Heroes abound as Harvey wreaks havoc in Texas, but still more help is needed

THE ISSUE

Hurricane Harvey, now a tropical storm, has dumped more than 2 feet of rain on some areas of Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana, and a great deal more rain is still to fall. Houston, the fourth most populous city in the nation, has been ravaged by catastrophic flooding that the Houston Chronicle reported was likely to continue through Wednesday. As the week began, people continued to be rescued from their flooded homes, and at least eight people had died. Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator William “Brock” Long said he expects more than 450,000 disaster victims to register for federal assistance. Some 30,000 people are expected to need emergency shelter. President Donald Trump promised “very rapid action" from the federal government on relief funding.

People are good.

That’s not breaking news, but it ought to be said every time the opportunity presents itself. And such a time is now.

A Lancaster County native living in Texas says she and her family have received an "outpouring of love and support" from county residents, LNP staff writer Tom Knapp reports today.

The so-called Cajun Navy, the volunteer boaters who played such a pivotal role in helping the people of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, headed from Louisiana to Texas over the weekend.

They told reporters they wanted to repay Texas for the help Texans gave Louisiana residents after Katrina and last year’s floods in Baton Rouge. Three members of the Cajun Navy had “already rescued stranded Texans Monday morning, including one elderly woman who had to be resuscitated,” The Times-Picayune of New Orleans reported.

Then there was the lone gentleman from Texas City, Texas, who was filmed as he prepared to answer emergency services’ request for volunteer boaters to assist in rescue efforts. “I’m going to try to save some lives,” he said.

There were countless others like him, who took to their fishing boats, recreational boats and canoes to pluck stranded Texans from homes filling with water.

“The police department in League City, just south of Houston, put out a call for private citizens with flat-bottom or shallow-water boats to lend a hand,” The New Yorker magazine noted. “The department was quickly overwhelmed with offers of help.”

Then, of course, there are the first responders who devote their lives to helping others. Among them will be members of a Pennsylvania team the commonwealth dispatched Monday. Gov. Tom Wolf said the team includes 45 members of Pennsylvania Task Force One, Urban Search and Rescue Task Force.

The Lititz-based Mennonite Disaster Services is sending an assessment team to Texas this week, LNP reports today. We laud those who work for, or volunteer with, relief organizations like that one - or the American Red Cross, Save the Children, and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.

Those and other well-regarded organizations need our help now, to help those in Harvey’s path. The watchdog website Charity Navigator also suggests giving to the Houston Food Bank, the Food Bank of Corpus Christi and the Houston Humane Society. On Charity Navigator’s Harvey page you can find links to other effective nonprofits engaged in Harvey relief efforts.

Journalists, too, have been doing remarkable work by not only chronicling the devastation and narrating the rescue efforts, but in some instances, by helping people to safety.

Brandi Smith, a reporter with a local news station, KHOU 11, spotted a man trapped in the cab of his tractor-trailer, as water poured into the cab. Her TV station had to be evacuated. But Smith and her photographer kept their eyes on the truck driver, flagged down help, and waited until the crew of a sheriff’s office rescue boat pulled the driver from his truck to safety. Overcome with emotion, Smith asked the truck driver if she could give him a hug.

CNN reporter Ed Lavandera was aboard a volunteer rescue boat in the Bayou Chantilly neighborhood of Dickinson, Texas, when a woman cried out for help. She had left her own home to be with her elderly parents, and the three were trapped - with the two family dogs - in a house filling with water. Lavandera helped to pull the woman’s 86-year-old father into the boat. He was told the man’s 83-year-old wife had Alzheimer’s. So, choosing compassion and humanity over TV ratings, he asked that the camera feed be cut during her rescue. The footage aired later after he ensured that her dignity had been preserved.

Journalists draw a lot of fire these days. But in Texas, they’ve been playing a critical role in keeping people informed and safe.

We are grateful to everyone who’s been helping Texans through some of the worst moments of their lives.

You don’t need a boat to join the relief effort. Our fellow Americans need our help. If we can give it, we should.

Back to school

As a new academic year begins, we offer our best wishes to the students, faculty members and staffs at Lancaster County’s many schools and colleges.

Work hard, kids, but go easy on your parents and teachers. They want to see you succeed, so if they give you an annoying nudge now and then, it’s only because they care. You’d like it a lot less if they didn’t.

Credit: The LNP Editorial Board