Houston squads forced out of town by Harvey

HOUSTON — Hurricane Harvey has forced both the Astros and Texans to play home games miles away from the flood-stricken city with players wondering when they will be able to come back.

The Astros will play a three-game series against the Rangers at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., this week, starting Tuesday, and the Texans will wrap up their preseason schedule against the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium in Arlington instead of NRG Stadium.

“You have to go about your business and handle it,” Texans cornerback Johnathan Joseph said Monday as the schedule for the week became clear and the misery of Harvey continued unabated.

“But it’s kind of hard at the same time to kind of sit there and play football and then think about your family that’s back home when there’s constantly updates going on around the clock about things that are going on back in your hometown.”

Meanwhile, LSU was supposed to play BYU on Saturday at the home of the Texans, but that game has been moved to the Superdome in New Orleans.

Teams and athletes got in on the fundraising efforts for what will undoubtedly be a long rebuilding process with Texans owner Bob McNair donating $1 million to the United Way of Greater Houston Flood Relief Fund and Texans star J.J. Watt starting a fundraising page that had raised more than $620,000 by Monday afternoon. Rockets owner Leslie Alexander also donated $4 million to hurricane relief.

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