Black, white, rich, poor: Storm Harvey didn’t discriminate

HARVEY DID not discriminate in its destruction. It raged through neighbourhoods rich and poor, black and white, upscale and working-class. Across Houston and surrounding communities, no group sidestepped its paralyzing deluges and apocalyptic floods. “Harvey didn’t spare anyone: The whole city is traumatised,” said Lynnette Borrel, whose backyard pool filled with murky water and schools of minnows from Brays Bayou on the city’s southwest side, not far from downtown.

Far to the northeast edge of the sprawling city, a flotilla of boats rescued affluent residents of the pine forest villages of charming Kingwood — psychologists, doctors, business owners. And on the far west side, the release of storm water from the Addicks and Barker reservoirs pushed a devastating tide into some of Houston’s more wealthy neighbourhoods. Clear across town to the southeast, low-slung brick and clapboard homes in the heavily African-American and Hispanic Lockwood area were swamped. Missouri City, home to Houston’s largest Asian population, endured more than 40 inches of rain.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, fearing that a fullfledged evacuation of the nation’s fourth-largest city in the face of the oncoming storm would be dangerous, advised residents to remain in place. So when Harvey submerged roughly 70 per cent of the land mass in Harris County, all demographics were inundated.