Kevin Brady: “In having survived Hurricanes Rita and Ike, my district and the people of southeast Texas know and understand hurricanes…”

“In having survived Hurricanes Rita and Ike, my district and the people of southeast Texas know and understand hurricanes and the devastation they can bring to our communities. This past September, we dealt with a very different type of disaster in the form of major wildfires in the Counties of Jasper, Tyler, Trinity, Walker, and in my home county of Montgomery. Luckily for us, we were also granted our September miracle on Labor Day weekend as fire crews from across Texas--and, in fact, from the entire country--came to Magnolia to battle a three-county blaze that threatened to consume well over 10,000 homes and businesses in Magnolia, as well as thousands more in neighboring Grimes and Waller Counties. In fact, if you look at this map, you can see the structures lost in Montgomery County were a fraction of the percentage of those saved by the brave fire crews. The fire was in this area outlined here, but you can see from the red, the yellow, the green, and the blue going out all the thousands of homes and small businesses which were saved because of the actions of our local firefighters. I had the privilege to go up twice to those fire areas to see for myself how the fire lines came right up to these homes--within 5 feet of their front doors. Somehow our firefighters saved them, and then they did it to the homes next to them and to the homes next to those. It is impossible for me and for anyone who could see that not to be in awe of these heroes.…”