A-list celebrities are rallying around to help those affected by Hurricane Harvey. The category 5 hurricane ripped through Texas leaving a path of complete destruction. The storm wrecked the Gulf coast, taking at least 14 lives and flooding Texas cities such as Houston. People around have come together to help the victims.
The storm brought flooding to Houston after making landfall in Texas as a category 4 hurricane on Friday. By Monday Houston and nearby towns received over 24 inches of rainfall, forcing some people to their roofs as rescuers worked to bring them shelter.
Celebrities are using their star power to help. Jamie Foxx is set to host a star- studded telethon on September 12th to raise money for victims, celebrities will on the phones to help everyone affected by the storm.
Star Power
Kevin Hart was the first celebrity to start the fundraising campaign to help those in need. Taking to Instagram he started the “Hurricane Harvey Relief Challenge.” He started the donation with a huge sum of $50,000 to the Red Cross who are helping victims and families who have lost everything. Kevin is calling on other celebrities to donate, big names have donated over $25,000 each, including Dwayne Johnson, Nicki Minaj, and DJ Khaled.
Miley Cyrus who herself is from Texas, recently announced on the Ellen DeGeneres show how she’s donated up to $500,000 to the relief.
Through her Happy Hippie Foundation, she’s been able to help the victims, breaking down on the show the singer wept "I just—it’ll make me cry so I can’t really talk about it," she said “It just really makes me so upset so I really hope people know—I’m not even, like I couldn’t fake it. If I didn’t have that anymore, it’d just be hard so I’m really happy to help any way that I can, and I hope people can understand and can put themselves in those people’s shoes and just know what it feels like to have everything taken away from you."
Red Cross relief
Sandra Bullock and Leonardo Di Caprio have led the way with donations with pledging over $1 million each to the cause.
Bullock who owns a home in Texas, donated her money to the Red Cross for hurricane relief. Both the stars have encouraged their fans to help by tweeting links to ask people to donate what they can.
Hurricane Irma is the next storm to hit and has already passed over the Barbuda, with the residents of Florida being told to prepare for the worst. With winds of 185mph Irma is set to be a record-breaking storm.