As Harris County emergency responders try to manage the sheer number of calls for rescue and assistance, folks in southeast Texas have taken to social media to try to find other people who can help.
Jennifer Cardenas, a native of Ingelside, Texas, where Hurricane Harvey hit hard when it made landfall Friday night, started a Facebook group to keep in touch with friends and neighbors, after she and her family fled ahead of the storm. Page views grew rapidly for her page, “Hurricane Harvey 2017,” which has almost 130,000 members as of Tuesday morning.
“I get notifications every second. I go to my Facebook notifications and it literally just scrolls. There’s no keeping up with it for me, alone,” Cardenas says.
Crying, Cardenas says it’s overwhelming to see all of the posts from people stranded or in need of emergency assistance.
“I have hundreds of private messages: people personally thanking me that their family was saved or that they’ve been able to find their family, to see their home on a random post and know that it’s gonna be okay to come home,” she says.
Written by Caroline Covington.