Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says it will take years for Texas to recover from Hurricane Harvey and the massive flooding in the wake of the hurricane. [Buzzfeed]
CB already talked about Kendrick Lamar, but Jesus, his VMA performance was amazing. It’s worth repeating! [LaineyGossip]
Frank Ocean dropped a new song last night. [Jezebel]
Happy 35th birthday, LeAnn Rimes. Sigh… [Dlisted]
The Fug Girls break down how everyone can help Texas. [Go Fug Yourself]
I love these tweets about Jon Snow’s name. [Pajiba]
Vanessa Hudgens went to the Mayweather fight. [Popoholic]
Black Mirror Season 4 features Meth Damon? [OMG Blog]
Kendrick Lamar suggests people play DAMN backwards. [The Blemish]
Recap of the Shahs of Sunset. [Reality Tea]
Jesse Williams & Aryn Drake-Lee are still fighting. [Wonderwall]
Proud to be from Texas.
Yes! Help flood victims by donating to the Red Cross, you can specify the funds go to Hurricane Harvey
As a Corpus Christi resident, me too….
I will never ride out another hurricane tho, it was frightful!
I can’t imagine. Hope you are safe. I evacuated to Austin driving I-10 with that monster in my rear view mirror Friday. Son’s home is flooded, actually saw it on a newscast. That was bizarre. He’s safe here with me though. Other family is stuck in their homes but safe. Our primary Houston residence we just have no clue about. Hoping it’s ok til we get back to check.
Stay strong, fam. I left Houston on Thursday to stay with my mom in the suburbs up north – still dry here but who knows what the next days will bring. Definitely look up orgs to donate to!
We have family in Houston that we couldn’t reach until today. SO grateful they’re safe. Sending love (and help!) to Texas!
ETA: I’ve read on other sites some people don’t want to donate to Red Cross or other funds because they don’t want to help Trump supporters. While I think, in a crisis, we all deserve to be helped, if you are truly wanting to help and just “can’t”, please consider donating to the Humane Society. They are rescuing animals caught up in this flooding, including family pets, and housing them since a lot of shelters won’t take pets. Just a thought…
For those wanting to help but prefer to support somewhere other than the Red Cross, this link has a list, including food banks, diaper bank, etc. For animal rescue, Austin Pets Alive has been boots on the ground assisting shelters in the gulf coast area. http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/08/27/how_to_help_hurricane_harvey_victims.html
thank you
Not surprised. They said it was historic flooding. I dipped into my savings to give a little extra, and after I pay off my rent, I’m hoping to give more. (lolololol guess this is one disaster relief bill Cruz won’t try to block, eh?)
I have lots of family in the Houston area and they’re still there, hanging tough. It’s a scary time for Texas.
I can’t wait to see what sort of twisted logic Cruz and his Republican buddies do to feel that Texas deserves federal aid after Harvey but we in New York and New Jersey didn’t deserve anything after Hurricane Sandy as they voted against the Sandy aid bill.
I’m glad to see New York and New Jersey representatives aren’t reciprocating and instead will vote for federal aid to help our fellow citizens in Texas as they’re going to need all the support they can get.
Hah. I caused some serious Facebook drama pointing out that hypocrisy from Texans who were complaining already about “unfair liberal media coverage” criticizing their evacuation plan but failed to acknowledge that Texas’s state senators had attempted to shoot down actual Sandy relief several years earlier. I’ve donated quite a bit and will never support legislation to do the same for Houston, but maybe some of the red voters down there should think real hard about how easily the tables turned for them.
Agreed. I hope people who vote for Cruz and that ilk will see the actions of the NY and NJ politicians who are not trying to stop aid to Texas and think twice about the people the voted into office. But that won’t happen.
Lots of people will be against things….until they need it themselves
The city of Houston tends to vote for Democrats. It is a blue island surrounded by red.
Yeah, political affiliation shouldn’t matter in disasters because people shouldn’t be left to suffer when we have a government fully capable of providing for them. Totally agree there. But my point is that it was hypocritical of Republican voters in Texas complain about something as minor as “liberal media heads” giving an unfavorable examination of their evacuation plan knowing full well they voted for a senator who voted against relief aid for another state in the same position years before. Oh, yeah – and complaining about that while overlooking the fact that the POTUS utilized storm coverage preparation to cover up his political maneuvering.
