Tag Archives: Houston

Houston-area residents feeling hopeless and abandoned after a week without power

Window-AC-Unit

Important Takeaways:

  • For more than a week, some residents of the nation’s fourth largest city were left to sleep in their cars, shuffle perilously with canes and walkers across dark rooms and corridors, and watch food and medications spoil and critical medical equipment become inoperable. At times, they cried in desperation after discovering the bodies of neighbors who succumbed to the heat following a comparatively mild Category 1 hurricane.
  • At least 14 Houston-area deaths were confirmed to be hurricane-related, including seven people – ranging in age from 50 to 110 – who died from “heat exposure due to power loss,” according to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.
  • CenterPoint Energy told CNN in a statement it was “committed to doing a thorough review of our Hurricane Beryl response.”
  • “We are engaging with community leaders, elected officials, local clergy leadership and others across the area to learn about how we can be more responsive to their needs and concerns,” the statement said.

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Funeral held today for 12-year-old Houston girl murdered by undocumented men from Venezuela

Migrants-murder

Important Takeaways:

  • Twelve-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray was walking to a convenience store in Houston when she disappeared, police say; she was found dead in a creek earlier this month.
  • Two undocumented men from Venezuela are accused of killing the girl and both are facing charges of capital murder in her death, according to the Houston Police Department.
  • It is also the latest case to bring immigration to the forefront as a critical issue this election year, as the two men were in the country illegally, according to the US Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
  • Where and when they entered the country is unclear, the spokesperson said, but each had been apprehended near El Paso by US Border Patrol – Martinez-Rangel on March 14 and Peña Ramos on May 28 – and released with a notice to appear in court in the future.
  • The family will have a celebration of life for Jocelyn on Thursday afternoon in Houston.

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Powerful storms tore through Texas killing at least four and knocking out power for nearly one million customers

Houston-Storm-Damage

Important Takeaways:

  • Houston Mayor John Whitmire said strong winds and “some twisters” hit the area, downing power lines, spreading debris and leaving many roads impassable
  • The winds reached 100 mph and included some tornadoes
  • A widespread 3 to 6 inches of rain fell north of Houston, with one of the highest rainfall totals reported being around 6.90 inches in 24 hours near Romayor.
  • In Texas, the night’s destruction was evident even before sunrise, with high winds tearing out windows of high-rise buildings in downtown Houston, and inundating the region with flooding.
  • Streets in the area were littered with glass, electrical lines and other detritus strewn by the ferocious storms.

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Houston, Texas holds Nuclear Training exercise after Joe Biden warning to N.K.

Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

Important Takeaways:

  • Houston holds week-long NUCLEAR training exercise led by the FBI and the military to learn how best to deal with a nuke dropped on a US city
  • A ‘large-scale’ nuclear training drill will be held in Houston this week as the military war games the unthinkable.
  • The FBI has warned residents of Harris County and southeast Houston that ‘multi-agency’ exercises will be carried out from Monday to Friday to simulate a nuclear attack.
  • The agency reassured the public there was no need to be alarmed by the presence of ‘military personnel and aircraft, and people in protective equipment’.
  • Analysis shows about 130,000 people could be killed if Houston was attacked
  • FBI Houston said this week’s drills were ‘part of a series of regularly scheduled US government biannual exercises’.
  • ‘The exercise is an opportunity for participating entities to practice and enhance operational readiness to respond in the event of a nuclear incident in the United States or overseas,’ the FBI said.
  • ‘The training exercise will not pose any risk or interference to the public.’
  • It comes after Joe Biden warned North Korea that a nuclear attack would be met with an overwhelming response.
  • The US President was speaking during a state visit by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol last week, in which the pair agreed to the ‘Washington Declaration’, formalizing steps to deter North Korea.
  • Last month, a top Russian security official warned the threat of nuclear war had increased due to NATO providing military assistance to Ukraine.

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Heatwave stressing farmers and power grid. Europe also issuing extreme heat warnings

Revelations 18:23 ’For the merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.’

Important Takeaways:

  • Extreme Heat Breaks Records in U.S. and Abroad – It’s Threatening Power Grids and Could Drive up the Cost of Beef
  • Extreme heat is sweeping the country right now with many areas of the U.S. facing temperatures that could feel like 115 degrees with heat and humidity on Tuesday.
  • 60 million people are expected to face temperatures in the triple digits in the coming days.
  • For the first time ever, the Houston forecast predicts 10 days straight of 100 degrees or higher
  • Texans are being asked to conserve electricity and water with looming concerns over the power grid’s ability to handle the high demand during the high heat.
  • In the U.S., a lack of grass and water are forcing cattle ranchers to sell their livestock, which could drive up beef prices at the grocery store.
  • The UK issued its first-ever extreme heat warning as they, too, deal with record high temperatures. The UK recorded a record-breaking temperature of 104 degrees before noon on Tuesday

