As I sit down to write the editor’s note for our fall issue, it’s difficult trying to focus my words on private wealth, this issue’s articles and wealth management in general. The pull of the tragedy that is now playing out in Texas is simply too strong.

It’s Tuesday, Aug. 29—a full four days since Hurricane Harvey struck the southeast coast of Texas with devastating rains and winds. Yet, incredibly, the storm isn’t over. Rain keeps falling and water keeps rising. Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city, is essentially underwater, transformed in just a few days into a Venice-like zone of islands and inlets.

Ten are reported dead and tens of thousands are homeless, but it will likely take months for the full damage to be assessed, not to mention years for recovery, as some of the hardest hit areas are still inaccessible to rescue workers. The storm’s destruction has been described as unprecedented, one of the nation’s largest disasters ever.

Rescue efforts so far have been described as heroic. A true recovery, however, will require just as heroic a response by the nation as a whole—something U.S., state and local governments were unable to do in response to Sandy in 2012 and Katrina in 2005.
Will such a response happen? Can Congress and President Trump marshal the resources of the world’s wealthiest nation to ensure that Harvey’s victims will not be left to suffer?

The state of the nation so far this year gives cause to wonder. Politically, the nation remains sharply divided, to a point where not even one-party rule in Washington D.C. has led to any significant accomplishments. It’s not a good sign that members of Congress are already starting to bicker about how Texas representatives, so needy now, were among those who voted against Sandy relief.

But politics shouldn’t get in the way of providing the billions of dollars that will be needed for Harvey relief.  Shortchanging the region’s recovery would be senseless. Too many lives are in the balance, as is the economic health of Texas, which has been among the fastest-growing state economies for decades.

We can only hope that the nation’s leadership recognizes the need for quick, decisive action, and that the winds of Harvey, along with causing massive destruction, can usher in a long-overdue sense of national unity.

E-mail me at rfazzi@famag.com