‘City
of
Roses’
Volume XLVI • Number 35
Justice Reform
Push
Community
Pride
ACLU campaigns
to redefine
role of DAs
Memorial tells
story of Dr.
Unthank
See Local News, page 3
See Metro, page 9
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • August 30, 2017
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Thousands jam the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston seeking shelter from the massive flooding and destruction in southeast Texas from
Hurricane Harvey which became the heaviest tropical downpour in U.S. history Tuesday.
Epic Scale Disaster
Thousands seek
shelter as water
keeps rising
(AP) — As the human toll and the
strain on flood defenses mounted, the
city of Houston moved Tuesday to
open two and possibly three more me-
ga-shelters, and the rain from Harvey
officially became the heaviest tropical
downpour in U.S. history.
Louisiana’s governor offered to take
in Harvey victims from Texas, and
televangelist Joel Osteen opened his
Houston megachurch, a 16,000-seat
former arena, after critics blasted him
on social media for not acting to help
families displaced by the storm.
The city’s largest shelter, the George
R. Brown Convention Center, held
more than 9,000 people, almost twice
the number officials originally planned
to house there, Mayor Sylvester Turner
said.
In all, more than 17,000 people have
sought refuge in Texas shelters and that
number seemed certain to increase, the
American Red Cross said.
After the mayor’s announcement,
volunteers and donors lined up outside
the Toyota Center, the downtown arena
that is home to the Houston Rockets,
in anticipation that it will be one of the
new shelters.
The mayor said the city has asked
the Federal Emergency Management
Agency for more supplies, including
cots and food, for additional 10,000
people, which he hopes to get no later
than Wednesday.
Almost four days after the storm rav-
aged the Texas coastline as a Category
4 hurricane, authorities had confirmed
only four deaths — including a woman
killed Monday when heavy rains dis-
lodged a large oak tree onto her trailer
C ontinued on P age 4