From Texas Standard:Texas Standard has been traveling along the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Harvey: first Corpus Christi, then Galveston, and today, Beaumont.
It’s known as the Golden Triangle, host David Brown says, “but in the immediate aftermath of Harvey, the straight routes connecting the towns of Beaumont, Orange and Port Arthur are for the most part underwater. Detours and over-the-road flooding are everywhere. A 25-mile jaunt has become a two-hour voyage. And good luck if your gas gauge is low."
“None of this turned out like I thought it would,” Brown says. “When we landed in Corpus Christi a few days back, it already looked like a place on the road to recovery. And moving up the coast … Galveston, on the front line of some of history's worst storms to hit Texas, sandbagged and soggy but relatively unscathed – then this. The Golden Triangle: Harvey's third gut punch to Texas.”
Still, “as hard as it is to describe the destruction and devastation that this part of our country has endured,” Brown says, “it is just as hard to communicate what it feels like being around others on fire with a shared sense of mission, an enlarged sense of community – and saving lives in the process."
“I've heard a lot of people tell me over the past few days, ‘this is the stuff that makes Texas Texas.’ Texans like to talk like that. But I'm thinking they're right, too.”
David and technical director Casey Cheek spoke with people in the Beaumont region about their experiences: Col. Scott MacLeod, commander Task Force Harvey; Tyler McAnn, a volunteer with a boat from Louisiana; a family rescued from their home in Orange, and others.
Listen to their experiences in the audio player above.
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