Former Houston Mayor Bill White a victim of Harvey's flooding
Twelve years ago this month, Houston Mayor Bill White (D) did the seemingly unthinkable, opening the doors of his thriving city to a traumatized flood of homeless Katrina evacuees — more than 200,000 of them in all.
It was a complicated political gamble, which he justified in shockingly uncomplicated terms: “You should treat your neighbors the way you’d want to be treated,” he argued. A controversial decision at the time, it is remembered as one of the city’s finest moments.
Now the man known for sheltering displaced evacuees during a historic disaster is himself in need of shelter. On Sunday, White’s home in the upscale Memorial neighborhood of west Houston was engulfed by Tropical Storm Harvey’s fast-rising floodwaters, leaving the prominent Houstonian to fend for himself in the sprawling urban pond like so many others.
A photo taken by a neighbor moments after he was forced from his home shows the 63-year-old wading cautiously in waist-deep, coffee-colored waters, a hiking pole in one hand, a black briefcase full of work documents in the other.
Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2017/08/30/former-houston-mayor-bill-white-victim-harveys-flooding/
