Hurricane Harvey Emergency Response

In a response to the catastrophic floods striking Texas, Jewish Federations of North America, the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation's national organization, has opened an emergency relief fund to support communities and individuals in Houston, San Antonio, Galveston, Corpus Christi and other areas that have been hammered by Hurricane Harvey. With record breaking volumes of rain having fallen through the weekend and expected to continue through the end of the week, extensive damage is continuing to mount, JFNA said in a recent email. Lee Wunsch, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston, reports that the amount of rain and resulting flooding has surpassed that of the massive storm two years ago. Bayous and tributaries are flooding beyond their banks and roads are impassable. People whose homes are flooding are being advised to go up to their roofs so they can be evacuated; emergency workers were evacuating stranded residents through the night. "The breadth and intensity of this rainfall are beyond anything experienced before," the National Weather Service said in a statement. The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brock Long, said the government expected to conduct a "mass care mission" and predicted that the aftermath of the storm would require FEMA's involvement for years. "This disaster's going to be a landmark event," Long said. The Youngstown Area Jewish Federation is concerned about those who are being affected by this enormous amount of rainfall. The Federation committed $5,000 to JFNA's emergency relief fund. Ongoing updates will be made available via the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation's Facebook page. Our thoughts and prayers are with Texas.