Asian American Perspectives on Harvey on Emil Amok's Takeout Emil Amok's Takeout from Emil Guillermo Media

Check out the blog at http:/www.aaldef.org/blog
You can donate to help Asian American Harvey victims here:
http://www.ocahouston.org/harveyrelief
Emil Guillermo interviews:
Jessica Kong, who evacuated from her home with her brother and mother the first Monday after the storm hit. 
Steven Wu, a Katrina survivor who now lives in Houston.
Martha Wong, the first Asian American city council person in Houston's history. She talks about the post-Harvey politics.
 Emil Guillermo: Three Asian Americans on Harvey: A stranded evacuee, a Katrina survivor, and a Trump booster 
September 2, 2017 8:53 PM


If you're a president known for tweeting, of course, there's only one way to show any empathy.


You do selfies.



It was Trump in what would be known as a "mulligan" in golf--his second visit to Houston since Hurricane Harvey demolished Texas. Trump arrived on Saturday at the NRG shelter in Houston and on the make-good finally seemed to understand his role as comforter-in-chief.


When he spoke to reporters, he seemed impressed by what he saw.


"Very happy with the way everything's been done, a lot of love," said the president about the aid effort.


Trump likes to throw that word "love" around these days. Let's see if he finds any for DACA recipients on Tuesday. 


But on this day, Trump said people he talked with at the shelter were happy. 


"It's been a wonderful thing," he told reporters. "As tough as this was, it's been a wonderful thing. Even for the country to watch and the world to watch."


Of course, the whole world saw the state of American infrastructure under Trump. People in high water trudging along as if the U.S. were a developing country in denial of climate change.


Will this Trump show of empathy reverse first impressions? 


Sure, he's promised a personal donation of a million dollars to help. And he's asking Congress for $79 billion for Houston's recovery. So he's done what's expected.


Will it be enough to undo what could be the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history?


EVACUEES STILL WAIT FOR WATER TO RECEDE
While some residents were able to pick through the debris of their material lives on Saturday, that didn't include Jessica Kong and her mother and brother. 


The home where they live to the west of Houston in Katy--where the reservoir releases made Harvey's impact even more formidable--was still underwater.


The Kongs lived in one of the estimated 200,000 homes in Houston damaged by Harvey.


Since Monday, August 28, the family voluntarily evacuated, when the water was just thigh high. 


"I really don't know when we'll be back," Jessica told me by phone on Friday. She shared a picture of her home that a neighbor took on Thursday. 




"The water is still high," she said. "We have no flood insurance."


Her family has already applied for FEMA relief online. Reports say more than 450,000 have already registered. The Kongs have also contacted their homeowner's insurance company. After staying in a shelter in the local middle school, they've since relocated to Jessica's older sister's suburban home, which did not suffer from Harvey's rains. And even now, as she contemplates the laborious task of rebuilding after Harvey, she marvels at how strong her core family has been throughout the whole ordeal, relying on each other, friends, neighbors, and extended family.


She feels that the storm has prioritized the importance of things in her life.


She paused as she thought of a friend who lived in Dickinson, a more heavily hit area toward the coast.


That friend, a young woman, had been diagnosed with cancer this year. And she lost everything in the storm.


It's a reminder to Kong of her relative good fortune.


As she and her family rushed out of the house, they took only what was necessary. But one item she had to leave behind was a special portrait of her mom that her late father, who died of cancer in 2005, commissioned for her 50