Hurricane Harvey

The Marble Falls High School Student Council and National Honor Society students have adopted families attending schools in Bay City Independent School District (ISD), following news that many of Bay City ISD’s families lost their homes following a mandatory evacuation order during the Harvey flooding and devastation this week.

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

Estimates have more than 30,000 Texans seeking emergency shelter as the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey continues, but many are safe and dry in the Texas Hill Country.

Mission Marble Falls at St. Frederick Church geared up for a lunch Tuesday, Aug. 29, to welcome people fleeing the storm.

Ann Sherman and Ron Farmer had traveled from Port Aransas.

“When they said Harvey would come as a Category 1, we were going to stay,” said Sherman. “Then they said Category 3 or maybe 4.

“Ron said we are going. We grabbed our cat, our records, our pictures and we got out in 45 minutes.”

A few people stayed behind and the couple said the news was disheartening.

“The roof is gone and the ceiling is on the floor,” he said.

Two groups of people from Sweeney who had never met were lunching in the St. Frederick dining room.

Twelve years ago, Katrina made landfall as the 11th named storm and fifth hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. By the time she dissipated on Aug. 31, 2005, she was the costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States and one of the five deadliest storms ever to hit the mainland.

More than 1,800 people died in Katrina's destruction – not just from her hurricane-force winds, but also from her storm surge and flooding, which was augmented by the failure of more than 50 levees and other protective structures around greater New Orleans, which was 80 percent submerged in water at the height of the storm.

More than $108 billion in damage was reported from Katrina and she drove thousands of residents away from the Crescent City, including some who eventually made the Burnet County. The Smoking for Jesus Ministry observed the 12th anniversary of their deliverance from Katrina to Texas this past Sunday.

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

As Hurricane Harvey made landfall between Port Aransas and Port O'Connor Friday, Aug. 25, it was almost 12 years to the day that a whole congregation began its exodus from New Orleans, La. to find a home at last in Burnet County.

“We know what they are facing and we dedicated a portion of the service yesterday to prayer for them,” Claudette Monnet, who shares pastoral duties with her husband Willie L. Monnet, Sr., at Smoking for Jesus Ministry. “We will continue to pray for them.

“We have been checking on people we know and waiting to hear if anyone needs us.”

That is the measure county emergency personnel have been taking.