Hurricane

Texas Standard: September 8, 2017

As Irma bears down on a Harvey hit US, our neighbors to the south prepare for their own dual front disaster, we’ll explore. Also, it’s been more than 2 years since the waco biker shootout, and so far not a single conviction. How much did police know about the likelihood of violence that day, and why didn’t they intervene? Documents obtained by the Texas Standard shed new light on those questions, and we’ll talk with our investigative reporter. Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: September 7, 2017

After Harvey, next Rita, and another hurricane building in the Gulf of Mexico. We’re monitoring the latest on all three fronts today. Plus, for the first time in recent memory, members of the Texas delegation to the US House will do something they haven’t before: republicans and democrats will meet in the same room for the purposes of getting on the same page. And that page is hurricane relief. But if they’re successful, where will the money go? And rethinking runoff: if Texas swings between floods and droughts, shouldn’t we be banking some of the floodwater for the next dry spell? Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: September 6, 2017

Is DACA really dead? Though Texas top law enforcement official is celebrating, other Texas lawmakers say not so fast, we’ll explore. Also- the Texas congressional delegation set to return to Washington for a special conference, as lone star lawmakers try to come up with a strategy to bring home aid money post Harvey, we’ll hear what they’re planning. And for years strict rules kept Texas from moving forward with telemedicine. Harvey underscores how much is changing. Finally, a fix for Texas’ troubled foster care system? Our reporter finds the solution isn’t likely to be one size fits all. Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:

Bass Boat Heroes

Every destructive hurricane is remembered in a unique way. Katrina is largely remembered for levees breaking and the paralyzing chaos that followed. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900, whose anniversary is in two days, is remembered for a horrific number – 6-thousand. 6-thousand people perished. It was the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history. I believe that Hurricane Harvey will be remembered for the greatest amount of rain ever to fall in one place in the U.S. within 24 hours, but I believe it will also be remembered for the bass boat heroes.

Someone on social media suggested that we should build a monument to “two regular guys in a bass boat.” And that idea has been seconded by tens of thousands.

Even from where I live in deep south Texas, I saw dozens of trucks pulling boats, headed north on Highway 77: bass boats, swamp boats, pontoons, skiffs and navy seal type zodiacs. The call went out for help across the state and Texans answered. They came from San Antonio and San Angelo and Austin, Waco, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Tyler, even I understand, from the Panhandle and El Paso. From every nook and cranny of the state, they rolled toward the floods, spontaneous convoys racing to the coast. It was magnificent to see them: Texas flags bent by speed and proudly waving from their trucks and trailers, a genuine cavalry to the rescue. These men and women didn’t ask for money or mileage or payback of any kind. They didn’t ask for whom the bell tolled, they just concluded, it tolls for me – and away they went.

I talked to a man at a station near my house who was filling up his slightly lifted GMC. He was pulling a 15-foot bass boat with a trolling motor. I asked him if he was going to Houston. He said, “My brother and me thought we might head up that way. I mean I got a truck and a boat. Might be of help to somebody. I know they’d do it for us if things were turned around.”

And they didn’t just come from Texas. The Cajun Navy, as they are so beautifully named, came from Louisiana in large numbers, as did others from Arkansas and Oklahoma, and no doubt other states too.

A National Guard Officer said on the Weather Channel: “These people are showing up with air boats, swamp boats, and jet skis. They go out and rescue people and bring them to us. I don’t know where these people are coming from, but it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.”

An old friend of mine, Matt Carr, from Central Texas, answered the call. He said: “Driving into Houston in the storm was surreal. I-10, 290, and 610 had no cars on them. It was apocalyptic. Fields full of water, cows huddling on tiny islands above rising water. We felt all alone. We got there in a window of time before the world arrived again.”

He said the police were busy with calls and told the rescuers they were free to go where they pleased and help in any way they could. So they did. He said once the National Guard arrived, the process became more efficient. “It felt like a Texas version of Dunkirk,” he said, “less dangerous, but the same spirit.”

