BLM Houston Is Handling Its Harvey Business

One of the things that pissed me off was seeing that fake news story from a right wing website that falsely tried to claim that BLM was blocking a military rescue convoy with supplies headed to Houston.

It was a blatant lie that was easily debunked.  What it did do was motivate me to write this post telling the real story about what BLM Houston is doing in the wake of the passage of Harvey to help the people of Houston and southeast Texas affected by the storm.

It was needed and necessary for me to do especially in light of the fact that I know several members of BLM Houston's leadership including its founder Ashton Woods and Kandice Webber.  I also met in Denver during Creating Change 2015 the founders of BLM national in Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and Patrisse Khan-Cullors.

I have witnessed firsthand what the peeps at BLM Houston have been doing for our Houston community before and since Harvey moved out of the area

For starters, BLM Houston member Brandon Mack is collecting school supplies for people who need them once the area schools restart.  Some of the local school districts had already started classes for the 2017-18 school year when Harvey struck while HISD was scheduled to start classes on August 28.

What is needed are pencils, white copy paper, spiral notebooks, notebook paper, post-it notes, clear backpacks, and binders.  Those school supply donations will be accepted through the end of September. 

BLM Houston is helping coordinate the clean up of people's flooded homes in northeast Houston, and has another Day of Action cleanup event scheduled for September 9.

BLM Houston has also been shopping for and accepting donations of supplies to distribute to people in need.

They are helping first responders and military personnel in town to help Houston recover from the floods.

In short, BLM Houston has been handling its Harvey business, and have been front and center in the efforts to help our people recover from this historic storm.

But you aren't hearing that from local or national media, or the right wing websites invested in spreading hatred of and disinformation about BLM.

If you are interested in helping BLM this weekend, their Houston Day of Action cleanup event they have scheduled will run from 10 AM-7 PM, and the gathering address will be the Fiesta at 9419 Mesa Rd in northeast Houston.
 
BLM Houston will provide the masks, cleaning supplies, gloves, goggles and tools for this event.  All they need is for you to show up to volunteer for it in jeans and closed toe shoes.

Thanks BLM Houston for doing your part at the grassroots level to help our community recover from Harvey.
 

What's The Texas Trans Community Doing In Harvey's Wake?

Plenty!

It's also ironic in the wake of a legislative session in which the Republican controlled Texas government tried to push fear and hatred of transgender people in the regular session and spent $800,000 of our tax money during the Special Oppression Session to mess with Texas trans people for their own political gain.

But when Harvey hit the upper Texas coast, it has been the Texas trans community who has also stepped up to not only organize efforts to help our own people, but people outside of it.

Hannah Simpson has been in Austin helping to coordinate Red Cross efforts there.   She has been reading stories to the kids there.  She's built a database to help with client management in the shelter, is working to help coordinate the volunteer scheduling and routing at the Austin command center and just doing what she can to help the place run smoother.

And nobody cares that she's using the women's bathroom when she has to pee.  It's past time to stop wasting valuable Texas legislative time aiming discrimination efforts at us.

Political rant moment over, back to the post.

Meanwhile here in Houston my fab sis Nikki Araguz Loyd and her husband Will went out during the deluge on their jet skis in their northeast area part of the city to help people caught in the floodwaters during Harvey.   They  ended up rescuing this 82 year old woman during one of their jet ski rescue runs.

Ana Andrea Molina and the Organizacion Latina de Trans in Texas (OLTT) despite losing a computer to a roof leak (since generously replaced) caused by the storm at Casa Ana Andrea, is standing by with up to six beds to shelter trans people made homeless by Harvey.

They are also pitching in to help where they can to help our trans community and other quicly recover from the storm.

One of my homegirls who is a pilot and operations director for a charter airline, has made flights along with her charter airline's pilots chock full of medical supplies to bring back here to Houston.   One of those medical supply flights was to Hobby Airport, which was closed at the time and she was told by the tower to 'land at her own risk'.  She landed the plane safely along with the supplies.

