Indians still in critical condition, death toll rises
WASHINGTON: The death toll from tropical storm Harvey, which battered the US for a fifth day, rose to 10 on Tuesday, with two Indian students from Texas A&M University still critical.
Two hundred other Indian students, marooned at the University of Houston, were safe and supplied with food, thanks to the Muslim Association of Greater Houston and the Swaminarayan temple.
“For now, they are staying where they were as the water level had receded there and power supply had resumed,” India’s consul general Anupam Ray said.
The Indian consulate is surrounded by water but the building, which stands on stilts, is safe and a group of officials are working from there. It can still be accessed but only via a circuitous route, which may not last long.
Some officials are working from home and some have moved in with acquaintances. “We will not leave,” said Ray. “This is our station, our duty.”
The consulate has shared numbers for queries about specific individuals (+18322311988) and the emergency line (+17136262149).
The Indian-American community in Houston is helping in relief and rescue work, reaching food and sleeping bags to those at private and public shelters. “We helped rescue an American family that a had a five-year-old child on ventilator with no power backup,” said Jiten Aggarwal, who runs an IT business.
Two 70-year-old reservoir dams that protect downtown Houston from flooding began overflowing on Tuesday. Engineers began releasing water from the reservoirs to ease the strain on the dams. But the releases were not enough to relieve the pressure — both reservoirs are at record highs.