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During record high gas prices Oil Refinery announces permanent shut down due to financial burden of aging infrastructure

2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land

Important Takeaways:

  • Massive U.S. oil refinery on track to shut down amid fuel shortages, record prices
  • The Houston, Texas, facility — which is operated by LyondellBasell Industries, spans 700 acres and was built in 1918 — is scheduled to permanently close by the end of 2023, but could shut down earlier if a “major equipment failure” spreads to major units, two people familiar with the issues told Reuters.
  • The refinery processes 268,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil and produces 92,600 bpd of diesel fuel, 89,000 bpd of gasoline and 44,500 bpd of jet fuel.
  • The company announced in April that it would shut the refinery by 2024 due to the heavy financial burden of upgrading its more than 100-year-old infrastructure, Barron’s reported at the time.
  • Meanwhile, six refineries with a capacity of about 801,000 bpd of oil have shuttered over the last two years amid the pandemic, federal data showed. In addition, five refineries with a capacity of 408,100 bpd of oil are idle, the largest number of idle refineries since 2012.

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Thieves targeting underground fuel tanks at gas stations

Rev 6:6 NAS And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.”

Important Takeaways:

  • 1000 Gallons of Diesel Allegedly Stolen from Houston Gas Station amid Sky-High Gas Prices
  • The thefts allegedly occurred on consecutive days in which the national gas price average repeatedly broke all-time highs.
  • Thayil said a dark-colored van was seen parking over the underground storage containers and siphoned 360 gallons each day.
  • Nobody comes out, so they have a trap door inside their vehicle which is crazy. They have to have another man inside (the vehicle) to open our fuel tank, stick a hose in there.
  • “Altogether it was about $5,000.”

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Prayers and faxed letters: Texas woman buries husband who died of COVID-19

By Callaghan O’Hare and Maria Caspani

HOUSTON (Reuters) – As hundreds of thousands of people in Texas fled their homes ahead of Hurricane Laura on Wednesday, Michelle Gutierrez was in Houston burying her husband David, who died of COVID-19 on Aug. 14.

The couple would have celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary on Sept. 4, a few days after David’s 54th birthday. Michelle and David met at a mechanic’s shop in Houston in 2009, when he had stepped in as a translator to help her with a mechanic who only spoke Spanish.

He then offered to fix her computer, and the rest is history. They built a life together in Houston, where they raised five children and he worked as a software engineer.

In early July, David was hospitalized after his symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, worsened. His wife and two daughters had tested positive but showed no symptoms.

David would fight the virus for over a month at Houston’s St. Luke’s in The Woodlands hospital, where he eventually died of heart failure.

“It’s been a roller coaster, every day is different,” Michelle said on the day of his funeral, her voice breaking with emotion. “One day you’re fine and the next day, you walk around and memories flood your mind… You just wish this was all a dream.”

About a week after her husband was hospitalized, Michelle and her daughters gathered under his hospital window to pray for him.

“And then after that first night I was like, ‘You know what, I’m gonna come in every night, honey, I’m going to be here every night, praying for you and just being there in spirit’,” she said.

And so she did, until the Friday in August when David passed away.

Michelle said she kept trying to communicate with her husband as his condition worsened. At first, before he was put on a ventilator, they managed to text one another, she said. But once he was in a coma, she began faxing letters to the hospital, and nurses would read them aloud to him.

David is one of thousands who have succumbed to the coronavirus in Texas, where a spike in cases in June and July strained hospital systems as the virus engulfed many southern states.

Nearly 180,000 people in the United States have died from COVID-19, the highest in the world, with 5.8 million cases recorded nationwide, according to a Reuters tally, also the highest in the world.

At David’s wake, a bottle of hand sanitizer and social distancing signs were prominently displayed as masked mourners walked to the casket to bid their farewells.

As for the future, Michelle said she was enrolling in a college nursing program. She had already planned to do so before her husband’s passing, but feels more motivated now.

“That’s more so now than before after seeing how these nurses took care of David and they were wonderful… And I could not have done it without them.”

(Reporting by Callaghan O’Hare in Houston, Texas and Maria Caspani in New York; Writing by Maria Caspani; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Beirut blast halts American-Lebanese woman’s final journey home

By Callaghan O’Hare and Maria Caspani

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Rami Basbous was on the phone with his uncle in Beirut on August 4, making arrangements to return his mother’s remains from the United States to her birthplace, when he heard the blast that reduced large parts of the Lebanese capital to rubble.

The explosion, the biggest in Beirut’s history, killed at least 172 people, injured some 6,000 and triggered protests against Lebanon’s political elite. It also put an end to the Basbous family’s plan to bury a beloved wife and mother alongside her relatives.

“Before the blast and riots we had a very large set of hurdles to get through but it was doable,” said Rami, 21, after his mother’s funeral on Wednesday in Houston, Texas. “After the blast and now the riots we have a very slim chance at getting her there safely.”

