Tragic Times Restores Faith in Humanity!

By Vanshika Vipin Varma

HOUSTON: The devastating hurricane Harvey deluged the Texas area with days of torrential rain during the last week of August 2017. The resulting floods inundated thousands of homes, and displaced many. Throughout Texas more than 300,000 people were left without electricity and billions of dollars of property damage was reported.  The state and local governments immediately jumped into action and were doing their best by carrying out rescue operations and providing aid. Amid the devastation, the people of Texas came together to help each other. Various Indian-Americans and different Indian organizations played a key role in rescue, relief and reconstruction work, as Houston crawls back to normalcy after the terrible destruction.

Few of the organizations are Sewa International, Hindus of Greater Houston, India Culture Center, the Indo American Charity Foundation, Indo American Political Action Committee, VT Seva (Ashtalakshmi Temple), ISKCON Houston, Sanatan Shiv Shakti Mandir, Sage Productions, Telugu Radio Hungama, Masala Radio, Ashirwad A Blessing, Graduate Indian Students Organization, Andhra Pradesh Non Resident Telugu, iEducate, NATA Houston Chapter, TANA, Telugu cultural association, ITServ, IACCGH, Sikh National Centre Gurdwara, BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir, Dawoodi Bohra community, Arya Samaj Houston and India House. The Consul General of India set up communication lines for people seeking details about the Indian Community in Houston, and Indian American business owners and companies in the region carried out a consolidated fund-raising initiative, to contribute to the Mayor’s Fund and the Governor’s Rebuild Texas Fund.

Several Indian businesses and places of worship opened their doors to shelter for people who were displaced. Various Indian restaurants and families have been providing packets of fresh Indian meals. Some of the restaurants quickly rushed into their heart-felt acts of generosity by arranging for hot meals. Some of these philanthropic restaurants that were pro-active in supporting were, BNG – Biryani and Grill, Biryani Pot, Biryani Factory, Bawarchi, Hyderabad House, ISKCON’s Govinda’s, Vishala, Mayuri, Universal Bakery, Amaravati, Cafe India-Sugar Land, Nirmanz Food Boutique, Tandoori Night Dhaba, Madras Pavilion and many more. Close to 20,000 hot meals were provided by the Indian Community.

Thinking of those days, I still get goose bumps remembering the boom of thunder, crackle of lightning, continuous tornado watches, and the non-stop rains. Messages from people who wanted to be rescued started pouring in almost on all communication channels, mainly the WhatsApp groups, Facebook, Twitter and many more. The instant reaction of most of the people who were in ‘safe zones’ was to rescue others. And it really did not matter if those people were complete strangers. Various Indian community members reached out to volunteers for support and almost every organization that I know of, and every individual that I have met in the last couple of weeks, has heart-wrenching stories to share. These are stories that recount their experiences; how they safeguarded themselves and their families and how they helped stranded people find shelter and food. Several of these volunteers and individuals were actively monitoring social media to see if anyone needed help. One such WhatsApp group, Houston Desi Friends that has over 5000 members across 24 WhatsApp groups, shared all the necessary information round the clock. Houston Harvey, a WhatsApp group was created instantly, and people started joining it to help in whatever way they could. From the 171 members that the group has, few of the active members are Kishore Ramaraju, Umang & Daxina Mehta, Amir Dodhiya, Abiya Malhotra, DJ Sage, Raman Jain, Dinesh Purohit, Sridhar Dadi, Achalesh Amar, Madukar Adi, Shankar Tangirala, Gaurav Tripathi, Velma, Geetha Ravula, Raj Anandeshi, Bangar Alloori, Nisha Mirani, Yogina Patel, Ratna Prasad Gummadi, Rahul Vijaywargiya, Ajit Patel, Charlie Patel and Rajiv Bhavsar. This group initiated around 300 rescues, by boats and trucks, for families that were stranded in Katy, Sugar Land and Cypress.

Sharing her experience Abiya Malhotra said, “It was an awe inspiring episode that in times of this devastation, each one of us stood united and worked together, without caring about caste, color or religion. Those of us having the resources and intent combined our forces to work diligently towards coordinating and hosting as many rescues as we could. None of these people did their acts of humanity for gaining any fame or to promote their organizations. The team of Sage Productions housed students at their homes and we still continue to assist them with finding new apartments and re-starting their lives all over again”. Mona Faulkner, who recently moved to Austin, helped people who arrived in shelters. She, along with her friend Ekta Popat from Sugar Land, sought guidance from friends to help victims across shelters and food banks. While they reached out to different stores to collect items like snacks, water, personal needs, toiletries, her children, Sehva Kaur Faulkner, Kavan, Eesha and Milan were busy making welcome packages with nice encouraging notes, and handing them out to the shelters.