Other trans Houstonians and trans Texans are in unsung ways helping clean storm damage at other people's homes, volunteering at local shelters, coordinating aid and relief efforts, raising money and simply doing their part as fellow Houstonians and Texans do to pitch in and help people recover from this storm.

And that's before I even mention the countless trans folks around the country who are doing things in their area to help their Texas trans, bi and SGL fam in their hour of need.

Harvey is giving us the golden opportunity to prove that trans Texans are an undeniable part of the fabric of the Texas community.

We are eagerly rolling up our sleeves and seizing this opportunity to do so by handling our business and helping our fellow Texans.

Waiting For Hurricane Harvey

I moved back to the Houston area in May 2010  nearly two years after Hurricane Ike wreaked havoc on the upper Texas coast and its Category 1 self knocked power out for me in Louisville.

Dealing with hurricanes and tropical storms is just the cost we pay for being 30 minutes from the beach   So we were overdue on the Texas Gulf Coast to experience a landfall for a major hurricane, and traditionally if we are going to get whacked with one, it tends to be in August or September.

So while Hurricane Harvey is heading its as of this writing Category 3 self toward the Corpus Christi area after nearly breaking up in the Caribbean, crossing over the Yucatan Peninsula and then reforming in the warm waters of the Bay of Campeche, we still expect along with our local meteorologists to get hit with some of the rain bands from it in the Houston area and get tropical storm level winds in the area.

There are predictions we might get hit with up to 25 inches of rain.  That's a lot of water in a short period of time, and Houston's drainage system is tied to multiple bayou that run towards Galveston Bay.   The same Galveston Bay that will be experiencing Harvey's storm surge plus be whacked by trying to deal with that onslaught of heavy rain.  .

Can you say 'serious floods' TransGriot readers?    Thought you could.  

Oh well, at least it won't be sauna room level hot for the next few days.  The HISD school kids get an extra summer vacation day out of the deal since school was supposed to start Monday.

The approach of Harvey has triggered a run on local stores to get hurricane supplies, food, bottled water, batteries and gas for their vehicles.  
It also has people who own them checking their generators to ensure they work and charging their phones, laptops and portable charging devices just in case we lose electrical power.

In the meantime we do what we always do when there's a hurricane bearing down on us.   Make sure we've done our hurricane prep, are prepared to evacuate if needed, and just wait for Harvey to make landfall and get out of the area.

And nope, don't have any alcohol.  I used that up celebrating the demise of SB 3.

Is Your LGBT Community Ready For Hurricane Season 2015?

Today is also the start of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season.   Those of us living along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the US will be nervously casting our eyes toward the Atlantic from now until November toward the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico watching for storms to develop into potential hurricanes that could threaten our areas.

We have already had one named storm, Ana make landfall in the US in a year that is being forecast because of El Nino to be a below normal one for storms.

But those of us in Houston can't forget that in 1983, a year in which there were only four hurricanes, a Category 3 one whacked us named Alicia.

In case you're wondering, the rest of the 2015 storm names are Bill, Claudette, Danny, Erika, Fred, Grace, Henri, Ida, Joaquin, Kate, Larry, Mindy, Nicholas, Odette, Peter, Rose, Sam, Teresa, Victor and Wanda.

While many of us know the drill concerning having hurricane prep packs, emergency supplies, and evacuation routes out of our coastal cities and towns that don't involve traveling on interstate highways,  as Hurricane Katrina taught us in 2006, we LGBT people also have to sadly consider homophobia and transphobia when hurricane season approaches and those hurricane preparedness drills happen..

We had the disgusting situation in the Houston area of reports of LGBT evacuees in the wake of Hurricane Katrina being harassed at shelters in the local suburbs.  One trans feminine evacuee unfortunately spent a few days in jail for simply taking a shower in the area matching her gender presentation at a shelter on the Texas A&M campus.

So ever since that incident, the Houston LGBT community has put together lists of people and allies who would be willing to put up BTLG evacuees in their homes in the wake of a hurricane or other natural disaster, and it's probably something that coastal communities with sizable LGBT populations should be doing in their areas.

So is your local TBLG community hurricane ready?   Now is the time to get prepared to do so if you aren't.