Matt rescued a 90-year-old woman named Hazel. She didn’t have anyone in her life. She was alone. She didn’t want to leave her house, but she was cold. Matt convinced her to go. He said, “I took her to a bus so they could take her to a shelter. She was scared. So I knelt down next to her in the aisle on the bus and we said a prayer together. And then I got back to work.”

Matt’s was one of thousands of similar stories from that night. Here’s another from my buddy Manny Fernandez who is the Houston Bureau chief for the New York Times. He was out riding along with many of these rescuers, impressed with their instinct for navigating what was now an urban bay. And it was dark except for helmet headlamps. Dangerous work. Manny asked many of these rescuers why they had come so far to take these risks. He said that almost to a person, they answered, with three words: “This is Texas.”

Texas Standard: September 5, 2017

Getting back to business across Harvey-hit Texas: it was no holiday weekend for roughly 1 in 3 in the Lone Star State. The mucking, the cleanup, the drywall, the carpet, the debris left behind by harvey: put it all together and how much is there and where does it go? And what about all that water? As trillions of gallons flow back to the gulf, some wonder if there’s not a quicker and better way to drain east Texas. Plus a price tag bigger than Katrina says the Texas governor. Not so fast say others in Washington. And now a new storm brewing over who and how to pay for the effects of an historic storm. Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: August 29, 2017

Across sodden southeast Texas, as the rain keeps fall, rescues continue and shelters begin to overfill. We’ll have comprehensive coverage. Also, as evacuees flow into shelters in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, second-guessing grows over Houston’s decision not to issue evacuation orders. And in northwest Houston, a reverend providing shelter for others finds himself in deep water. As reservoir banks rise, now what? Also, gas shortages begin to take hold further inland, some, from the area where Harvey first made landfall, are returning home. Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: August 28, 2017

The official forecast was spot on: an unprecedented event and beyond anything experienced. How Texas is weathering Harvey. It started out with staggering winds making landfall north of Corpus Christi, the view from near Rockport described as apocalyptic. No longer a hurricane, Harvey unleashed its fury further north, plunging the third largest metropolitan area into a flood of historic dimensions. We’ll have the latest today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: August 24, 2017

Harvey threatens the coast of Texas with storm surges and catastrophic flooding. It could bring torrential downpours further inland. A state of emergency preemptively declared in 30 Texas counties, we’ll explore. Plus, an explosive new book investigates the sexual assault scandal at Baylor university. We’ll hear from one of the authors. And it’s move-in week at colleges across Texas: a look at tech to make life easier for freshmen. Those stories and a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: April 10, 2017

In an arm wrestling match between Dan Patrick and Joe Strauss who wins? Wanna bet 218 billion on it? What looks like a power shift. From bathroom choice to school choice, a string of defeats for high profile bills raises a question at the capitol: who’s really in charge here? R.G. Ratcliffe of Texas Monthly with an assessment. Plus reports of crime down, way down in parts of Houston. So why does the police chief in the nation’s most diverse city say that’s bad news? Those stories and lots more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: October 5, 2016

It is being called the largest humanitarian event since the earthquake of 2010. A hurricane strikes Haiti, we’ll explore the implications. Also are police tracking who attends gun shows? A report that cops are making lists of license plate numbers triggers alarm bells over civil liberties. Plus to be undecided in Texas: with voting in the presidential race just a month away, what could tip the balance? And remembering the biggest state in the continental US as it used to be: which is to say, much bigger. Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:

V&B: Katrina – 10 Years After

In this episode of Views & Brews, KUT’s Rebecca McInroy joins NPR’s John Burnett, former Austin Mayor Will Wynn, Dr. Eric Tang and Dr. Shirley Thompson author of “Exiles at Home: The Struggle to Become American in Creole New Orleans”, to discuss the storm, before and after, and the harsh realities of inequality the deluge washed up.

June 17, 2017

Big Bad Bill? Not so much, but as hurricane season gets underway, there’s a new warning about the trillion dollar price tag. Texas leads the nation in prison sexual assault. But of the hundreds of reported cases of prison workers preying on inmates…only 9 have been sentenced to serve time. Also, the story of one man who becomes the de facto father for scores of homeless students. Plus the egg shortage…taking a toll on the national breakfast of Texas. Taco bout a crisis.