As many of you know, I was born in Houston and attended public schools there from K-12. I have a large family, and many still live there. I have been in touch with my family members and all of them are safe. Here is a list of organizations coordinating donations to help victims of Hurricane Harvey.
I just received this email from my nephew Nicholas Silvers with an up-to-the-minute report:
All,
I will try to keep this brief:
First of all I am sorry for the mass email but I bcc’d so that emails are hidden. Second, we are all fine. The outpouring of support, calls, texts, emails to me from around the globe has been amazing and is not unnoticed so thank you again.
While we are fine, the City of Houston is far from it. We have hit the 1000 year flood plain and 1,000,000+ people are going to be without their homes. Any and all help is needed. The two simplest ways are through the Red Cross (https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation) both individually or as a corporate, or if you are in the US and want to send care packages (clothes, blankets, pillows, toys/books for children), you can fed ex ground them to me (just email me back and I will send my home address) and I will get everything delivered to the shelters.
Again, thank you all for checking in. Lastly, please feel free to pass this email or my email address on to anyone you think would want to help.
Best,
Nicholas A. Silvers
713-828-2533
Sent from my iPhone
Nikko19@aol.com
Diane Ravitch's blog 
3 million victims of Climate Change just in Texas alone.
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I’m wishing your family and your hometown all the best. It’s times like this that we need to set our political differences aside.
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I am grateful that my daughter and her family are safe in Freeport, which is on the Gulf Coast near Houston. Luckily her town has a good levee system, even though the Brazos River goes through the town. Houston should invest more in more 21st century levees as the city is very flat, and all they have as protection are drainage ditches. Houston is also known as the Bayou City, and this flooding has happened before but, never on this scale. My heart goes out to the displaced people that have lost their homes and cars. it is important to donate to help them cope with this mess.
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Glad to hear that your family members are safe, Diane. Terrible, all this.
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Grateful some are safe in Houston!
Beware giving to the Red Cross though. Reference the Red Cross debacle in Haiti.
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Houston continues to be very dangerous. Last night a chemical plant exploded. The city opened up two dams to prevent their destruction. My brother-in-law, who previously told me he was safe, had to be evacuated when the flood waters came roaring in. Some of the freeways are now rivers. Pray for Houston. Pray that Republican officials realize that the nation needs disaster relief for these events. Pray that they think again about the consequences of climate change.
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