John Bogna
Harvey has dumped unprecedented amounts of rain on Houston since making landfall as a category four hurricane Friday night, leaving the city’s low-lying freeways many homeless people call “home” caught between the storm and a hard place.
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Before the storm hit, some of the homeless population told the Houston Chronicle they planned to ride out the storm in the open.
“My mom always said not to worry about what you can’t control,” Austin Lee Stevens told a reporter. “I’m leaving it up to God. So why should I be worrying?”
First responders and nonprofits like Red Cross have been out trying to persuade people to take shelter in the accommodations made available to them, but not everyone did. According to the New York Times, five people were reported dead Sunday morning.
Even on Saturday, after the storm had rocked the city, some still declined to go to a public shelter. One homeless man told the Times he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to get back to his place, or would lose what little he had.
He still expressed worry about the storm. “I’ve never experienced a hurricane,” he told the Times. “Is it going to rain that bad? Is it going to flood me out? I mean, I don’t want to die over a hurricane.”
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