HURRICANE IRMA TARGETED ORLANDO, FL (MOSTLY BLACK POPULATION), JUST AS KATRINA TARGETED NEW ORLEANS (MOSTLY BLACK POPULATION)

HURRICANE IRMA TARGETED ORLANDO, FL (MOSTLY BLACK POPULATION:

JUST AS KATRINA TARGETED NEW ORLEANS (MOSTLY BLACK POPULATION).

THOUSANDS OF BLACK PEOPLE HAD TO EVACUATE FLORIDA.

JUST AS THOUSANDS OF BLACK PEOPLE HAD TO EVACUATE NEW ORLEANS IN 2005 DURING HURRICANE KATRINA.

MANY OF NEW ORLEANS BLACK POPULATION WERE NOT ALLOWED TO MOVE BACK AFTER HURRICANE KATRINA.


Sources: AP, Orlando Sentinel, NY Times, Washington Post


****** Hurricane Irma leaves trail of downed trees, high water, power outages in Florida


Hurricane Irma battered the Florida Keys and South Florida, swiped the Tampa area and unexpectedly targeted Orlando at the last moment late Sunday, bringing hours of rain and strong winds that left about 6.5 million homes and businesses without power and 200,000 people in shelters.

At least two people were killed during the storm in Orange County. About 900,000 homes and businesses were still without power Monday night in five Central Florida counties, and residents came outside after hours indoors to find downed trees blocking streets and damaging homes and cars.

And about 4 a.m. Monday, a lake in west Orange County’s Orlo Vista neighborhood overflowed leading to flooding. Orange County firefighters and members of the National Guard pulled more than 200 people from 500 homes and took them to local shelters.

“How are we going to survive from here?” asked Gwen Bush, a resident who walked through thigh-deep floodwaters. “What's going to happen now? I just don't know.”

No injuries were reported in the neighborhood.

In South Florida, Gov. Rick Scott said he saw boats washed ashore and flood damage when he flew over the Florida Keys Monday. He did not know whether there were casualties, but said he hoped everyone who did not evacuate survived the storm.

“The Keys right now,” Scott said, “not having water, not having sewer, not having electricity, I mean, how can you live there?”
“Marathon was completely underwater,” said state Rep. Holly Raschein, R-Key Largo. “Cudjoe Key took a direct hit; we’re still having problems communicating there. Flooding on Big Pine.

It’s pretty widespread. The good thing is a lot of people did evacuate, so we’re seeing a bad situation that could have been worse.”

Tampa and St. Petersburg were spared the damage some meteorologists feared when the storm did not hug the state’s gulf coast, and instead headed closer inland.

The National Weather Service recorded maximum wind gusts of 79 mph at Orlando International Airport, and gusts of 83 mph in Cocoa Beach.

The higher winds brought damage to Central Florida.
Edgardo Plaza, 53, looked out from the seawall where his sailboat was docked at SunDance Marine in Palm Shores, Brevard County. He could see only the mast and ropes dangling. The ocean had buried the rest of the vessel.

"I checked on it last night, and it seemed fine," he said perched atop wood and metal debris along the harbor. "I can't believe it."
The damage was only an ounce of what Brevard County saw during Hurricane Irma, which left many without electricity and nearly half of the county’s 579,000 residents without running water.

About 80 percent of Polk County was without power, including shelters. Polk County officials warned drivers of potentially dangerous downed power lines.

In nearby Lake County, firefighters in Clermont rescued a 23-year-old man who was crushed in bed when a tree fell through his roof, police Sgt. Malcolm Draper said. During a lull in the storm at 1:45 a.m., when sustained winds were higher than 50 mph and gusting to 90 mph, firefighters hurried to the home and lifted the tree from the man.

Fire Chief Carle Bishop drove the man to South Lake Hospital, where authorities quickly realized he needed surgery but no doctor was available. Police officers went to a doctor’s home and drove him to the hospital, where the man successfully underwent surgery for internal injuries. He is in stable condition, Draper said.

More than 30 people were rescued in Volusia County during Hurricane Irma on Sunday night and Monday morning.

Volusia County Manager Jim Dinneen said the west side of the county and Beach Street in Daytona Beach sustained the most damage, particularly downed trees.

“In the end, if we all work together we can all guarantee a safe return to normalcy,” he said.

