Page 2 - ARUBA TODAY

A2 UP FRONT
Tuesday 29 augusT 2017
Houston endures more of Harvey’s wrath FEMA’s chief Long a veteran of

government disaster response
By MICHAEL GRACZYK was attributed to three from 2001, and no major
DAVID PHILLIP family members the station highway has been spared
Associated Press did not identify. No bodies some overflow. By LAURIE KELLMAN
HOUSTON (AP) — Flood- have been recovered. The city’s normally bustling Associated Press
waters reached the roofli- Police Chief Art Acevedo business district was virtu- WASHINGTON (AP) — Hurricane Katrina. Deepwater
nes of single-story homes told The Associated Press ally deserted Monday, Horizon. And now, perhaps the worst disaster Texas has
Monday and people could that he had no information with emergency vehicles ever seen.
be heard pleading for about the report but said making up most of the traf- Brock Long, the man directing the Trump administra-
help from inside as Harvey that he’s “really worried fic. Most businesses were tion’s response to Hurricane Harvey, is a veteran of
poured rain on the Houston about how many bodies closed. disaster management in government and the private
area for a fourth consecu- we’re going to find.” Elsewhere, water gushed sector. But the newly confirmed FEMA administrator is
tive day after a chaotic According to the station, from two reservoirs as offi- facing a new scale of problems to solve in the historic
weekend of rising water four children and their cials sought to release pres- devastation of the nation’s fourth-largest city. And if
and rescues. grandparents were feared sure on a pair of 70-year-old the past is any indication, political storms could loom
on the horizon.
“We have not seen an event like this. You could not
draw this forecast up,” Long said Monday in Washing-
ton, amid a storm and flooding the National Weath-
er Service called “unprecedented.” Trump himself
placed the stakes on Long’s shoulders, tweeting that
his FEMA administrator since June was doing “a great
job” managing this critical test of the often troubled
administration.
“The world is watching!” Trump tweeted over the week-
end, harking back to the delicate politics of post-storm
devastation. In 2005, FEMA director Michael Brown
was pushed out amid controversy over his qualifica-
tions and the agency’s response to Hurricane Katrina.
At a news conference Monday ahead of Trump’s visit
to the Gulf Coast, the president gave Long a shout-out
for his “outstanding” work so far.
Hurricane Harvey is far from Long’s first time manag-
ing disaster response, but it’s shaping up to be one
of the nation’s most devastating storms. The National
Weather Service forecast that before Harvey moves
on, some places in and around Houston could get as
much as 50 inches (1.3 meters) of rain. That would be
the highest amount ever recorded in Texas. The result,
People evacuate a neighborhood inundated by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey on Long said Monday, was likely to be 30,000 people in
Monday, Aug. 28, 2017, in Houston, Texas. shelters temporarily and as many as 50 counties affect-
(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) ed by the flooding. A tremendous amount of rainfall is
The nation’s fourth-largest dead after the van hit high dams that protect down- headed for southwest Louisiana, too. Several deaths
city was still largely para- water Sunday when cross- town. Water was at risk of were reported.
lyzed by one of the largest ing a bridge in the Greens spilling around the sides of Flood damage from Harvey is likely to reach into the
downpours in U.S. history. Bayou area. the barriers, which have a tens of billions of dollars, and the storm is expected to
And there was no relief in The driver of the vehicle, long history of seepage. cause the region’s economy to shrink, at least in the
sight from the storm that the children’s great-uncle, The move was supposed to near term.
spun into Texas as a Cat- reportedly escaped before help shield the business dis- Trump was expected to join Long and other officials in
egory 4 hurricane, then the van sank by grabbing trict from floodwaters, but it Texas on Tuesday.
parked itself over the Gulf a tree limb. He told the could also flood thousands “He’s a planner. Brock, he leans forward,” said Joe My-
Coast. With nearly 2 more children to try to escape more homes. ers, who has served as the emergency management
feet (61 centimeters) of rain through the back door, but Meanwhile, rescuers con- chief in North Carolina and Florida. “He’s like a coach.
expected on top of the 30- they were unable to get tinued plucking people He guides them. He’s not a loud person, he doesn’t
plus inches (76 centimeters) out. The disaster unfolded from the floodwaters — at browbeat ‘em. He’s well-organized.”
in some places, authorities on an epic scale in one of least 2,000 so far, accord- Long, a 42-year-old father of two boys, has spent his
worried about whether the America’s most sprawling ing to Acevedo. At least career in emergency management, including as a re-
worst was yet to come. metropolitan centers. The 185 critical rescue requests gional hurricane program and evacuation leader for
Harvey has been blamed Houston metro area cov- were still pending on Mon- FEMA, where he worked from 2001 to 2006.
for at least three confirmed ers about 10,000 square day morning, he said. He also was Georgia’s school safety coordinator.
deaths, including a woman miles, an area slightly big- Rescuers were giving prior- And as director of Alabama’s Emergency Manage-
killed Monday in the town ger than New Jersey. It’s ity to life-and-death situa- ment Agency, Long coordinated the state’s work with
of Porter, northeast of Hous- crisscrossed by about 1,700 tions, leaving many people the federal government and other states during 14
ton, when a large oak tree miles of channels, creeks to fend for themselves. disasters. He was Alabama’s on-site commander af-
dislodged by heavy rains and bayous that drain into Chris Thorn was among the ter the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of
toppled onto her trailer the Gulf of Mexico, about many volunteers still help- Mexico.
home. A Houston television 50 miles to the southeast ing with the mass evacu- Long’s private sector experience gave him some fa-
station reported Monday from downtown. ation that began Sunday. miliarity with now-flooded Houston.
that six family members The flooding was so wide- He drove with a buddy He listed the city as an emergency management cli-
were believed to have spread that the levels of from the Dallas area with ent while he was executive vice president at Hagerty
drowned when their van city waterways have either their flat-bottom hunting Consulting, an emergency management consulting
was swept away by flood- equaled or surpassed those boat to pull strangers out of firm in Washington. In June, the Senate confirmed Long
waters. The KHOU report of Tropical Storm Allison the water.q to lead FEMA and its 16,000 employees.q