Good Samaritans of Hurricane Harvey

As Houston residents calculate the cost of the hurricane’s destruction, they are thankful for all the volunteers who reached out to save lives.

THE planning was done weeks in advance.

Once it was confirmed that I would be heading to the United States for a three-week seminar, I contacted my good friend Joe Mathew to tell him that I would be visiting him in Houston prior to starting my course in Washington, DC.

Slightly over a week before I was due to leave, Hurricane Harvey hit Houston. Hard.

But even then, both Joe and I had hopes that the force of the storm would soon dissipate. How wrong we were.

When it became clear that many parts of Houston were submerged, the Federal Government declared a state of emergency and the international airport was closed. I was forced to cancel my flights.

I had waited until the last minute – just two days before my departure. Luckily for me, all major US airlines allow for flight changes without any penalty in the event of a natural disaster.

I was soon on my way to Washington. Joe and the millions of residents of the US’ fourth largest city weren’t so lucky.

Joe sent me a photo of his car half submerged by floodwaters. The photo also showed the force of the strong winds had turned the umbrella he was holding upside down.

At the time of writing this, he and his family have only just been able to leave their home in South Houston.

They had spent more than a week cooped up because of floodwaters.

“The grocery stores have only just opened and people have been rushing to buy food. There’s also a shortage of petrol because only a few petrol stations have opened and they have limited supply,” the Banting-born Joe told me.

The businessman estimates his losses at around US$55,000 (RM230,000).

“I have two rental properties and they were badly hit, with about 1.2m of water in the houses. Both my cars were also submerged, but car insurance will cover those losses,” he said.

He counts himself among the lucky ones. Hundreds of thousands of people have been left homeless.

The death toll is now at least 63 and the ultimate cost of the storm could rise to as high as US$180bil (RM760bil).

Even in Washington, where President Donald Trump’s decision to end DACA, or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme, has drawn widespread condemnation, the front pages of the mainstream newspapers are still devoted to the destruction caused by Harvey, 12 days after the storm hit Houston.

USA Today estimates that Houston has 575,000 undocumented migrants. These people have been particularly hard hit because they were already struggling to make ends meet.

In the aftermath of Harvey, volunteer groups have sprung up to assist these immigrants and other people in the lower-income areas of the city. Joe and his neighbours joined in the effort too.

“My church, the Trinity Mar Thoma Church of Houston, organised a volunteer relief programme. All of us chipped in with what we could to help areas that had been hardest hit,” he told me.

Stories of heroism in the face of extreme adversity have filled the newspapers. The Washington Post reports of 36-year-old Keri Henry who started a Facebook page to band volunteers together from her living room. By checking social media sites, she was able to get much-needed help to areas thought of as unreachable, and in the process saved lives.

Henry was part of an unprecedented do-it-yourself relief effort that has come to define Hurricane Harvey. The Post reports that a remarkable network of boat owners with smartphones, worried neighbours with laptops and digital wizards with mapping software popped up to summon and support an army of Good Samaritans who motored, rowed and waded into dangerous waters to save families, friends and total strangers.

As Houston starts to recover and rebuild from the devastating flood, its residents, like Joe, are beginning to get back to daily routine. School for his three kids started on Wednesday and they were looking forward to getting back and seeing their friends.

Would he consider relocating the family for fear of another hurricane hitting Houston?

“No, because this is home now and this is where my business is. But the first thing I will do is buy flood insurance!” he said. (Many home owners in Houston did not think of buying flood insurance.)

Even as millions across Texas picked up the pieces after Hurricane Harvey, another monster storm is hurtling towards the United States. The category 5 Hurricane Irma is scheduled to make landfall in Florida this weekend and could be the most powerful hurricane to hit the state in 25 years.