Houston, the fourth largest city in the U.S., now under the sheet of floodwater, has affected thousands of Indians, particularly the student community and software professionals from the two Telugu States.
“I have never seen so much rain in my life and it’s a bit scary as well with the rain continuing to fall,” said Lokesh Alekanti, a software engineer living at Eldridge Parkway in Houston. The schools have been closed for this week and offices have given the option of working from home. Luckily, electricity is not cut-off till now,” he said.
“The floodwaters have even touched the huge sign boards on the roads at several places making it difficult to move out. Only emergency services are on and no one is daring to go onto the roads,” Mr. Lokesh said.
The Indian community has been doing a great job helping the people. Indian restaurants have been serving food to the affected people while students living outside the campuses have been volunteering to help Indians stuck in the floodwaters. Universities in Houston and nearby areas are popular with the Indian students, particularly the Telugus. The Telugu Association of North America (TANA) has sent out a message to all the Telugus in Houston to contact its volunteers for any help.
In a statement, the TANA president, Satish Vemana, said Hurricane Harvey has caused enormous damage to the Houston area with unprecedented flooding and the TANA volunteers were helping out Telugus, particularly the students badly who have been affected by the hurricane and its aftermath.
It has listed the phone numbers of TANA members Padmasri Mutyala, Ratnaprasad Gummadi, Prasad Nalluri, Vasu Kodali and Srinivas Gottipati for coordinating with the needy. Mr. Satish Vemana said the students and those in India can contact them for any assistance or write to president@tana.org .
Sirisha Eedunuru and Sridhar Kanchanakuntla from Sugarland, the volunteers of Telangana Development Forum (TDF), have been coordinating with the affected Telugus, said the TDF treasurer, Praveen Kesireddy.
“We are trying to reach out to other volunteers whose areas are not affected much to reach out to the affected places,” he said.
