Dear West Street supporters friends and family,

We hope that you are all well happy and healthy, that you are getting vaccinated and spending some time in close proximity (yes like actually physically in the same room) with those who you love and care for. 

The first half of the year has been a period of huge growth for us at WSR. We have reconnected over 100 families to full water supply and our organizing efforts have grown leaps and bounds. As we keep working through winter storm projects, we are recentering sustainability and communal care for our staff. We know the rapid response will be needed again soon. And with utter sincerity we couldn’t do it without your continued emotional, fiscal, technical and labor support. 

Before June even began, storms from tropical depressions drenched Houston. The 2021 Hurricane season is predicted to be “more active than the historical average” but the late May storms that saturated the soil, and sent water flowing across streets weren’t hurricanes; they weren’t tropical storms; they were not newsworthy, but they were bad. Two WSR clients had ceilings collapse and another had several inches of flood water. Luckily members of the Northeast Action Collective and the Harvey Forgotten Survivors Caucus sprang into action to patch the ceilings, and resilient design interventions at the flooded home protected the family from any serious impacts.While we are proud of the social infrastructure, collective care and skills we deploy with increasing frequency, we are tired of being “resilient” and we know the incredible NAC and Caucus members and their neighborhoods in NE Houston are too.  

Houston needs a better disaster preparedness system, and to make that happen we need to acknowledge that major storms are no longer rare events. The probabilities conveyed by the phrase “500 year flood plain” standard are outdated to the point of bordering misinformation. Considering the current mood of relentless self congratulation and tireless climate innaction from our political and economic leaders we must prepare for the worst as autonomous organizations while simultaneously advocating for a much more fundamental shift in the way we consume energy and live our lives. (Don’t worry, our “leaders” are spending lots of energy – of both the spiritual and fossil fuel kind – getting ready to launch themselves into space)  WSR has been trying to enact preparedness with our small community to both protect each other and model what real preparedness would look like. We are doing door knocking to create phone trees and spread information about how to respond during storms; installing generators for people with extreme health vulnerabilities. We have also created “Go-Bags” that will help families evacuate or shelter in place safely.