Thinking About You Peeps In The Path Of Hurricane Sandy

Since I've spent the majority of my life living on the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana, dealing with hurricanes and being prepared for them is one of the prices we pay for living in this part of the world.

I've ridden out everything from small tropical storms to nerve jangling ones such as Hurricane Betsy when I was living in New Orleans and 1983's Hurricane Alicia.

I'm not sellin' you woof tickets when I say to all my friends in the Northeast corridor that I feel your anxiety as a 900 mile wide Category 2 Hurricane Sandy inexorably comes closer to making landfall in New Jersey.   That's the worst part of it.  

All you can do is make sure you have your windows taped or boarded up, you have your hurricane supplies, and you have an emergency evacuation plan if things get serious.   And yes, for my trans family members hope you don't run into any transphobic bigotry or anti-trans hatred if you have to evacuate and seek shelter. 

So thinking about all my friends and TransGriot readers who are in the path of this storm.  I'm saying a few words of prayer for your safety .  I hope that Hurricane Sandy blows through the area as quickly as possible and causes as little damage and disruption to your lives once it does.. 

   

Hurricane Katrina 7th Anniversary

Today is also on a crowded news and historical event day the 7th anniversary of the devastating August 29, 2005 landfall of Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans-Mississippi Gulf Coast area.

I lived in Marrero, LA on the West Bank as a toddler and my godsister Angela still lives in the area along with more than a few friends, so I took it personally what happened to the city.  I've also written posts since 2006 on the anniversary of the storm. 

It's also eerily ironic that on the anniversary of the storm that took almost 1500 lives and devastated the region, the area is once again experiencing the effect of a hurricane.  

Hurricane Isaac came ashore last night 90 miles south of New Orleans with Category One level winds, heavy rain and a storm surge that has already overtopped a levee in Plaquemines Parish.

That was far less than the Category 4 status Katrina pummeled the area with, but seven years later is still memorable for not only the devastation it caused, but also triggering the largest population movement of African-Americans since the Great Migration with the resulting seismic consequences to Louisiana, the Gulf Coast region and local, state, regional and national politics.

Since New Orleans has TBLG residents living there they were also affected.  We were painfully reminded that transphobia and homophobia can rear its ugly head even in times of disaster relief situations.  

It prompted the Houston transgender community to compile a list every hurricane season of people who would be willing to host trans evacuees in case a disaster necessitated the evacuation of rainbow community people from their home areas.

We Texans can credit one of the four congressional seats we picked up in the 2010 census due to Katrina evacuees moving to Houston and Dallas and staying.   Louisiana politics going red is also a result of the loss of African-American population from New Orleans.  

So on the anniversary of Katrina's landfall, let's never forget the people who died during that storm and the ripple effects that are still reverberating in our communities from it years later.


  

2012 Hurricane Season Starts Today

June 1 is also the day that we Gulf Coast residents start paying close attention to our local weathercasters when their weather discussions turn to the topics of tropical thunderstorms or tropical waves forming up off the West African coast or in the Caribbean.   

It's the start of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season which lasts until November 30.  We have already had two named storms in Alberto and Beryl, of which Beryl made landfall during Memorial Day weekend along the North Florida-Georgia coastline. .  

Speaking of hurricane names, here they are for the 2012 season.

Alberto, Beryl, Chris, Debby, Ernesto, Florence, Gordon, Helene, Isaac, Joyce, Kirk, Leslie, Michael, Nadine, Oscar, Patty, Rafael, Sandy, Tony, Valerie, William.

Note the hurricane name list has no Q, X, Y, U or Z names on it.   If we have a year like 2005 in which we have a bunch of named storms that exhausts the list, they resort to the Greek alphabet to name them. 

If you're wondering why I'm talking about hurricanes on a trans blog, it's because I've lived on the Gulf Coast for the majority of my life and frankly because the trans issue comes up even in ways you don't traditionally associate it with like a hurricane evacuation. 

We Houston area transpeeps had that lesson reinforced in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the evacuations from the city of New Orleans it triggered.

New Orleans is a mecca for transpeople, so logically some of the thousands of people evacuated from the city in the wake of the storm were trans. 

