West_Crust_Artisan_Pizza-Lubbock_Texas.html.

MLB https://www.mlb.com/ and NFL https://www.nfl.com/ are doing fund raisers.

Congress passed emergency relief  http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/06/politics/house-votes-harvey-aid/index.html  http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/07/senate-passes-hurricane-harvey-relief-bill-raises-debt-ceiling/.

The five living ex-Presidents: President Carter, President Bush (41) and President Bush (43), President Clinton and President Obama  have come together to develop One America Appeal https://www.oneamericaappeal.org/ which was originally specific for Hurricane Harvey but is being broadened to help Hurricane Irma victims and survivors.

Major gasoline refineries were shut down, and gasoline prices have jumped, but the refineries are back on line https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/05/oil-surges-as-refineries-restart-after-harvey-irma-is-trouble-for-gas.html.

And now, Hurricane Irma https://weather.com/storms/hurricane-central/irma-2017/AL112017  is wreaking havoc in the Caribbean Sea , on the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and many other Caribbean Islands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Caribbean_islands Anguilla, Barbuda, and Turks and Caicos to name a few.

There are the same pre-hit disaster preparations and disaster declarations occurring for Irma as there were for Harvey. Puerto Rico evacuated people inland. Florida has some mandatory evacuations, and is well prepared for evacuations, including of the Florida Keys, but even so, gas is short, prices are skyrocketing and in reality, there is some price gouging occurring.  The Florida attorney general, Pam Bondi http://myfloridalegal.com/ has said that will not be tolerated.

There is another hurricane active more south: Katia http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/graphics_at3.shtml?cone and Jose https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/tropical-storm-hurricane-jose-forecast-atlantic is in the Caribbean, too.

Such an active hurricane season.  Pray for all in harms way.

Friday Night Television Watching

Watching the Weather Channel and news this Friday night to watch the Harvey Hurricane track https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/hurricane-harvey-forecast-gulf-coast-texas-louisiana.  So far some positives:  evacuations of patients was handled smoothly, according to two Covenant Hospital https://www.covenanthealth.org/ nurses who took equipment to move a baby to NICU in San Antonio.  Governor Abbott has already declared 30 counties disaster areas, with an awareness that more can be added as needed, and President Trump has signed off on the request for Federal aide.  Another good thing, Governor Abbot in Texas has lifted the hotel/motel tax for the next 14 days for evacuees and first responders, saying this is a housing emergency.  The Texas Department of Criminal Justice https://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/announcements/announce_hurricane_harvey.html has an emergency plan in place.  The Texas Department of State Health Services has posted information about preparing for a hurricane http://dshs.texas.gov/ .  FEMA is staged, as is the Texas National Guard.  A former co-worker now living in Houston has posted on Facebook that she is safe, so far.

Lubbock is sending firemen, and others to assist the teams.  The South Plains Red Cross is on standby to send a truck and volunteers to help with rescue and clean up. 

Evacuations were ordered yesterday if not Wednesday.  Power companies have crews on standby to start working on restoring power as soon as it is safe.

Texas has its own power grid for much of the state http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2003/08/why_texas_has_its_own_power_grid.html, and but Lubbock is not in it, so  if there are some problems, we could be affected, although is very unlikely.  Nothing is impossible.  I am charging my phone and my laptop stays charged. I have lots of flashlights and batteries, but I probably need to get some more D cell and C cell batteries tomorrow.  I always have extra food at home, even for the kitties.  I might be low on bottled water, so should probably buy some of that, also.