Hurricane Harvey Evacuees Seek Normalcy With Perot Museum Visit

Janet Rodriguez wanted life to be normal, if only for a couple of hours. That's a couple of hours not thinking about the floods. A couple of hours forgetting about the water creeping into her family's Houston-area homes, pouring over their floors and washing over precious items they left behind. A couple of hours without worry."We just want to get our minds off everything at home," said Rodriguez, 29, who works as a mortgage loan officer in Houston. So Wednesday afternoon, she and her family dropped by the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in downtown Dallas, where admission is free for Hurricane Harvey evacuees through Sept. 30. Nearly 400 evacuees had funneled through the museum before the day was over. "We all feel this. Most of us here have friends and family who have been affected," said Perot spokeswoman Krista Villarreal Moore, whose dad lives in Houston and aunts live in The Woodlands and Victoria. "We want to be the community gathering place." Getting outOn Sunday, Rodriguez, her mom, her dad, her older brother and her 9-year-old daughter made the trek from Spring — about 25 miles north of Houston — after heeding a mandatory evacuation order. Then they drove north to a hotel in Dallas as sheets of rain pounded Rodriguez's mother's Chevrolet Equinox."I was afraid the water was going to hit us," said Sylvia, Rodriguez's daughter.   Continue reading...