The biggest hurdle will be restoring power, he said. More than 220,000 customers in Volusia County were without power as of Monday afternoon, according to Florida Emergency Management.

As the day went on and winds quieted, people across Central Florida tried to return to normal. Against advice, some left their homes — 24 people were arrested on charges of curfew violations in Orange County , including three on burglary charges. Others just got out of the house — a person in an inflatable T-Rex costume and black flip-flops found a tree blocking an Orlando road and climbed onto it as people nearby filmed with their cell phones.

Schools are still closed Tuesday. Most curfews were lifted by Monday afternoon, though Mount Dora instituted another one from Monday night to 6 a.m. Tuesday because of a power line down.

Robert and Maria Gonzalez said they looked outside their Kissimmee home overnight in the night and saw flood waters almost up to the front door. The water looked like a lake — and they joked they didn't know they'd gotten a lake house.

"We were thinking, 'Please don't come in,'" Maria Gonzalez said.

The couple and their 10-year-old son had seen images of residents stranded because of flooding in Houston after Hurricane Harvey weeks before. They feared they could end up in the same situation.

Water seeped into their garage on Town & Country Drive, but they found no damage. Water had begun to recede midday Monday, but still not enough they would risk driving their van through it, they said.

Despite curfews and hazardous debris blocking off streets, local highways across counties in Central Florida were used all day Monday. Florida Highway Patrol troopers were pulling over drivers who refused to follow road laws at intersections where traffic lights were still out.

FHP spokeswoman Sgt. Kim Montes said drivers should exercise additional caution until road conditions return to normal, which could take some time.

One fatality in the storm was a car crash: Heidi Zehner, 50, died after losing control of an SUV on State Road 417 Sunday evening as the storm approached. The other, Brian Buwalda, 51, was apparently electrocuted at Leith and Westchester avenues in Winter Park by a downed power line Monday morning.

The University of Central Florida offered to house up to 1,000 National Guard members and 250 of their vehicles on campus as recovery continues, a university spokeswoman said.

Saturday’s UCF football game against Georgia Tech was canceled Monday.

In Seminole County, the driver of a van accidentally drove head first into a sinkhole that opened in the parking lot of the Astor Park apartments off Tuskawilla Road near Red Bug Road.

The driver, who was not injured, was pulled out of the vehicle from the back window of the van by a resident Good Samaritan.
Jeff Lane was out walking his dog on Monday morning in his neighborhood near Aloma Avenue and SR 417.

Overnight, a wind gust tore his kitchen skylight open.

"I threw some blankets down and grabbed a storage crate to catch the water," he said. "It's not too bad."
He said the sound of the storm reminded him of Charley in 2004.

"We were without power for three weeks after Charley," he said. "Hopefully it won't be that long."

HURRICANE HARVEY TARGETED HOUSTON, TX (MOSTLY BLACK POPULATION) JUST AS KATRINA TARGETED NEW ORLEANS (MOSTLY BLACK POPULATION)

HURRICANE HARVEY TARGETED HOUSTON, TX (MOSTLY BLACK POPULATION:

JUST AS KATRINA TARGETED NEW ORLEANS (MOSTLY BLACK POPULATION)

THOUSANDS OF BLACK PEOPLE HAD TO EVACUATE TEXAS.

JUST AS THOUSANDS OF BLACK PEOPLE HAD TO EVACUATE NEW ORLEANS IN 2005 DURING HURRICANE KATRINA.

MANY OF NEW ORLEANS BLACK POPULATION WERE NOT ALLOWED TO MOVE BACK AFTER HURRICANE KATRINA.


Sources: AP, Black America Web, NY Times, Washington Post


******* Tropical Storm Harvey Leaves Houston Underwater


Tropical Storm Harvey sent devastating floods pouring into the nation’s fourth-largest city Sunday as rising water chased thousands of people to rooftops or higher ground and overwhelmed rescuers who could not keep up with the constant calls for help.

The incessant rain covered much of Houston in turbid, gray-green water and turned streets into rivers navigable only by boat. In a rescue effort that recalled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, helicopters landed near flooded freeways, airboats buzzed across submerged neighborhoods and high-wheeled vehicles plowed through water-logged intersections. Some people managed with kayaks or canoes or swam.

Volunteers joined emergency teams to pull people from their homes or from the water, which was high enough in places to gush into second floors.

