When 911 Failed Them, Desperate Harvey Victims Took to Social Media for Help

Bobby Lopez first tried calling 911 at about 3 a.m. on Sunday.The flood waters that had gushed into his parents’ Houston garage were rising. The table where his mother, a partially blind and diabetic 60-year-old, sat with Lopez’s father and their three-year-old grandchild would soon be engulfed.He’d tried driving to them in his truck, but the roads were unpassable.Lopez said he tried calling again, and each time, he was told that dozens of people were ahead in line for help. His parents, too, had dialed 911.So Lopez did what countless others have done in the wake of a storm that has devastated a region and overwhelmed emergency dispatchers: He took to social media in hopes that someone -- anyone -- would see the plea and come to his family’s rescue.“My mom is stuck in Songwood!,” he tweeted, tagging, among others, an unofficial Houston Fire Department rescue account, and the Houston Police Department. “Mom elderly and disabled and have my nephew.”  Continue reading...