This is as of yesterday:
http://www.npr.org/2017/08/27/546603340/red-cross-update-on-hurricane-harvey-relief-efforts
People can get in. A coworker drove down from Dallas to his house yesterday afternoon. Another coworker's husband is driving in from WVa and should arrive today. It can be tricky to get in because some main routes are flooded, but it's manageable for the most part. Some areas in Brazoria county are sealed off because main roads are flooded, and some neighborhoods in Houston, but with some care and effort you can mostly get from any point A to any point B. It's a question as to whether the effort's worth it--I could probably volunteer at my school but it may take me 2 or 3 hours to get there instead of the usual 25 minutes, the usual major roads are all flooded at some point. Bayous are still at or near crest and I have to cross at least 2 bayous and some tributary "gullies".
People see the news feeds and assume that's all there is to know. Coast Guard, National Guard, local police and firefighters, volunteer brigades are all helping to rescue people.
There are large city- and county-sponsored relief shelters, but schools, religious organizations, lots of private venues (malls and stores), pretty much any place with a large floor area and sufficient bathrooms stand a good chance of having opened their doors. They're strained, but holding so far, and there's security and people in charge at the shelters from the get-go to help organize and maintain order, provide supplies and organize obtaining supplies. Not everybody's opened their doors, but it seemed at least adequate last night at 11 pm. (The school I work at is open as a shelter because staff and families asked, but other schools in the district are closed. The district has limited ability to open buildings and compel people to help, so faulting the district is inappropriate. It asked, and that's what they could do. Same for other organizations. The school has showers, bathrooms, and a kitchen all in a central area, so it's a good place. Some of the other schools have the gym distant from the cafeteria, and you don't want 200 bored people, largely under 18, left unsupervised running down halls with classrooms with equipment, musical instruments, or personal things.)
It's a disaster and lots are suffering, but it's not like leaving a few thousand people on their own in a single large stadium for days or leaving a bunch of poor people in their houses as the flood waters go from 0 to 10' in half an hour.
Now, the news is always myopic and loves wearing its blinders, but the (few) Katrina refugees that they've interviewed on air (mostly live) at shelters have all said they feel safer, more welcome, and better taken care of than a decade ago. Maybe they think they need to say that, but they were clothed, dry, fed, and given shelter as a family in secure conditions for at least the next week within 2 hours after they were rescued by boat.
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