The flooding was so widespread that authorities had trouble pinpointing the worst areas. They urged people to get on top of their homes to avoid becoming trapped in attics and to wave sheets or towels to draw attention to their location.

Judging from federal disaster declarations, the storm has so far affected about a quarter of the Texas population, or 6.8 million people in 18 counties. It was blamed for at least two deaths.

As the water rose, the National Weather Service offered another ominous forecast: Before the storm that arrived Friday as a Category 4 hurricane is gone, some parts of Houston and its suburbs could get as much as 50 inches (1.3 meters) of rain.

That would be the highest amount ever recorded in Texas.
Some areas have already received about half that amount. Since Thursday, South Houston recorded nearly 25 inches (63 centimeters), and the suburbs of Santa Fe and Dayton got 27 inches (69 centimeters).

“The breadth and intensity of this rainfall is beyond anything experienced before,” the National Weather Service said in a statement.

Average rainfall totals will end up around 40 inches (1 meter) for Houston, weather service meteorologist Patrick Burke said.

The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brock Long, predicted that the aftermath of the storm would require FEMA’s involvement for years.

“This disaster’s going to be a landmark event,” Long said.
Rescuers had to give top priority to life-and-death situations, leaving many affected families to fend for themselves.

Tom Bartlett and Steven Craig pulled a rowboat on a rope through chest-deep water for a mile to rescue Bartlett’s mother from her home in west Houston. It took them 45 minutes to reach the house. Inside, the water was halfway up the walls.

Marie Bartlett, 88, waited in her bedroom upstairs.

“When I was younger, I used to wish I had a daughter, but I have the best son in the world,” she said. “In my 40 years here, I’ve never seen the water this high.”

The city’s main convention center was quickly opened as a shelter.

Gillis Leho arrived there soaking wet. She said she awoke Sunday to find her downstairs flooded. She tried to move some belongings upstairs, then grabbed her grandchildren.

“When they told us the current was getting high, we had to bust a window to get out,” Leho said.

William Cain sought shelter after water started coming inside his family’s apartment and they lost power. “I live in a lake where there was once dry land,” he said.

Some people used inflatable beach toys, rubber rafts and even air mattresses to get through the water to safety. Others waded while carrying trash bags stuffed with their belongings and small animals in picnic coolers.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said authorities had received more than 2,000 calls for help, with more coming in. He urged drivers to stay off roads to avoid adding to the number of those stranded.

“I don’t need to tell anyone this is a very, very serious and unprecedented storm,” Turner told a news conference. “We have several hundred structural flooding reports. We expect that number to rise pretty dramatically.”

The deteriorating situation was bound to provoke questions about the conflicting advice given by the governor and Houston leaders before the hurricane. Gov. Greg Abbott urged people to flee from Harvey’s path, but the Houston mayor issued no evacuation orders and told everyone to stay home.

The governor refused to point fingers on Sunday.

“Now is not the time to second-guess the decisions that were made,” Abbott, a Republican, said at a news conference in Austin. “What’s important is that everybody work together to ensure that we are going to, first, save lives and, second, help people across the state rebuild.”

The mayor, a Democrat, defended his decision, saying there was no way to know which parts of the city were most vulnerable.

“If you think the situation right now is bad, and you give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare,” Turner said, citing the risks of sending the city’s 2.3 million inhabitants onto the highways at the same time.

Jesse Gonzalez, and his son, also named Jesse, used their boat to rescue people from a southeast Houston neighborhood.

Asked what he had seen, the younger Gonzalez replied: “A lot of people walking and a lot of dogs swimming.”

“It’s chest- to shoulder-deep out there in certain areas,” he told television station KTRK as the pair grabbed a gasoline can to refill their boat.

The Coast Guard deployed five helicopters and asked for additional aircraft from New Orleans.

The White House announced that President Donald Trump would visit Texas on Tuesday.

He met Sunday by teleconference with top administration officials to discuss federal support for response and recovery efforts.

The rescues unfolded a day after Harvey settled over the Texas coastline. The system weakened Saturday to a tropical storm.

On Sunday, it was virtually stationary about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Victoria, Texas, with maximum sustained winds of about 40 mph (72.42 kph), the hurricane center said.
Harvey was the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in 13 years and the strongest to strike Texas since 1961’s Hurricane Carla, the most powerful Texas hurricane on record.