(One of my state’s House Reps also voted against it – trust me, I consider him a garbage human being, too.)
Those people sound very uninformed Veronica. Our Republican governor told Houstonians in flood prone areas to evacuate and our Democratic mayor told us to stay put. Evacuating the greater Houston area of 6.7 million people in a day or two just isn’t feasible. When 2 million tried to evacuate before Hurricane Rita, there were 107 deaths. If there are fewer than 107 deaths, I think the right call was made.
I mean, not that I think it’s appropriate to criticize evacuation either way given the situation because the conditions are so variable, but making any accusation of “liberal media” was just ridiculously dumb to me given that they didn’t seem to have a problem with the president utilizing the horror bearing down on them to cover up political maneuvering. That was far more infuriating and despicable than anything else that came out that weekend.
Proud liberal Houstonian and lifelong Democrat here to say two things: the lack of mandatory evacuation orders was the best choice in this circumstance. There were no ideal choices, but trying to evacuate the 6.5 million residents of Harris County would have been catastrophic. 100 people died on freeways when the city/county panicked at the specter of Hurricane Rita, and there was not the widespread freeway flooding we’ve seen here in play at that time. So far, the death total in the Houston area for Harvey is 8. That’s unimaginably sad, but an evacuation could have been orders of magnitude worse.
Second, Houston is blue as blue gets. We voted for Hillary, overwhelmingly so. I don’t disagree that the state as a whole is red, and that Cruz and Cornyn are terrible partisans who make awful choices, but nobody I know supported their ridiculous decision to deny relief to NY and NJ after Sandy. Please don’t paint us with that brush. The Texans I know are generous, open, and neighborly, and my city is showing that to the world now.
It’s easy to sit on your couch and criticize, generalize, and second-guess. Thank you to everyone who is sending prayers, good wishes, and tangible relief. We are grateful and humbled by the generosity and love. Negativity and judgment are not needed.
Thanks Ama1977. Fifth generation Texan here. I could not be prouder of this state and these people and how they are coping and helping as individuals. The last thing I care about today is politics or media BS.
KN and AMA1977 – yes, there’s a reason why governments hesitate before ordering evacuation of large populations. They know that people will die simply because of the evacuation – accidents as in Rita, and also the stress will kill some prematurely. They have to try to weigh the pros and cons and that’s not usually easy. Trying to find ways to keep people safe without evacuation is ideal in many cases.
Houston is a blue city in a red state, FYI. It’s also the most (yes, even more so than NYC) diverse city in the US. Please don’t paint all of Texas with the same brush.
Educate yourself. Houston and every other major city in Texas votes blue. Generalizations make fools of us all.
My congressman (I didn’t vote for him, obviously) in Houston voted against Sandy relief and about 80% of the neighborhoods in his district are now flooded. Can’t wait to hear his rationale for why we deserve federal money and they didn’t.
I don’t like Cruz or Cronyn (former Austinite here). IIRC Part of their rationale for not supporting Sandy aid was pork barrel projects and some budget shenanigans (didn’t someone try to get in some anti abortion stuff too?). Be interesting to see if the same thing happens this go round.
I live in Texas about three hours north of Houston and we have a lot of people coming to our area after being evacuated from their homes. It is heartbreaking and it’s only going to get worse (Houston issued its first evacuation order early this morning). Please keep these people in your thoughts and donate what you can, when you can.
And on a semi-related note, everyone may want to fill up their car gas tanks now. The area of Texas I’m in has already had a couple of gas stations run out of gas and I fully expect gas prices to spike within the next few days.
Thanks for the tip. I’m not far from the area and I imagine we’ll be getting an influx of folks here too. Stay safe, Texas! We (Louisiana) are here for you!
Parts of Louisiana are also expected to get a lot of rain, so y’all stay safe, also. And, thanks for the Cajun navy.
<3
Right now it sucks and it was terrifying over the weekend. We are one of the east of Houston towns that got 23 inches and our town shut down. We couldn’t get away since the highways were closed around us. It’s still worse in Houston and in the areas they are releasing dam water.
