Hurricane Laura Evacuees Head to Dallas. Around 5,000 evacuees from the Texas coast are expected to arrive today, and the plan is for 2,000 or so to be housed at the state’s expense in three downtown Dallas hotels: the Hilton Anatole Hotel, Crowne Plaza, and Hyatt Regency. Rocky Vaz, director of Dallas’ Office of Emergency Management, says he had hoped to have more time to make arrangements and to better stagger check-ins, but he says they are “dealing with it.” The state is covering the cost of three meals per day for the evacuees, but the city will be providing snacks, diapers, counseling services at Parkland, and other necessities for what is estimated to be a two-week stay. Welcome, y’all.
Don’t Reach Blindly Into Your Trash Can. There May Be a Rabid Bat. My wife was bit by a rabid bat while we lived in Ohio when she reached into our bathroom trashcan to empty it. She then ran screaming down three flights of stairs (we lived in an old Victorian with a converted attic) and straight out the front door. We both had to get shots, which was surprisingly difficult to do because all of the rabies vaccines in town had just been used up by The Ohio State University veterinary school after the students had managed to dissect a rabid horse. (The shots don’t hurt as bad as you might’ve heard, but there are a lot of them.) I am sharing all of this as a public service announcement because a rabid bat was found dead in Plano near West 15th Street and Custer Road. If you find a bat near the ground, it is not a good thing. Don’t touch it.
There Is Too Much Tragic News About Children. Sex trafficking is real, and you don’t need to waste your time on idiotic conspiracy theories to find and stop it. Just pay attention to what’s in front of you. If you see a young boy without pants taken into a hotel room by three random grown men, for goodness sake call the police. And if anyone you know is getting overly frustrated with the children in their care, please, please, please reach out for help before it is too late. Call the Texas child abuse hotline at 1-800-252-5400.
Dallas County Reports Six New COVID-19 Deaths and 311 New Cases. That brings the total death toll for the eight-county region to 2,000. Dallas County is also reporting that 15 percent of all new September cases have been in young adults 18 to 22 years old, the highest percentage for that age group since the beginning of the pandemic. The hardest hit zip codes continue to be 75211 and 75217.