HURRICANE HARVEY'S REAL DEATH TOLL NOT REVEALED JUST AS KATRINA'S NEVER WAS (DEPOPULATION)

HURRICANE HARVEY'S REAL DEATH TOLL NOT REVEALED JUST AS KATRINA'S NEVER WAS (DEPOPULATION):

FED GOVT WON'T ADMIT KATRINA'S DEATH MUCH HIGHER THEN 1800 AND HARVEY'S MUCH HIGHER THAN 50.

MANY OF KATRINA'S DEAD REMAIN ENTOMBED FOREVER IN HIDDEN GRAVES; SAME WILL OCCUR WITH HARVEY'S DEAD.

MOST OF THE DEAD WILL BE POOR AND BLACK.

FEEL-GOOD STORIES ABOUT RESPONSE RECOVERY TIMES FREQUENTLY USED TO HIDE REAL DEATH TOLLS.


Sources: TIME, MSN, NBC News, YouTube


***** Hurricane Harvey's Death Toll Rises to 30 as Floodwaters Recede


Now that the sun is finally shining and the murky, brown floodwaters are slowly receding in much of the Houston area, grim reality is setting in.

Harvey is about to release its dead.

In Texas, the official death toll surpassed 30 on Wednesday and was expected to climb as authorities investigated several other deaths to determine whether they were storm-related.

Officials fear that the number of fatalities will climb sharply in coming days as neighbors, emergency workers and family members search for the missing — and discover the bodies of people trapped in waterlogged homes or encased in underwater graves inside cars.

And the death toll might rise even further in the recovery phase, from car crashes, carbon monoxide poisoning or other accidents during cleanup.

"Historically all estimates of deaths are wrong in the beginning," said Craig Fugate, who was the Federal Emergency Management Agency director from 2009 until earlier this year.

Already, the nation is shocked by the horrors revealed as the storm moves out of the area and east toward Louisiana and points north.

The first confirmed fatality came early: A man in the Gulf coastal city of Rockport was killed in a fire late Friday as the storm raged ashore.

On Wednesday, officials located a submerged van that seven members of a Houston family had been traveling in when it was swept off a bridge and into a storm-ravaged bayou.

Samuel Saldivar told police he was trying to bring his elderly parents and his brother's four grandchildren to safety from their flooded home on Sunday when the van he was driving was tossed by a strong current into the bayou as it crossed the bridge.

He escaped through a window but the six others were trapped when the van's partially submerged sliding door wouldn't open.

Also Wednesday, authorities said 65-year-old Donald Rogers and his 58-year-old wife, Rochelle, drowned when they were swept away by a current after driving their pickup truck into floodwaters in a rural area southwest of Houston.

Fort Bend County Sheriff's Maj. Chad Norvell said the couple was on the phone with 911 asking for help when the line went silent. When officers found the truck, it was completely submerged.

Sunlight Returns to Houston, Revealing the Grim Reality of Harvey's Aftermath

On Tuesday afternoon, a 3-year-old girl was found alive in a rain-swollen canal, clinging to the body of her drowned mother in Beaumont, Texas.

A second woman was confirmed dead in Beaumont on Wednesday.
Earlier Tuesday, the body of 61-year-old Houston Police Sgt. Steve Perez was found in his car. He'd been swept down a flooded road as he drove to his precinct, determined to serve his community.

Eleven other confirmed deaths, some of which were listed on a Harris County database, showed people were found floating in waters — some in homes or businesses, others near cars.

Among those victims was Ruben Jordan, a high school football and track coach, who was last seen late Saturday helping people through floodwaters.

His family was informed on Monday that he had died in the floods.

"The sad thing is, of the deaths we've seen, we're going to see more, unfortunately," said Jeff Schlegelmilch, the deputy director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University. "That number doesn't stop moving up until we're well into the recovery phase."

No official number of the missing has been released, and a spokesman for the Harris County Sheriff's Office, where Houston is located, said there isn't a specific strategy in place to look for additional bodies.

"We are going to go out and try to find any potential victims that may be there," said the spokesman, Jake Smith. "We are also encouraging the public if they come across anything, we strongly urge them to call 911 if they find a body or a potential victim."

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said the department had received 47 missing persons reports since Harvey inundated the city and 27 of those individuals have been located.

Photos with pleas for help have been posted on social media, cut-and-pasted and retweeted by thousands of people as desperate family members seek loved ones they fear may be dead — but who may only have a cellphone without power.

