Harvey Blew Through

Houston has always had a huge heart, and through the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey’s wrath it has been truly wonderful to see the outpouring of not just community spirit but community help. Neighbours helping neighbours. Strangers helping strangers.

Until September 2017, Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 was the benchmark for high water in Harris County. She churned ashore, then went back into the Gulf of Mexico before returning with even greater ferocity. Houston learnt many lessons as the devastation was recorded and plans put in place to prevent such an event affecting so many people again. But Mother Nature is capricious and all eventualities can rarely be planned for.

Judge Ed Emmett, a Republican, has been the Harris County judge since 2007, and through three Democratic Mayors has shown his common sense ability, his calm leadership and his willingness to put politics aside for the benefit of the people. So too Houston’s current mayor, Sylvester Turner.

What a concept. Elected officials working for the people who put them in their position.

But Harvey has been something else. The rain just kept pouring. The water just kept flowing. And flowing. The reservoirs built on the old rice fields of west of Houston filled, then spilled. The lakes north of Houston did the same. Controlled releases flooded neighborhoods in a deluge of swirling, brown water which respected no one’s property. Grand or humble. And questions are being asked about the notice given to residents of areas inundated. They will, I am sure, continue to be asked as people survey the damage and then count the cost of the storm, both emotional and financial.

Our city leaders opened the doors of the George R Brown Convention Center, the NRG Stadium and various places around Houston for those displaced by Horrible Harvey.

H-E-B, a Texas-wide, and Texas-proud, grocery store has donated not only a $1 million to hurricane relief efforts, but have supplied food, water and fuel to areas hardest hit with many employees volunteering. “It’s part of our company culture. It’s that spirit of giving,” explained Houston H-E-B’s public affairs director, Cindy Garza-Roberts.

J J Watt, defensive end for Houston football team, the Texans, has raised $18 million for Hurricane Harvey relief. He is more than a football icon, he is fast becoming a Texas legend and he wasn’t even born here!

Gallery Furniture, owned by another Houston luminary, Mattress Mack, aka Jim McIngvale, opened their stores as refuges for the Harvey victims – family’s clustered around a Hunstville dining set or a Navasota sofa, their possessions stuffed into black bin bags clutched on their laps; children wide-eyed from fright, or excitement, darting between the set pieces.

Donations of clothing, toiletries, food and water have been dropped off all over the city – sometimes carried for blocks by people who’s cars have been totaled by flood water. Volunteers have lined up. Hundreds of them. The generosity has been incredible; the selflessness of those who might also have been affected helping others who have lost everything has been heartwarming.

And then we have Lakewood Church – the monumental edifice in which Pastors Joel and Victoria Osteen spout their brand of evangelical christianity. I have written about them before – see previous blogs (September 18, 2011 – You too can have Friday every day of the week, and Nov 27, 2012 – What Constitutes Community).

It is no secret I do not hold the Osteens in high esteem. Charlatans abound in every community and country but if they offer solace to those in need then they are filling a need. But during Harvey Joel Osteen forgot he was a member of the very community he purports to serve, the community who has given him the riches he seems to feel he deserves, the community who has allowed him to live a life of extreme luxury.

Lakewood Church did not offer sanctuary. Only opening its doors as a distribution center for donations, and offering space for a few hundred evacuees days after the storm and only after a public and nationwide backlash. This is a building which has seating for 16,800 people.

In his Sunday six-minute ‘Hope for Houston’ message Osteen thrice reminded the crowd, significantly smaller than usual, “We’re not victims in Houston: We are victors.” His palliative style of preaching I suppose offers an element of hope to his congregation but it was, as always, without any great substance. He appeared more concerned about the outcry, telling his listeners “I know y’all love me. You need to get on social media.” Osteen on NBC’s ‘Today’ show excused his church for not opening the doors, “We were just being precautious.” That same social media disclaimed his assertions of the church being inaccessible due to flooding.

Not only does the man preach ‘cotton-candy gospel’, as stated by Reverend Michael Horton, Professor of Theology at Westminster Seminary in California, he’s a fabricator and obviously illiterate.

Precautious? That is enough, in my book, to be sent to damnation.

Harvey has blown through but the destruction and pain will last a long time. The National Guard, police, firefighters, neighbours and people from all over the country have helped rescue victims with boats and monster trucks; have hauled the detritus of ruined homes out onto the streets. Others have offered beds, cars, clothes, and sometimes just a hug.

Houston has shown she does not need the trite entreaties of a mountebank secure in his private citadel. We have strong and sturdy leaders, company’s with a community culture, and most importantly Houston is a city with heart.