BOAT HEROES Doing More Heroics, In Houston, In Boats!

Now as long as Barbara Bush doesn't say they've got it pretty good...

Donald Trump has headed to Texas so he can live out another of those Tweets from the past that persist in coming back to dog him:

But we're not here to talk about that, or Melania's flood-appropriate stiletto heels, either (Message: I'm Not Even Pretending I Care). No, we're here to now praise excellent ordinary people who are just out there getting muddy and wet and helping, because that's what you do, as that puddle-standing guy reminded us yesterday, while also reminding us what a president sounds like:

So let's salute some folks who are just out there making the wet watery wasteland a little bit better for their neighbors. We honestly don't care who any of the people in these stories voted for. We only care that they're helping right now.

You Won't BELIEVE This Furniture King's Amazing Deals On Free Shelter!! 

Jim McIngvale, owner of Gallery Furniture in Houston, has opened up his two furniture stores to house people seeking shelter from the storm. Again! After Katrina, he took in people who had fled New Orleans, and now he's letting people from his own city park themselves on his couches, beds, and dinette sets as long as they need some temporary shelter. He told CNN's Alysin Camerota he's putting up 360 people in one store, and about 400 in the other, adding, "So we've got lots of people displaced from the horrible flooding and we're thrilled to have them."

</center> <p>He's not worried that his inventory will be ruined by all the visitors -- but if there are some scuffs and dents, that's what the scuff and dent sales are for. He's on the high ground -- physically and morally -- so inventory is the least of his worries right now: </p><p/><blockquote>"Some of them will stay two or three days, some will stay as long as a week until they get back on their feet but you know, these are great people," he said. "They're not hard on the inventory, they're fine. We've got nothing but good things to say about all these people that have gone through these incredible tragedies. <p>"The other morning a young boy came up to me, he was about 7 years old, and he's carrying, stumbled in here and he was crying and he said his parents, who obviously couldn't speak English. he said, 'can we stay here?' Just breaks your heart. </p><p>"We're thrilled to have these people here and life dealt them a bad hand, trying to help relieve some of the stress and anxiety on them right now and hope to get back to a life of normalcy in the future."</p></blockquote> <p>Both of the stores have on-site restaurants, so he's able to feed his guests, too. Pets are welcome, too, on-leash or in travel crates. McIngvale is happy just to be in a position to help: </p><p/><blockquote>We feed all the folks breakfast, lunch and dinner and try to take care of them like they'd be taken care of at a hotel. If we can make life easier as they try to get something back, we've done something right in our life.</blockquote> <p>In case you were wondering what an actual saint looks like, an actual saint looks like a guy who goes on <a href="https://twitter.com/MattressMack/status/893152269188833280" target="_blank">Twitter</a> dressed in a goofy mattress outfit, and <em>will not be undersold. </em> </p><p><a href="https://wonkette.substack.com/p/boat-heroes-doing-more-heroics-in-houston-boats/mattress-guy-tweet" rel="attachment wp-att-622303"><img id="58a95" data-rm-shortcode-id="f986ca0c77734d9c46e06efc1a4fb5d3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" class="rm-shortcode " loading="lazy" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzY2NTU5NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTc0MTIzMjAyNH0.YG0-xp81p65SxjmKEao6Z-DRHuOXliRfEO4dRBTPccg/img.jpg?width=980" /></a> A mensch in a goofy costume </p><p/><h2>Cajun Navy Brings Drowned Woman <em>Back From The Dead,</em> No Big</h2> <p><a href="https://wonkette.substack.com/p/boat-heroes-doing-more-heroics-in-houston-boats/wilma-ellis" rel="attachment wp-att-622304"><img id="aacce" data-rm-shortcode-id="e1ea9267d596cbf5d7614f7dd6a35e33" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" class="rm-shortcode " loading="lazy" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzY2NTU5Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTcxNjUxNTE3Nn0.S3IRL9YF7mEDXggBKHsb6f0Bc-96T0G6F4bfytOGvFg/img.jpg?width=980" /></a> Wilma Ellis after her rescue; photo by <a href="http://www.nola.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2017/08/members_of_cajun_navy_resuscit.html" target="_blank">Joshua Lincoln</a> </p><p>Three <a href="https://wonkette.substack.com/p/texas-boat-heroes-just-being-heroes-in-boats" target="_blank">BOAT HEROES </a>with the volunteer "Cajun Navy" from Louisiana found 73-year-old Wilma Ellis <a href="http://www.nola.