Indian community helps out in rescue ops in storm’s aftermath

WASHINGTON Jiten Agarwal, a Houston IT entrepreneur of Indian descent, plunged himself headlong into relief and rescue work from the first opportunity he got. Starting just hours after Harvey made landfall as a hurricane last Friday, he hasn’t stopped helping out.

An Indian was among the 35 casualties in the storm. The victim, Nikhil Bhatia, was among four Texas A&M University students rescued from rapidly rising waters of a lake close to their campus, where they had gone to swim. Fellow student Shalini Singh remains in a critical condition.

Some of the 200 University of Houston students who were earlier marooned by chest-high water around their residential blocks have also pitched in, joining other volunteers to help whosoever they can.

Indians and Americans of Indian decent forge a strong community in Texas. Some of them, such as the students who were marooned, arrived in the US barely a month ago.

“They are extremely close to each other, they are very active as a community and they compete with each other to give and donate for a cause,” said Anupam Ray, the Indian consul general in Houston who waded through flooded neighbourhoods to reach stranded Indians and arrange for help for them.

Ray shared a post on Facebook on Wednesday, recounting some of the work done by the community, individually and as a group.

“I am proud of the Indian community in Houston,” he wrote. “One of the incredible things I saw during #HurricaneHarvey is how Indians stepped up to join relief efforts. This was in the best traditions of America and of India.”