Of course, the young ladybug does not look like a dog, and she does not know how to bark, but she is definitely considered a member of the family. Meet Harvey the cow, rescued during Hurricane Harvey, and she used to live in a laundry room in a home in Fulshire, Texas.
“She was so tiny and the size of a dog, so we put her in the house,” says Tammy Canton, the cow's foster mother. “Now she has 180 kg, she is very good at opening doors and breaking out.”
Tammy and her husband found Harvey when she was a newborn calf abandoned by her mother during Hurricane Harvey. “My husband found her right in our flooded pasture,” Tammy recalls. They took the calf and put it in their home laundry, where they built a cozy place for the baby.
“Leaving her outside during a flood is tantamount to death. The cow was a newborn baby, and she did not have a developed immune system, says Tammy. “She froze and trembled, and we warmed her up for a long time.”
What was originally a temporary laundromat settlement became the permanent home of Harvey the cow. And then she also met Pit Bull Seeley, the family's favorite, and they immediately became friends.
Harvey and Seeley spend time together constantly, as can be seen in the photos posted on their Facebook page. Tammy specially created a profile called “
The hurricane, which has already claimed five lives, seemed to hit Texas with new force with powerful downpours. Airports and roads are flooded. Most homes, shops and social facilities can only be reached by boat. The authorities are now even afraid to name the scale of the damage. And ahead of the peak of the elements. He, according to forecasters, will be reached by Wednesday, August 30.
Streets, squares, parks, houses are flooded. Houston, the fourth largest city in the United States, is sinking. This is a historic flood, officials say. And worst of all, it's not over yet. The critical level is expected to be reached on August 29-30.
“We're in a hurry. We, the residents, have 10-12 boats here, on which we transport our neighbors. Non-stop, around the clock. I personally saved about 40 people, ”says Ismaeo Fernandez.
Hurricane Harvey, the most powerful in Texas in half a century, brought unprecedented rains. The water in the Gulf of Mexico was warmer than average this summer, causing strong evaporation. The almost complete absence of wind on the eve of the hurricane allowed huge masses of steam to accumulate in the atmosphere. All this turned into record showers. During the day, the annual precipitation rate fell. And the rain keeps falling.
The water in two city reservoirs rose by 18 meters, threatening to break through the locks and demolish several blocks with a powerful stream. At night, the authorities were forced to make a controlled descent. This added water to the streets. You will probably have to open the floodgates again.
Hundreds of thousands of people left on the eve of the hurricane. 30 thousand had to be rescued, now they are in temporary shelters. People were taken off the roofs, caught out of the stream.
“I am bedridden, and the water flowed into the house and rose higher and higher. I got to the mattress. All the furniture in the house has been destroyed, ”Colin Houston worries.
This man did not have time to leave - the water blocked his way. The footage was taken by an external surveillance camera. The man held on to his car for several hours until rescuers came to the rescue.
Helicopters are sent where the boats are unable to reach. But the technology is not enough. The authorities are pleading with citizens to call the emergency services only if their lives are really in danger. But the 911 phone rings.
“Despite the fact that the strength of the hurricane wind has subsided, this is not the end, far from the end. Harvey is still a dangerous, historic storm. Houston alone received two feet of rainfall. In the coming days, life-threatening flooding is expected in much of south and southeastern Texas, ”said Elayne Duke, head of the Federal Border Service.
The death of five people has been officially confirmed. The fate of dozens is unknown. The Russian consulate in Houston reports that the Russians have not yet asked for help. The building of the diplomatic mission itself is flooded.
A nursing home in Dickson had to wait several hours for help. A shocking shot: old people confined to wheelchairs are not even able to move, and the water is already chest-high. It is reported that not everyone has been able to move to a safe place so far.
During the live broadcast, the journalist noticed a man stuck in a sinking van. Fortunately, he was saved. And here are shots from one of the editorial offices. The reportage could be filmed right at the workplace. True, in Houston itself, perhaps, no one would have seen it - the city is almost de-energized.
But people exchange information on social networks. This snapshot became a hit: the dog on the call of Otis saves himself, taking a bag of dog food. People do not lose their presence of mind. Here, in spite of the fact that the water was knee-deep in the house, they were chasing a big fish with laughter - it was swept by the stream. In the end, they did get caught.
Oil and gas companies in the Gulf of Mexico are forced to suspend operations. Oil production decreased by 22%, gas production - by 26%. The damage from the elements will be enormous. Meanwhile, the rains are shifting towards neighboring Louisiana. State authorities have already declared a state of emergency there.
No sooner had the United States recovered from the strike from Harvey, when Hurricane Irma, which is called the most powerful hurricane in the Atlantic in the last decade, began to approach the southeast coast.
The hurricane has already reached the fifth and maximum category - it is stronger than Hurricane Harvey, which previously hit the Texas coast and led to catastrophic flooding.
Meanwhile, storm Katya has formed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Mexico, which is moving at a speed of 65 kilometers per hour and is likely to accelerate.