While the Faulkner family got busy with their noble deeds, Nirmanz Food Boutique started preparations for a couple of hundred meal boxes, which were later delivered around the city. Manushi Shah from Nirmanz said, “We posted about the availability of food on the WhatsApp group, and people came in to collect these food boxes. Later that evening, we got a call from another lady who enquired about the food boxes, and by then all the boxes were already given out. But we gladly prepared 40 more boxes for the lady”. Masala Radio was flooded with random calls from people asking for help. Some stranded people were in need of SUVs and trucks to be able to rescue people. On the other hand some good Samaritans were also reaching out to the radio station, directly to the CEO, Sunil Thakkar, to offer help. Sunil was also coordinating rescue and volunteer information with the help of the WhatsApp group. Sunil said, “It was one crazy day, that I will never forget. One of our volunteers, Akil Kurji got stuck trying to rescue Sameer Khan’s family. So I took my kids, Simran & Sahil, to help me push his car out of the mud and water. When we went to the subdivision, there was a lot of water and we could not even drive our Hummer in that depth. We parked our vehicle outside the neighborhood and walked in and helped them pack before getting them all out and dropped to a safe location. He named a few of the people who randomly helped him as Sukhi Koli, Anel Meghani, Akil Kurji, Yogesh Patil, Dilip Kanabar, Harshin Kanabar, Dharmik, Vinod, Piyush Patel and few others.

Ashirwad A Blessing team too attended to the immediate needs of the affected people along with various organizations and with the help of the WhatsApp group at different levels. Geetha Ravula said, “Ashirwad volunteers coordinated for the availability of rescue boats, and about 1400 homemade meals which were delivered door to door in the Katy Kelliwood subdivision and various shelters in Katy, Missouri City, Houston, Pasadena. Ashirwad A Blessing is still continuing our relief efforts in Katy area. Our volunteers are helping to clean up houses, distribute hot meals, provide household supplies and even just be around for families to share their support. Some of the active members are Vidya Satish, Manisha Halapeti, Prasad Kella, Sri Ravula, Ashutosh Sapru, Vikas Ahuja, Sailesh kaparaju, Sachin Joshi, Sumathi, Jyothi Rao, Bhakti Bhavre, Deepika Maharaj, Mahima Bhat”.

Sanatan Shiv Shakti Mandir opened its doors for restaurants and volunteers to drop and pick supplies. Hardik Raval and the entire managing committee of Shiv Shakti Temple used the temple and its parking lot diligently as a distribution center, and this made it very easy for all volunteers to deliver the necessities to shelters all over. Dinesh Purohit of Cafe India provided countless meals, Amir Dodhiya and Umang Mehta of Deep foods along with others from the WhatsApp group played key roles at the temple. One of the heroic stories that has been doing the rounds is that of a brave lady, Velma, who drove her 18 wheeler, in 3 feet of water to transport food and supplies from the temple to the Beaumont victims.

The aftermath of Harvey was such that many people had their homes completely flooded and they were forced to move in with their friends on the higher floors. It is just not easy to see your house being ripped apart, and with a heavy heart most of the people had to get rid of everything that was wet. And, nearly two weeks after Hurricane Harvey’s storm surge, lots of garbage, sheet-rock clusters, furniture still cover sidewalks as volunteers work to clear the mess caused. Katy Wellness Center and Family Physicians arranged lunch for all residents at the Canyon Gate community in Cinco Ranch, by coordinating efforts with the food truck Halal 5. Volunteers from the Isha Foundation also joined them in providing food to the residents over the weekend. Few Indian women, served 600 home cooked meals to the residents in Katy. Even today, similar efforts keep pouring in on a daily basis.

Despite the tragic incident, which has left several spirits dampened, these heart-warming instances restore our hope in the human spirit. Heroes or Philanthropists? How do we address the rescue workers and volunteers who jumped into action amidst the catastrophe of the storm? What really matters is that their selfless act has restored faith in humanity. Indo-American News would like to thank all the local organizations, volunteers and business that came together to help the victims of Harvey. We strongly feel that this tragic and iconic chapter in the history of the United States has brought our community closer than ever and proven that we are resilient.