We also heard some disturbing stories of trans and GLB evacuees who were housed in suburban and exurban evacuation centers that didn't get the hospitality we Texans are world renowned for and were mistreated by transphobic and homophobic shelter workers.  

It's also a heightened concern of mine about how TBLG hurricane evacuees are treated because Sharli'e Dominique, one of those New Orleans trans evacuees who got grossly mistreated in 2005 shared my ethnic background.

Since some of us don't have contact with our families or are estranged from them, we transpeeps may not have places to evacuate to when the call goes out to leave an area threated by an approaching Category 2, Cat 3, Cat 4 or Cat 5 hurricane.

It's why the TFA here in Houston collects a list of names so that if that situation occurs again and we're not in the bullseye of one like we were with Rita or Ike, we know who the TBLG peeps in the Houston metro area who have indicated their willingness to host a trans or GLB evacuee.

So yes, from now until November 30 we'll be gathering supplies for our hurricane emergency kits at our local stores while casting nervous eyes out at the Gulf and satellite photos of circulating storms off the West African coast, in the mid Atlantic or the Caribbean..

2011 Hurricane Season Starts Today

Today marks the start of the Atlantic, Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and Central Pacific hurricane season.   From now until November 30 the local weathercasts include weather satellite imagery from the Caribbean, the Atlantic coast off western Africa and the mid Atlantic.   Our ears start perking up in H-town when the weatherman starts talking about tropical waves or depressions that we know all too well have the potential to turn into dangerous storms.     

We also start reviewing our family hurricane preparedness and evacuation plans and learning what the differences are between Category 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 storms are on the Saffir-Simpson scale

The list of hurricane names for the 2011 season has been released.    Since 1953 the National Hurricane Center has come up with six rotating lists of pre-approved names for tropical storms and hurricanes in English, French and Spanish for our sector of the planet.  The lists had only female names until 1979 when they were revised to add male names as well.  

Storms are also named chronologically.   The 'A' name on the list corresponds to the first storm of the hurricane season, and so on.  Names with 'Q' or 'U' aren't used, and when you run out of names as we did during the 2005 hurricane season when there were 27 tropical storms or hurricanes, the Greek alphabet is used.

Names on the rotating lists are retired when a deadly or costly hurricane makes landfall     This year's list was used during the extremely active 2005 hurricane season, so you'll note that the name Katrina was retired for obvious reasons.   Dennis, Rita, Stan, and Wilma were replaced as well

2011 Hurricane Names

Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Don, Emily, Franklin, Gert, Harvey, Irene, Jose, Katia, Lee, Maria, Nate, Ophelia, Philippe, Rina, Sean, Tammy, Vince, Whitney

Because of long memories about trans Katrina evacuees such as Sharlie Dominique being mistreated at area shelters,  last year the Houston TG Center compiled lists of people in the area willing to house trans people in the event of a hurricane evacuation either here or from other areas of the Gulf Coast.   

Will have to check with Cristan to see if that program is in effect for this season as well.

So for the next six months we'll be casting a very nervous eye toward the Gulf of Mexico hoping we don't get another Carla, Alicia or Ike type storm in the area.

It's Hurricane Season

June 1 is not only the start of a new month, but for those of us living on the Atlantic and Gulf Coast it's hurricane season.

It reminds us that from now until November 30 we'll have to cast a wary eye on satellite images of clouds building up off the west African coast, the Caribbean or the western Atlantic for signs they are developing into tropical waves, tropical storms or hurricanes.

The 2010 NOAA predictions are for 14-23 named tropical storms to develop, 8-14 to become hurricanes with 74 mph winds, with 3-7 turning into major hurricanes of Category 3,4 or 5 level (winds of 114 MPH or higher).

We get refresher courses and news coverage on the differences between a Category 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 storm. We update our family evacuation plans in case we have to leave the area. We check generators, our emergency hurricane supplies and make sure those generators and flashlights have fresh batteries in them.

Hurricane Ike whacked Houston while I was gone, but ironically still came up to Louisville to affect me anyway.

