Never ask "What Else Can Happen?" It Could be a Hurricane.
It has literally been weeks since I have been able to work on my website daily. One situation after another has occurred. One after the other after the other.
From finalizing a divorce, to finding out my health insurance had been wrongfully terminated, to meeting with occupational therapists and speech therapists concerning evaluations and treatment for my son for the new school year, arguing with insurance claims adjusters and filing appeals to make sure my son gets the treatment he is entitled to, to finding out that my son has been exposed to my ex's new girlfriend in a manner not appropriate (and caring for him in an adverse emotional state with no idea what was causing it). Not one of these situations extingushed themselves in a matter of days - it has been weeks. It was all business as usual in the grand scheme of life and just had be taken care of.
In the midst of seeing light at the end of the tunnel I asked out loud, "What else can happen?"
Then, last Monday, I heard there was a "disturbance" in the Gulf of Mexico near the Yucatan peninsula. WIthin 24 hours it had upgraded to a tropical storm and was forecasted to reach the Texas coast. Within a matter of hours on Thursday it went from a tropical storm to a CAT 1 hurricane, and was definitely going to impact Corpus Christi, Texas.
By Friday afternoon the storm had developed into a CAT 3 hurricane, it was named Harvey, and just before bearing down on Corpus Christi, Texas the 125 MPH windspeed classified it as a CAT 4 hurricane and the first CAT 4 to hit the United States in over 18 years.
I live 250 miles east of Corpus Christi. I was born on the Texas gulf coast and I have been through many storms in my life. I knew we were going to experience adverse weather from the "backside" of this storm but absolutely no one could have predicted that Harvey would stall only 60 miles inland and just sit still unraveling his fury. After three days of one inch of water per hour, the now tropical storm has been pushed back into the Gulf of Mexico where it is rebuilding strength, with an anticipated landfall only 40 miles east of where I we have spent a week praying for everyone's safety,
Houston, Texas consists of 6.5 million people in about a 50 mile radius. Within 24 hours on Friday and Saturday nights, we received 26" of rain. Right now (Monday evening) we have had in excess of 38" of rain and the hard rain and wind continues to beat down on
southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana. The authorities advise that it will continue like this through the night.
We have been told to expect a total of 50" of rain or more from start to finish. We still have two more days to go.
It is estimated that 3 million people have been displaced. I don't have the emotional strength to write about what is happening and what we have seen. It is on a catastrophic level and so severely heartbreaking - right before our very eyes.
This is real. Everyone is running out of energy. Please pray that we don't become weak in the coming days before this ends. We can't stop yet.
My thoughts and prayers are with you all. Let's hope this is the last of the deluge!