Harvey drenching Jan Skarzenski;
Carmella Catania Allard on fringe

Janet Duncil Skarzenski, Class of 1966, is hunkering down in Houston while Hurricane Harvey hits Texas.

She’s 1.5 hours from Galveston but 3.5 hours from where Harvey hit the state coastline near Rockfort.

Jan Skarzenski

Jan describes her situation: “A lot of rain. Not much in the way of wind. Right now, we're OK but Houston is getting a lot of water. More than ever before. We'll see how the next few days do. Thank you.”

Torrential rains are hitting Houston, 95 miles from Harvey’s landfall. With Harvey stalled, the Houston rainfall for these next few days may equal the normal yearly total there. Thus, flooding would become a serious problem. The rivers around Houston are rising rapidly.

Richmond, Wharton and Victoria all are in serious danger of ramping rivers overflowing.

A tornado touched down in the Houston suburb of Cypress, damaging several homes.

With as much as six feet of water in some Houston homes, at least two people have drowned.

Thousands of homes are taking on water and hundreds of people are trapped and stranded in rising floodwaters across the Houston metro area after Harvey dumped more than two feet of rain. More than 1,000 people have been rescued across the area so far as the death toll from Harvey rose to three.

Dr. Greg Postel, meteorologist and hurricane specialist for The Weather Channel, said the flooding unfolding in the Houston area "could be the worst flooding disaster in U.S. history."

Texas Governor Gregg Abbott has activated 3,000 National and Stte Guard members.

300,000 were without power in Texas.

When Theresa Walter posted that her son lives in Angleton, 41 miles from Houston, Jan responded:  “I sometimes go to church at the 1^st Assembly of God Angleton with my kids. They live near Brazoria. Small world, Theresa.”

Brazoria is 55 miles from Houston and 14 miles from Angleton.



Carmella Catania Allard

Jan was on the 1960 Monongah team that won the Marion County softball title under the coaching of the late Gene Kendzior.

Carmella Catania Allard, Class of 1947, lives in San Antonio, 150 miles from the Rockfort landfall of Harvey. Her area seems to be on the fringe of the torrential rains . . . for now. Since Harvey is expected to hang around in Texas for a few more days, who knows?

Carmella’s sister, Mary Catania Heywood, Class of 1945, who lives in Covina, California, reports:

“It seems that Harvey is still active, but thankfully for Carmella and her family in San Antonio and Austin they have not had any problems.

 

“Thank you, John, for your concern, also all the work you do to keep us posted is wonderful. Take care.

 “Mary”

Carmella wound up in San Antonio because her husband, Omer, still was in the Air Force when the late Angelo Catania, Class of 1943,  convinced his siblings and father to move to Covina, California, where Angelo was stationed during his Army Coast Artillery training days of World War II.  

That would be Mary; Alex Catania, Class of 1944; Josephine Catania, Class of 1952; and their father, Joseph Catania, widower of Schiro Catania and a native of Sicily.

Angelo married a Monongah girl, Pauline Layne Catania, also deceased. Mary is the widow of Arthur Heywood, who passed away in 2015.