Bob’s Harvey Update #11
August 28, 2017, 1945
Michael sent this picture looking up Beamer from 2351 toward Dixie Farm. This was this afternoon. The firemen were about to go up and “make sure there was no one in the cars.” Thankful for our first responders and for Michael’s tireless service, 72 hours straight at this point.
I won’t be doing a complete update on families tonight, because I didn’t get that much new information, and there were many wonderful updates on Facebook already. But a couple of items for prayer and awareness. First, the Jacksons. They were the very first family I heard of with flooding, early Sunday morning. We finally got this from them today (from Susan via Hannah):
“We spent yesterday ripping up carpets and tossing things destroyed in the flood. Our appliances all work. Hallelujah!. We have some rooms where the electricity is out but they are not the kitchen or the laundry room!.Our house is beginning to stink with the remaining soggy carpet. We can see some baseboard and sheetrock damage. I did talk to a FEMA adjuster on the phone yesterday. He said he would call again in a day or two. The house looks like we are moving: piles of books, boxes stacked and general chaos. We have never lost our power. We turned the power off Saturday night/Sunday morning when the water was in the house and it was still raining lest we wake to a shocking death. Air conditioning is a great blessing when one is working hard. It also helps dry out the air. We had showers last night. We were afraid to flush toilets or shower or wash clothes earlier for fear of a backup. Ordinary things seems pretty special right now.
We love you guys and we so appreciate your prayers; only God can stop this storm. May He do that!”
I also realized that I had never mentioned John and Alex Heberling. They are (at last report) still dry and have power.
As far as the weather goes: it’s raining. The picture on the left is the default scale radar on my weather underground app. Yuck. The picture on the right is backed off a bit. Harvey continues to pick up convection off the gulf and dump it on us. He will probably continue to do so tonight and tomorrow, but prayerfully, back off on Wednesday.
Finally, we need to start thinking about recovery – ours and helping others with theirs. First, if you need food or clothes or supplies, please put that in the comments or reply to the e-mail. We already know of some cash coming in to help, and HEB was open for a while today. Beyond that, we can expect a pretty good flood of supplies over the next several days – maybe even some of our favorite MRE’s.
Beyond that, though, we need help with our houses, and we need to help others with theirs. The EFCA and many other organizations are preparing to bring in teams that can gut houses, treat them against mold, and even do some of the rebuilding. But you need to make sure your insurance has been informed, your damage documented and approval given for this kind of help.
Our role, with some exceptions, may be to help these teams find people to help, and to provide the long term point of contact for those we do help. Another thing we may be able to do is house teams, or the long term team leaders. Some of you who have offered housing may find a way to help here.
