Sept 17, 2017

It’s Sunday evening in Houston, and I’m more than a bit nervous about tomorrow. I start with Houston JFS at 9 a.m.

I arrived in Houston yesterday afternoon and settled in with my high school friend Tina, who lives only 15 minutes from JFS – and you don’t have to drive ANY freeways to get there! Even better, you only have to make ONE (count them) turn. (And yes, Peggy, I will still likely use my GPS…. Oh well.)

Tina has been wonderful! We drove to JFS today to scout the route, and then we toured the local community – which she hadn’t driven through yet. I’ve attached a photo from a single house demoltion. This is representative of the debris – from EVERY house on an impacted street. Multiply this by entire neighborhoods, as you turn the corner and look down the length of the street. Seeing this while the sun is shining and the bayous are back within their banks is indescribably eerie. Some of Houston is totally untouched, up and running, and so much of it will not recover for many many months. According to Tina, in the past, one of a home’s selling points was that it “did not flood during Hurricane Alicia”. Clearly – Harvey resets that benchmark.

A local mega-church whose Pastor, Joel Osteen, was nationally catisgated for being unwelcoming to hurricane refugees, (first refusing to shelter them, and then passing a collection plate?!), seems to be working on its public image. They are providing their space to Congregation Beth Yeshurun, (huge conservative congregation here), for the High Holidays. Bummer – had I known, I would have definitely stayed in Houston for the holidays (instead of going to my brother’s in Austin). Do you know how LONG my childhood friends in Tennessee tried to get me in a church? I could have been church-going and holiday-attending simultaneously. Besides I have it on very good authority that churches offer UNLIMITED parking!