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2017/08/members_of_cajun_navy_resuscit.html" target="_blank">floating facedown </a>in Houston's flood waters Monday morning. She wasn't breathing, but that's what your first-aid training is for: </p><p/><blockquote>Joshua Lincoln of Madisonville, Ricky Berrigan of Lacombe and Donnie Davenport of Pearl River were motoring their flatboat northeast of Houston when they came across 73-year-old Wilma Ellis, floating face down. <p>"I thought it was a trash bag," Lincoln said. "She was wearing a black shirt. </p><p>"The lady must have been crossing in some current. She floated right to the boat. We jumped out and got her and gave her compressions right there in the water. We were holding her from behind." </p><p>After about 15 chest compressions, Ellis began to cough and breathe on her own, Lincoln said.</p></blockquote> <p>Ms. Ellis was wearing a hospital bracelet at the time the men rescued her, but they weren't initially able to find anyone she was related to. She was frightened and seemed disoriented; after the rescuers got her to a shelter and posted her picture on Facebook, a network of people asking around found Ellis's grandson, Jerele, who made arrangements to pick her up. Another happy outcome, oh, and a bit of lifesaving. Mssrs. Lincoln, Berrigan, and Davenport were glad to find out the family had been reunited, then got back to work rescuing people -- after urging people to donate what they can spare to help the flood victims. (<a href="https://wonkette.substack.com/p/texas-two-step-courts-rulings-on-districting-fuckery-step-to-the-side-for-a-while" target="_blank">Here's that list of charities again!</a>) </p><p/><h2>Let's Hear It For Enemies Of The People </h2><p/><center><blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">A powerful moment on <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN">@CNN</a> just now -- a flood rescue with <a href="https://twitter.com/edlavaCNN">@edlavaCNN</a> <a href="https://t.co/4Icgn35WzV">https://t.co/4Icgn35WzV</a></p>— Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) <a href="https://twitter.com/AnaCabrera/status/901932653472923648">August 27, 2017</a></blockquote> <p><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"/></p></center> <p>At the <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/will_bunch/hurricane-harvey-houston-texas-flooding-fema-donald-trump-20170829.html" target="_blank">Philadelphia Inkwire</a> (we're assured this is local pronunciation), columnist Will Bunch is out to make you cry with a brief overview of any number of human beings who have been dehumanized in one media outlet or another -- starting with journalists, who are so very dishonest that the president says they're enemies of the people -- who turn out to be very, very human, and have been doing their part to rescue people. For instance, Ed Lavandera, from lying, failing CNN, who enemied of the people and helped a woman, her two elderly parents, and their little dog into his boat. How big a media monster is Lavandera? When it was time to help the woman's mom get out of the house, he asked his camera operator to shut off the camera, since the woman had Alzheimer's and he didn't want anything that might upset the family to go out on live TV. </p><p>Or maybe there's local reporter Brandi Smith, whose station, KHOU, had to be evacuated when the studio flooded; she was doing a live remote, saw a tractor-trailer rig in water up to the cab's window, and flagged down a sheriff's truck with a boat on a trailer to help the driver. The deputies hadn't yet heard anything about the stranded truck: </p><p/><center><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c40f57705a7bba7ce99ebff067b40771"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l9ML8YCQUGE?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;">

Was there a bad reporter? There was. He narced out "looters." AT A GROCERY STORE. Let's get back to good people of goodness instead.

For instance, there's Gloria Quintanilla, 60, whom a New York Times reporter found walking down a flooded street after wading a mile through the flood to get to her $10-an-hour job at a hotel, where she works ironing and folding sheets:

“I worked at the hotel up there,” she said when a reporter approached. As she walked, she explained that she was an immigrant from El Salvador, here since 1982. She makes $10 an hour washing and ironing sheets and towels at the Doubletree.

She had started the journey from home more than an hour before.

“It was my day to work, and I’m a very responsible person,” she said, speaking in Spanish. “I had no idea it was going to be like this.”

We'd say she's one of our best, and we hope she gets a few days off. With pay.

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