Good morning from a drenched Texas!

Peter Tarlow is known as the man who is talking about crisis, terrorism and tourism.

Tarlow also resides in Southern Texas and his town Collfe Station was spared the worst.

The remnants of now-Tropical Storm Harvey have all but parked over south Texas and the storm is inundating the region around Houston with “unprecedented” rain, according to the National Weather Service.

Houstonians have been stranded in their homes, and some of those who were on the roads were in need of rescue as areas of Houston received as much as two feet of rain with no immediate end in sight.

While areas around Houston, Texas have a real disaster on hand today, floodings, rescues and more rain, Mr. Tarlow writes this report from College Station, Texas.

It is now day two of the ‘ arvey  weather’ experience, although it feels as if we have had a month of rain.  The hurricane for the moment is now a tropical storm.  There is fear that it may once again go into the Gulf of Mexico and then return as a new hurricane, but we cannot live with fears and we shall have to deal with that issue if it occurs.  The rains now come in waves, and in many Texas city those waves seem to be ever-present.  For those of you familiar with the work of Gabriel García Márquez, the consistent rain he describes in El Amor en Los Tiempos de Cólera (Love in the Time of Anger or Cholera) is a perfect description. The only other image that the rain conjures up in me this is what I imagine it must have felt like to be a citizen of the earth during the time of Noah.

So, first of all, we are fine.  The electricity flickered for a bit, but stayed on. Texans have proven once again that they are world leaders in self-sufficiency, in taking care of their neighbors, and dealing with weather crisis. No one does emergency management better than Texas and once again the state lived up to its reputation for being swift, professional and efficient. Even over the weekend, people needing emergency services are being handled at extraordinary rapid rates. Over the weekend people in Barcelona marched against terrorism under the motto:  “No tinç por” (I am not afraid).  The same motto applies here, although Texans are fighting the weather rather than terrorists, the motto: “I am not afraid” is very appropriate.

There is a real sense of unity across this very large state.  From the reports that we have so far, there is minimal or no looting and as of Sunday morning there is only one fatality.  Of course these numbers may change, but that is where we are right now.  There was one dog that was photographed walking down a flooded street with a bag of dog food in his or her mouth!  The winds have died down, at least for now, but the waves of never-ending torrential rain is a problem.

Galveston still shows psychological signs of trauma from the September 1900 hurricane, the worst in US history.  It was because of that flood that the port was moved inland to Houston and in reality Galveston never economically or psychologically fully recovered.  Hurricanes produce a great deal of fear and anxiety there and at Texas A&M we moved our oceanography students inland to College Station.  Both Houston and Galveston are low-lying coastal cities. Streets tend to flood and it is expected to rain in the Houston/Galveston area until Wednesday or Thursday.  Some forecasts predict up to 40’’ (101.6 centimeters) of rainfall.  In a city already soaked and with its bayous filled to the brim, there simply is no place for the water to go.  Yet there too the spirit of resilience and refusal to give into fear is strong.  Here in College Station, the rain is unending, but the city is well-prepared, there is no panic, and so far the electrical grid has held steady.  We were fully prepared and with the possible exception of having a bit of trouble finding a bottle of milk (and there is plenty of powered milk) no one seems to be lacking anything.

A major problem is that there is so much water in the system that the city sewers are overloaded. Until it stops raining there is nothing to be done, but wipe up messes.  When I compare our situation to that of the south coastal cities of Texas, however, we have in College Station about which nothing to complain.  Cities along the coast were decimated; most people lost their homes.  The one good piece of news is that it appears that most people obeyed the mandatory evacuation and due to great work by local, state and national officials loss of life was kept to a minimal.  Shelters were opened prior to the flooding, money to rebuild is already in the pipeline, and neighbors are helping neighbors.  In reality, both the Abbott (Texas governor) and the Trump administration should be congratulated on the excellent job that they are doing. They cannot stop the rain and unfortunately this storm is caught between two high pressure centers so it is stalled over the Texas coast, but there is a sense of good humor and sacrifice that seems to be prevailing. Perhaps the storm will succeed in causing the political fervor, which seems to touch everything, to end and instead bring people together in a common cause.  At least on this one issue, most Texans are extremely proud of the great job that their governor and president are doing and both leaders should be congratulated.  The policy has been save lives first.  We can recover or compensate for lost money but never for lost lives.  So once again, as they say in Barcelona:  the motto here too is: “No tinç por”  (No tengo miedo / I am not afraid)

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Tomorrow, assuming that I can get to the medical school, I will meet my new students and despite all of the problems at hand, life will continue.  Once again, thank you to everyone who called wrote or sent a carrier pigeon expressing concerns and offering help.