What to expect from Irma
A hurricane of this magnitude rips off rooftops and uproots trees, turning them into shells capable of killing people. Moreover, as it moves towards the mainland, the hurricane will only gain strength.
As of September 6, "Irma" has already reached the coast of the state of Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean Sea and is now moving north-west at a speed of about 300 kilometers per hour.
The hurricane is expected to hit Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Haiti. Irma will reach Florida shores before the weekend.
US President Donald Trump has declared a state of emergency in Florida and the Overseas American Territories in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Many Caribbean airports are closed, airlines have either canceled flights or are deciding on the actual weather at their destination.
Florida authorities announced the mobilization of all National Guard troops, and also began evacuating tourists from the islands off the southern coast of the state.
“We don't know exactly where the hurricane will go, but the weather can change quickly. While we hope for the best, we must be prepared for the worst, ”said Governor Rick Scott.
Hurricane warnings triggered huge queues in stores across Florida as people went to fetch water, food, fuel and other goods. As a result, some store shelves quickly became empty.
In one of the supermarkets in Miami Beach, where AFP correspondent visited, there are almost no basic necessities left.
“All because people go crazy and buy everything. There is no water, no milk, some canned food, but no cat food, ”says a local resident.
Irma could also have serious consequences for the US energy sector, paralyzing oil production in the Mexican Basin.
Apocalypse from "Harvey"
Over the past week, a powerful storm, Harvey, has raged in Texas, flooding the largest city in the state of Houston.
According to the latest data, the storm claimed the lives of 60 people. Most people died in Harris County, Texas, the death toll has reached 30.
Aftermath of Hurricane Harvey / Getty
Harvey was the most powerful hurricane in the United States in 12 years. The wind speed in the center of the hurricane reached 200-208 kilometers per hour, about 100 thousand houses were damaged from it.
As a result of the disaster, vast territories were flooded, transport was paralyzed and power lines were cut off, which left about 155 thousand people without electricity.
Harvey caused serious damage to America's energy sector, paralyzing a fifth of the nation's refining capacity.
Texas authorities have claimed more than $ 180 billion in damage from Harvey. The damage is one third greater than the impact of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the city of New Orleans in 2005.
Dissatisfied with the flood because of "Harvey" the cat became a meme
Trump has already asked the US Congress to allocate $ 7.85 billion for urgent expenses to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
In addition, the American president announced that he would donate a million dollars of personal funds to a fund to combat the aftermath of the hurricane.
However, public attention was drawn to the high-heeled shoes, in which the first lady of the United States Melania Trump arrived in Texas after the hurricane.
The Daily Mirror, in the headline, called the shoe "the most unsuitable one imaginable" for a trip like this.
Daliy Beast also scoffed at the “inappropriate” outfit of the first lady of the United States, noting that “waterproof” shoes would be much more useful for her on the trip.
At the Trump office, media reports commented: "It's sad that while the country is suffering from a natural disaster, the people are worried about her shoes."
On her second trip to Texas, Melania also donned stilettos despite criticism.
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I woke up early in the morning, it was already daybreak, I ran out into the street: silence, sun and for some reason a huge number of dragonflies! But most importantly, the dazzling Texas sun has finally drained my water-flooded street. My four-day confinement is over! I was lucky, our street was flooded only to the knee. Water approached the buildings, but the houses themselves were not flooded, the electricity was not turned off.
For all my time in Texas, I have experienced four hurricanes, both with female and male names, which are traditionally given to them in the United States. Hurricane Katrina 2005, to which everyone now compares Hurricane Harvey, did not affect Texas. Although I remember very well the people evacuated from New Orleans, the cars with the words "Thank you, Texas!" and the dire pictures of flooding in Louisiana.
During Hurricane Rita in September 2005, a mandatory evacuation was announced, and my husband and I spent 24 hours on the road, heading to his 90-year-old mother in Mississippi. We were lucky because my husband took a route other than the only three million traffic from Houston, so we personally did not get stuck in traffic jams for days. But
When I saw this nightmare on the roads of the state, I told myself that I would only evacuate if a Category 5 hurricane, the epicenter of which would pass over my house.
The next hurricane - Ike in 2008 - was a Category 3 hurricane, its epicenter was just over my house, and it was a continuous nightmare overhead for five hours. Imagine that you are standing next to a running jet engine, streams of water are pouring on you, and trees are falling next to a crackle. There was no flooding, my two-story brick house survived, but all the wooden houses, trailers, buildings on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico were damaged. However, Houston quickly coped with its consequences.
Harvey started out as a normal storm, initially predicted in Category 1 or Category 2, but suddenly, within a few days, he gained strength and "landed" on August 25 at night in southern Texas with a devastating Category 4 hurricane. Texans were accustomed to hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters, so a mandatory evacuation was organized in a small town that was supposed to be at the epicenter of a hurricane, and Houston waited for a flood.
My street is a dead end. The houses in the neighborhood are home to the American middle class: the owner of a small construction business, a nurse, a doctor, a manager, a firefighter, a clerk, in general, simple, kind, friendly people. There are a lot of children 6-12 years old. My neighbors and I know each other well.
