Well it has been quite a crazy couple of weeks here in Southeast Texas.
I had a bad feeling about Hurricane Harvey from the beginning. I warned my wife and friends
that it looked like it was going to be bad.....and it was.
No on ever expects what happened to happen to them. We see mass flooding in India, and we think it's horrible, but it will never happen here. We see hurricanes rip apart peoples homes, but it's
always somewhere else, it's not our house.
We sat in the house for days watching it all happen, the devastation come to life.
We got anxious and fearful and slept very little.
I had an overwhelming fear the house would flood........but it did not.
In fact, nothing happened at all. We must live on the one block that is high enough,
we had no water on our street at all.
As soon as it passed, everyone sprung into action to start rescuing and helping.
It was quite remarkable how it all came together so quickly.
Laura worked night and day volunteering, along with our two girls.
It finally made sense to me the idea of having the "Big" Texas trucks!!!
Every other man in SE Texas owns a boat and they were all heading out into areas
rescuing folks and saving lives. Black, White, Asian, Hispanic.....it did not matter.
We all came together to save lives and hep one another.
I asked what I could do, and Laura said I should go to work.
I was lucky enough to have work out of town and if I could get there, I should go to work.
As I left last thursday morning, I basically snuck out.. It was still too soon, the damage was
unbelievable and authorities did not have time to assess the situation yet. Both sides of Interstate 10
were under water, but luckily eastbound had the remains of one lane barely drivable.
When I got to the airport in Lafayette I looked at Facebook.
I saw my people out volunteering. I saw musicians out feeding the first responders,
gathering supplies at the local shelters. I kind of felt like a heel.
These guys and gals just lost all of their work and they were helping our area.....
while I was leaving Dodge to go make myself some money.
Thats when I decided to set up the Gofundme for the SE Texas Musicians.
It was to help get some of these folks some money for the loss of their gigs and so they
could continue to volunteer and help our community without having to worry about money.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I set up a simple goal: $500 each for 25 musicians = $12,500
Between the generous donations online from all over the country and amazing blues fans
of Florida - we surpassed our goal. The remaining balance will go to local folks in need.
It is awesome to see everyone come together to help one another.
It is overwhelming the support and love you have all shown.
I cried more than once, and it felt good.
Thank you all so much for the donations and financial support.
Thank you to all of my friends who took a loss and instead of crying, took to the streets
in our community to help others.
Peace, Love....Zito