At the same time, hurricane prediction numbers, while they are a concern, also depend on where they form as well. In 1983 we had only 4 named storms that made US landfall. One of them was Hurricane Alicia, the last Major hurricane to hit the Houston-Galveston area until Ike.

So yes, hurricanes just aren't a concern for those of us in the coastal zones. After they make landfall and begin breaking up they can dump massive amounts of rain in a very short time or create conditions for large tornado outbreaks depending on the type of storm.

So here's hoping that my first hurricane season since returning to the Gulf coast, despite the initial predictions from NOAA, is a relatively quiet one.

Houston Trans Community Preparing For Hurricane Season

The start of hurricane season is fast approaching, and with memories fresh in our minds about how several trans Katrina evacuees were mistreated in area shelters in 2005, the Houston TG Center is getting prepared to avoid a repeat of that scenario.

Because some of our community members are estranged or separated from our families, it impacts our abilities to expeditiously react to an oncoming storm or to recover from and rebuild our lives after it has made landfall.

The Houston TG Center is compiling a list of people willing to house trans evacuees in their homes in the vent of an evacuation.

If you need more info, follow this link to the TG Center blog.

Ike's Targeting Houston

It's been 25 years since the last Category 3 or above storm blasted the Houston area. With memories of Hurricane Alicia fresh in my mind I've been concerned ever since Ike finished beating up on Cuba and reemerged in the Gulf of Mexico.

I checked in with my family and so far, they are okay, but I am a little worried. They were caught in the massive traffic jam on I-45 north trying to get to our relatives in Dallas during the botched 2005 Hurricane Rita evacuation, which brewed up as a Cat 5 storm only three weeks after Katrina waylaid New Orleans.

It took them 17 hours to drive the 100 miles north to Huntsville, a normally 2 hour trip on I-45 and rode the storm out there until it slid further east, weakened and made landfall along the Texas-Louisiana border. This time they're taking a wait and see attitude and staying put.

Most of my relatives live on the south and west sides of Houston, and they'll be first up to feel the effects of Ike's rain and wind bands as it draws inexorably closer to the area.

I knew it was a matter of time before Houston's luck ran out and with this storm, it looks like it's about to replicate the conditions of Alicia's San Luis Pass landfall. It's still over 300 miles away from Galveston as I write this, but its predicted 15-22 foot storm surge is already being felt along most of the Gulf Coast and New Orleans.

As a long time Gulf Coast resident until 2001, I and anyone who lives there takes hurricanes seriously. I've ridden out two Cat 3 storms, Betsy and Alicia. After Alicia's August 18, 1983 landfall, I noted the devastation it caused to many downtown skyscrapers thanks to loose roofing gravel and the varying levels of wind damage some neighborhoods took. I made it clear to friends and relatives that if a Cat 4 or 5 hurricane were approaching the area, I was boarding up the apartment windows and heading up I-45 north.

Those of us who grew up in the Houston area know all too well the story of the 1900 storm that almost obliterated Galveston when it made landfall on September 8.

It killed 6000 people in Galveston alone and still ranks as the worst natural disaster to ever strike the United States. It also altered the course of Texas history by putting Houston on the path to becoming the dominant city not only in the region but the state as well.

This storm is large, almost 700 miles across. It got weakened to a Cat 2 after traveling the length of Cuba, but could possibly be a low Category 3 storm by the time it makes landfall later tomorrow.

Even if Ike does make landfall further south along the Texas coast, Houston will get some of the effects before it moves further inland.

It's also going to affect you at the gas pump. Once again you have a hurricane traveling through an area where you have oil rigs drilling away. In addition to that problem, in the Houston-Galveston Southeast Texas area alone are 26 oil refineries. One fifth of the oil refining capacity in the United States is concentrated between Houston and New Orleans. If you do the drive along I-10 you will pass numerous refineries between Houston and Lake Charles.

You readers may not experience the winds or wrath of Ike, but you will feel it in your pocket at the gas pump.

Ironically after it makes landfall Ike's projected path takes it all the way up here to Kentucky. Even being 1000 miles away from the Gulf Coast doesn't keep me from experiencing tropical storms or their effects.