200 INDIAN STUDENTS CAUGHT IN HOUSTON BEING EVACUATED
HOUSTON: A At least 200 Indian students stranded at the University of Houston due to “catastrophic” flooding after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas were being evacuated to safer places, authorities said on Sunday. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday evening tweeted that she had been informed by the Consulate General of India in Houston that efforts were being made to deliver food.
“We made efforts for delivery of food but US Coast Guard did not allow as boats were required for rescue operations,” Sushma Swaraj said adding that Anupam Ray, Consul General at Houston was organizing the rescue operations.
“Indian students Shalini and Nikhil Bhatia are in ICU. We are ensuring that their relatives reach there at the earliest,” the minister said.
Meanwhile, the Indian community is reaching out to the victims of the hurricane to help them. “They have declared mandatory evacuation to people in new territory by tomorrow evening. We have no clue how to get out of here, with most of the roads blocked, and move to a safer place. Please let us know your suggestions,” said M Vasundhara Reddy who posted her appeal in the FB group ‘Indians in Houston’.
Another Indian living in Houston, Kishore Ramaraju who hails from Nalgonda, Telangana, said help was pouring in from every member of the Indian community living in Houston.
The Hyderabad restaurant in woodlands is providing free food to those affected by this storm.
Ravi Shankar who is president of Indian graduate students organization at the University of Houston said they have been trying to help as much as possible and were doing their best.
“Is there anyway that we can deliver food or provide shelter to Stratford and Felix apartments? We have close to 250 students and a lot of them are out of food,” he said. Ravi Shankar said the university does have hotels which are ready to give food but without boats it was impossible to provide any kind of relief to them. “Is there any way we can provide shelter to all of them or at least provide some food assistance to them? I tried everything in my control and now without any other option reaching out to you for help,” he asked CGI Houston.
Emergency teams — aided by a growing contingent of citizen-rescuers — used boats and waded through waist-deep water on Monday seeking people stranded by devastating, historic flooding in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, even as forecasters warned of looming rain, rising rivers and floodwaters that would swallow still more streets and neighborhoods.
Even as the storm had been blamed for several deaths, the full toll of Harvey’s destruction remained unclear in Houston and across Texas and Louisiana. Officials warned that the danger was far from over, saying that flooding in Texas is unlikely to recede quickly and that the storm will force more than 30,000 people from their homes.
“We are not out of the woods yet,” Elaine Duke, the acting Homeland Security secretary, said during a Monday morning briefing in Washington. “Harvey is still a dangerous and historic storm.”
Fears also grew beyond Texas, where the floodwater pounding this city and others was measured in feet, not inches. President Trump on Monday declared “emergency conditions” in Louisiana, where forecasts have called for as much as two feet of rainfall in some areas.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) had asked President Trump for an emergency disaster declaration, similar to one signed for Texas last week, saying that Harvey posed a “serious danger to life and property” in the state, which is just a year removed from a massive flood disaster.
The immediate focus for many remained Houston, the country’s fourth-largest city and a sprawling metropolitan area, which faced dire circumstances and National Weather Service forecasts warning of more heavy rainfall.
Two reservoirs were opened to release water to relieve the stress the downpour has caused in the region, which has seen as much rain in a few days as it averages in an entire year.
“We are seeing catastrophic flooding, and this will likely expand and it will likely persist as it’s slow to recede,” Louis W Uccellini, the NWS director, said at the Monday morning briefing.parts of Harris County, which encompasses Houston, were pelted with 30 inches of rain in the past 72 hours, the NWS reported early Monday.
Authorities had fielded scores of calls for help throughout the night from people stranded by water, although many areas had imposed curfew overnight on Sunday.