Rita Basbous died earlier this month at age 53 in Houston, weeks after undergoing heart surgery. Rita, whose health was already compromised by a decades-long struggle with diabetes and related kidney problems, contracted the coronavirus in April and fought it through May.

She eventually recovered, her son said, although the illness left her weak.

“She loved the world,” Rami said of his mother, who was born in Lebanon, spoke five languages and lived in Mauritania and the United States, following her father to his postings as a civil engineer.

After the Basbous family settled in Houston, Rita worked as a teacher and dedicated much of her time to volunteering and helping fellow immigrants, her son said.

Mask-clad mourners occupied every other row of pews at her funeral service at Our Lady of the Cedars Maronite Church in Houston. Pink and white roses adorned her casket.

In a time of pandemic, the family said they were grateful to be able to hold an in-person funeral at all.

The son, Rami, said restrictions imposed by the pandemic forced them to get creative and live stream the funeral for family and friends unable to attend.

For now, Rita has been buried at a Houston area cemetery. The family still hopes to return her remains to Lebanon but the unrest in Beirut, coupled with the health issues raised by coronavirus, have put those plans on hold for now.

“We joke that that was her telling us ‘no’,” Rami said.

(Reporting by Callaghan O’Hare in Houston, Texas; Writing by Maria Caspani; Editing by Diane Craft)

China seizes U.S. consulate in Chengdu, retaliating for Houston

By Martin Quin Pollard and Thomas Peter

CHENGDU, China (Reuters) – China took over the premises of the U.S. consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu on Monday, after ordering the facility to be vacated in retaliation for China’s ouster last week from its consulate in Houston, Texas.

The seizure capped a dramatic escalation in tensions between the world’s two biggest economies that began when employees at China’s Houston consulate were seen burning documents in a courtyard last Tuesday, hours before Beijing announced that it had been ordered to leave the facility.

The U.S. consulate in Chengdu, in Sichuan province, was closed as of 10 a.m (0200) on Monday, and Chinese authorities had entered the building from the front door, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

On Friday, Beijing announced that it had asked the United States to close its Chengdu post, and gave the Americans 72 hours to vacate, the same amount of time China was given to leave its Houston mission, which was shut on Friday.

“We are disappointed by the

By Martin Quin Pollard and Thomas Peter

CHENGDU, China (Reuters) – China took over the premises of the U.S. consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu on Monday, after ordering the facility to be vacated in retaliation for China’s ouster last week from its consulate in Houston, Texas.

The seizure capped a dramatic escalation in tensions between the world’s two biggest economies that began when employees at China’s Houston consulate were seen burning documents in a courtyard last Tuesday, hours before Beijing announced that it had been ordered to leave the facility.

The U.S. consulate in Chengdu, in Sichuan province, was closed as of 10 a.m (0200) on Monday, and Chinese authorities had entered the building from the front door, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

On Friday, Beijing announced that it had asked the United States to close its Chengdu post, and gave the Americans 72 hours to vacate, the same amount of time China was given to leave its Houston mission, which was shut on Friday.

“We are disappointed by the Chinese Communist Party’s decision and will strive to continue our outreach to the people in this important region through our other posts in China,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson said in an email to Reuters.

At midday on Monday, police removed a roadblock that had restricted access to the Chengdu facility, and dozens of passersby stopped to take photos and videos.

One man stood across the street and played the Chinese national anthem from his phone.

“We feel very sad about the breaking down of the relationship between China and U.S.,” said a bystander outside the facility who said his surname was Li. He said he was worried about the impact of deteriorating relations on Chinese citizens who want to travel or study in the United States.

Grey sheet-like material was placed over the spot near the entrance where a plaque had been affixed, and over the place where there was large lettering saying “U.S. Consulate General”.

The U.S. embassy issued a video in Chinese on its Twitter feed: “The U.S. consulate in Chengdu has been proudly promoting the mutual understanding between Americans and the people in Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Yunnan and Tibet since 1985. We will forever miss you,” it said.

The American flag was no longer flying at the consulate having been lowered at 6:18 a.m. on Monday, according to video shot by a journalist and shared by state broadcaster CCTV on its Twitter-like Weibo account.

The eagle on top of the flagpole remained.

On Sunday night, a crane was seen entering the consulate compound and hoisting at least one container onto a large truck.

The Chengdu consulate opened in 1985 and had almost 200 employees, including about 150 locally hired staff, according to its website. It was not immediately clear how many had been working there at the time of its closure, after U.S. diplomats were evacuated from China because of the coronavirus pandemic.

U.S.-China relations have plunged to their worst in decades over a range of disputes, from trade and technology to the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and its clampdown on Hong Kong.

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a speech calling a more assertive approach to China the “mission of our time”.

(Reporting by Martin Quin Pollard and Thomas Peter; writing by Tony Munroe; editing by Richard Pullin and Raju Gopalakrishnan)