The uncertainty is terrifying.
One of the worries, said Schlegelmilch, is that many of the severely flooded neighborhoods weren't in evacuation areas.

Additionally, the people most likely to be found dead are the elderly, the infirm and the people who were isolated from others — along with folks who didn't have the means or wherewithal to flee.

Sometimes it's a matter of having the strength to wade through floodwaters a few blocks to safety, or to pull one's self up onto a roof.

"Those who are the most vulnerable when the sky is blue, they are also the most vulnerable when the sky is gray," Schleglemilch said.

Fugate, the former FEMA head, said it's also common for people to die during the recovery phase, when stress levels are high and people aren't making clear-headed decisions.

"Stay safe, stay home, stay off the roads if you can. Don't go sightseeing," he warned.
Still, experts say there is some good news:

They don't expect the death toll from Harvey to come anywhere close to that of Katrina, when 1,800 people died.

Many of those flood-related fatalities came when a levee broke and water inundated New Orleans.

People were stranded in extreme heat and the federal response was slow.

Emergency managers learned painful lessons during Katrina, and have put those lessons to use in this storm.

Residents of New Orleans during Katrina saw top-to-bottom failures at every level, experts said.

During Harvey, "state and local officials and FEMA were mobilizing, water rescue teams were prepared, in anticipation of this," said Fugate, adding that safe shelters were almost immediately in place for Texas residents, unlike New Orleans. "That provided faster rescues."

One other thing seems to have helped Houston in its time of need: the residents themselves.

"Neighbors helping neighbors," Fugate said. "That will keep the death toll down."

HOUSTON 2017 & HURRICANE HARVEY IN PICTURES (ANOTHER KATRINA & 9TH WARD??) PLEASE PRAY

HURRICANE HARVEY & HOUSTON 2017 IN PICTURES:

PRAY FOR ALL THE PEOPLE OF HOUSTON, INCLUDING BLACK RESIDENTS NOT JUST WHITE AND LATINO RESIDENTS.

I'VE BEEN SILENT BUT I CAN STILL SEE.

NOW I WILL OBSERVE WHICH HOUSTON CITIZENS WILL BE DIRECTED TO FEMA CAMPS.

WILL HOUSTON BECOME ANOTHER NINTH WARD AFTER KATRINA FOR THE BLACK CITIZENS??

PLEASE PRAY.

STAY TUNED.


Sources: Newsone, CNN, Youtube


***** Houston’s Poor Black Community Among Hurricane Harvey’s Most Vulnerable Victims



People in poor communities lack the resources to escape the worst of the flooding.

As the remnants of Hurricane Harvey continues its march, the lives that are most devastated are those confined to poor communities of color—as we’ve seen with previous mega storms like Hurricane Katrina.

The New York Times reports that the hurricane, now a tropic storm, drenched parts of Texas throughout Sunday. At least five people died and more than a dozen have been reported injured, since Harvey struck Texas’s Gulf Coast, dropping up to 25 inches of rain since Friday. Several areas have seen a downpour of as much as 50 inches.

In Houston, as with many other cities, poor communities of color are the most vulnerable during these destructive storms. They tend to live in segregated, flood risk neighborhoods that are near petrochemical plants, according to The Atlantic.

People in these communities lack the resources to evacuate, and the authorities—despite South Texas’ vulnerability to major storms—have failed to create an evacuation plan.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner defended his decision not to order an evacuation for some neighborhoods, KPRC-TV reported.

He told residents that their homes are “the best place” to stay during the storm, the NBC News affiliate reported.

Those who were unable to escape Harvey are “overwhelming” emergency centers with phone calls and tweets for help, The Atlantic stated. Homeless people sought shelter under highways and other low-lying areas to prepare for Harvey. Many of those makeshift shelters are now under water.

KPRC-TV reported that Houston’s 911 center has received more than 56,000 calls since Saturday evening. Police and firefighters have fielded more than 6,000 rescue calls, and more than 1,000 people have been pulled out of flooded homes and streets.

According to the current affairs publication, Texas has failed to fund a plan to control flooding, even though most climate scientists predict an increase in superstorms because of climate change. The most vulnerable are feeling the consequences.

Meanwhile, Harvey is not finished. The storm is expected to create tornadoes and floods in its path, which remains inhabited by poor people of color.