Thankfully our house didn’t flood but a lot of people’s homes did. The amount of civilians out saving others with their boats makes me humbled. Honestly, if you can donate please do so. We donated what we could both financially and with household items to the centers people are staying in to help others who did get hit.
I’ve been watching this all weekend on CNN, and I haven’t seen anything like it in so long. The video of the elderly in the nursing home with water up to their chests was heartbreaking. I can’t imagine seeing all of this happening to my city. This is so sad, hope and hugs to everyone there
Our hearts and thoughts are with you guys, I know it is far from over. I am so ashamed you all face this crisis without a strong person in the white house reassuring you every asset in the country is coming, or an outline of plan in progress on what to do next.
Please world, judge the US on the citizens riding boats, kayaks and beer trucks to the rescue. That’s who we are.
This. I am so proud of my city and my state, and how people are pulling together to help. This is the Texas I know and love.
I’m sure Ted Cruz will turn down any state disaster funding…I mean, that’s a very clear example of a socialist program that just gives handout money to people from the government. Those flood victims need to pull themselves up by the bootstraps! /s
In fairness to Cruz (and Lord how I hate saying that) that was not his rationale. His objections were due to the Sandy aid being part of a larger omnibus spending bill. (To clarify, the NYT found that Sandy funding was about 18% of the bill). Cruz wanted a separate Sandy-only bill. The Democrats that were the majority at the time wanted the omnibus in order to fund more programs at once (and also partially to dare Republicans to oppose it). But Cruz never objected to Sandy relief, he objected to the former of the bill. Let’s just be honest about the story.
Peter King from NY is all on Twitter being veeeery shady (and let’s be clear, King is not a decent guy, but he’s dead on right now). He’s tweeting about how he would never, ever vote against disaster funds for another state, even one that doesn’t impact him, because that is simply a dick move and he is a bigger man, etc. And he won’t even say Cruz’s name. He may be sleazy, but he’s sticking the pins into Cruz quite well today. And of course conservatives are saying he’s “exploiting “the situation.
Peter King is a HUGE ass, but even an ass can do the right thing every once in awhile.
Just donated to Portlight (they aid the disabled during emergencies) and we donated blood (my son and I are O negative so I gave permission for him to give blood since he’s not 17 for another 2 weeks.) Will be donating more money soon, when I peruse the best places to send money.
Thank you for the tip, and for your big heart. I’d never heard of Portlight but just made a donation as well.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…people are helping people for a change (compared to the hate we’ve been seeing all over the place), regardless of race, religion or money. It’s nice to see and restores some faith in humanity as a whole.
And no thanks to Emperor Zero who literally puts the “I” in the eye of the hurricane. Bitch pardoned a racist pig, plugged a lame book by another “sherif,” tweeted absurdities about the biggliest storm (much bigglier than Obama’s), discussed dismantling nafta, etc.
Cmon Mueller!
Please be cautious about automatically donating to the Red Cross. After we had two major hurricanes here in two years (2004-2005) in this part of Florida, they bungled beyond belief–wasted time, resources, and were logistically so confused that people who needed help didn’t ever get it. They are hated here, and I know people who literally sneer whenever “help from the Red Cross” comes up in conversation. The International Red Cross does a huge amount of good, but the American branch has a bloated bureaucracy, and their top management is grossly overpaid and seems to specialize in incompetence.
There are some direct Houston sites you can donate to:
https://www.feedingtexas.org/ – Feeding Texas
http://www.houstonfoodbank.org/donate/donate-money/ – Houston Food Bank
http://www.homelesshouston.org/hurricane-harvey/ – Homeless Houston
Don’t forget the Texas Diaper Bank! I donated to them yesterday.
Sending good thoughts to all Celebitches, their families, and friends out in Texas and neighboring environs.
Hurricane/flood survivor here. The Red Cross offered our devastated area sandwiches and warm water. That was it. They even threw out clothing donations because “that’s not what we do”. What did they do with the massive donations? I still don’t know. Done with them for eternity. There are other more responsible charities out there.