Our territory does not apply to lands where compulsory flood insurance is required (insurance costs approximately $ 300-400 per year).
It is known that our main city Houston has two official names Space City ("space city") and Bayou City ("city of ducts, oxbows"), and the second name implies that the city is surrounded by water in the form of numerous rivers, streams and lakes. Even with small floods, streams, rivers and lakes overflow and floods begin - this is a common situation for Texans. But in Houston, unlike other cities, we also have practically no basements. You are already almost at sea level, the basement will either instantly flood with water, or it must be real concrete catacombs.
With regard to natural disasters, our instructions are as follows: Listen to local leaders. All programs, radio stations broadcast news and decisions of the state. Then the personal rounds of the police in your area begin, it is impossible not to learn about the instructions. In addition, the Americans are simply law-abiding people, which, for example, I especially noticed during the evacuation during "Rita". Finally, an alert is sent to the cell phone - an emergency warning from local services.
At the same time, there are people who rely only on themselves, and there are especially many in Texas.
There is private property, and people will protect it, whether from a hurricane, or from enemies, or from the government. But they will take help with this, since they pay taxes.
In principle, they are right, since the hurricane had already left by that time, and if nothing threatens life (the house has a second floor where you can hide, there is drinking water, food), remaining in place, it is easier to keep the house, dry it ... Help is coming in any case, and this way you can save your belongings, which could otherwise be lost due to water. Therefore, on my street, except for my best friend Bob and the family of the firefighter, who was alerted, no one left their homes.
The first night of the hurricane passed usually: lightning flashed, thunderclaps, downpour. The street was filled with water and during the day, at short intervals without rain, children jumped out of their houses, floundering in the water, like in a river. By the evening, the water did not leave, but everything came.
Friends came to my building neighbor in huge trucks and threw a Hurricane Party in the garage. Such parties are very common on the eve of bad weather. For example, during Ike, I arranged it for my husband and friend Bob.
Americans are not ascetics, and they drink, especially beer, in incredible quantities. The recipe is usually simple: chip off $ 20 (food is organized for this - barbecue or seafood, and beer is also bought), bring a stronger alcohol with you, but the main thing is to call all the residents of the quarter.
I watched the news, which reported that Houston was flooded, and the volume of precipitation in one day reaches 50-60 cm, our mayor, state governor, chief of police spoke. In the United States, the responsible person for all natural disasters is the Governor of the State Greg Abbot - a Republican, a Conservative, I met with him at our Republican convention in Dallas. He is attentive, friendly, but one feels that he is a very tough person.
Texas is a republican state, but the mayor of Houston is a Democrat, a common sight in cities where the scientific, artistic elite is concentrated.
The authorities organized all the work to save people, but the main characters were ordinary Texans helping each other, people from other states, bringing boats on truck trucks and rescuing people in flooded areas.
"Harvey" caused a catastrophic flood, about a meter of precipitation fell in four days, houses and territories that had never been in a flood zone before were under water. The governor has determined the approximate amount of losses - $ 120 billion, about 200 thousand people have already turned to the state for help.
The most important thing was saving people, and Texas coped with the task. So far, according to official figures, the victims of "Harvey" in the state have become 21 people. Basically, people died in cars, which were carried away by the stream, or when they got to great depths on the road. For example, a 60-year-old Houston policeman died, about whom the police chief could speak, barely holding back tears. In Texas, since cowboy times, there has been a saying that a real man dies "with their boots on", which means "not at home in a warm bed." This is how a Texas policeman gave up his life during Hurricane Harvey.
We Texans are distinguished by courage, nobility, courage, sometimes - recklessness, a sense of humor.
In the flooded areas, inscriptions appeared on poles - a warning to thieves "Drunk and armed" ("drunk and armed").
There were practically no cases of theft and theft in Houston. The sheriff warned all lovers of someone else's good, they say, we will catch and imprison you for a long time, and the police not only saved, but also patrolled the streets of the city, protecting houses from looters.
On Tuesday, August 29, President Trump and First Lady Melania flew in. He visited the place where the epicenter of the hurricane was and in the state capital Austin, provided not in words, but in deeds support the state in the form of allocating all the necessary assistance from the federal government. The President showed how organized aid is in Texas, how selflessly people work at all levels, saying that the state is doing an excellent job of Harvey, promised to provide and submit to Congress a law to help Texas in the aftermath of the hurricane. Gov. Abbott praised Trump and the federal government for their support.
The press, which for a while forgot about the hysteria about the Russian theme, managed to discuss the high heels of the first lady, in which she left the White House. They wrote that, they say, she is not ashamed to walk around the place of disaster in such shoes. However, she stepped onto Texas land in white sneakers. Trump was accused of a lack of sympathy for Texans by the press, blaming him for not hugging them the right way, for not crying about the disaster. I remember the Governor of Louisiana crying during Katrina as corpses floated through the streets of New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina killed 1,833 people, 1,577 in Louisiana. But I liked that Trump didn't cry. One of my favorite American presidents, Ronald Reagan, did not cry either, and he was still adored by all of America.