Godspeed people of Texas. Been there, done that. It’s going to be rough. But take it from me, you can come back from this.
I remember in hurricane Sandy, a lot of other charities and the National Guard really helped people, but I don’t remember much about the Red Cross. Our first responders did the most, and town volunteers organized a big distribution center filled with donations where people could get supplies. Schools and at least one of the bigger churches became shelters.
I found a local Houston chapter of the Red Cross, and made a small donation to them, but then am spreading the rest out over a number of charities.
And don’t forget groups that will help rebuild, like Habitat and St Bernard Project.
Agreed! Avoid donating to the Red Cross if at all possible.
My hometown was hit by a tornado a few years ago. The Red Cross truck showed up with pallets of drinking water downtown. People in Red Cross shirts got out of the truck, took numerous photos of themselves while starting to unload the water. Then they stopped taking pictures, loaded the water bottles back into the truck, and just left without explanation. They never handed out anything in town. Our Mayor called them and demanded they either show up with the water the next day and actually give it out, or they were banned from helping with the disaster relief work. Red Cross never showed up in town again.
The Red Cross has set up Relief Centers all over Houston, I’m very appreciative of them this weekend. As they come to capacity, more open everywhere. They’ve been amazing. Don’t ever turn down help when it’s desperately needed. We dropped off food and water as well as children’s books and blankets to one that popped up last night when all the surrounding ones were full, and their volunteers were quick, appreciative, and already overwhelmed with evacuees in need of food and water. Those evacuees don’t need to go hungry because people want to give it to the Red Cross.
I am from Houston and my step dad is in Galveston 3 blocks from the Seawall and his street is dry but I have a feeling it will change in a day or 2. All other family in Houston not flooded but close SW Houston a mess. When I get to work tomorrow I will have to donate. I have been there when the water was waist deep but not raining this heavy and long.
I lived in Houston for one and a half years and just moved out recently. It pains me to see Houston (including the area I lived) flooding.
My thoughts and prayers are with everyone in Texas. ❤️
Perhaps the trump administration could point out which of the journalists risking life and limb to report on this are “sick people” who “don’t love their country”. Trump denounces journalists in the terms he should use for the neo-Nazis. And the bar is set so so low for him. Anything less than a totally dreadful performance is hailed as a triumph. It wasn’t that way with Obama, and it sure wouldn’t have been that way with Hillary.
Why did they not evacuate Houston???????
Prayers to all stranded there.
Because the size of the city would’ve made it difficult to get everyone out safely in the timeframe they had to work with. Somebody mentioned upthread that there were losses with Rita because people were trapped on the highways.
I don’t understand why they couldn’t have evacuated parts of the city though. You could have some geographic boundaries or gone by ward/district etc, right?
IDK. So far y’all are doing great. Stay strong and know we are sending you love, prayers, and charity!
I live across the street from the bayou. It’s has been a nightmare but having neighbors looking out for each other has been amazing.
Evacuating 6.5 million is not easy at all. I think the mayor did the right thing by us. Imagine being stuck on the freeway in the midst of the storm. Plus you have to take into account the places the go to have their own traffic, which would stall the traffic of those leaving houston. I’m glad I stayed.
Came here to say consider donating to smaller local charities rather than the Red Cross. Glad to see others with great suggestions. The Red Cross is excellent at going into international crises where others won’t go but in North America, they squeeze out or sub contract to (needlessly adding a middle man and costly layer of management) other organizations who have a deeper knowledge of and relationship with the community and who can more efficiently respond. The Red Cross also has very, very full bank accounts. Hundreds of millions that don’t get spent because people keep giving more. There are much better ways to help out.
Stay safe everyone!
I remember a little while after one big disaster, seeing brand new Red Cross flags on every light pole down a major roadway in Philadelphia. Utterly useless. The money that must have been spent on that!
Hope everyone here on CB and their loved ones are safe.
Once the flooding recedes and everyone tries to start picking up the pieces- If you have experienced damage, please be careful when hiring people to repair or rebuild. Disasters like this tend to attract scam artists. I know several people after Sandy who gave large deposits to builders who then failed to do any actual work, and there have been a lot of arrests and lawsuits.