Let’s say a prayer for Port Arthur, together.

Our city needs it, since we have been inundated with rain and flooding of Biblical proportion. Our homes have flooded. Our shelters have flooded. Nearly three-quarters of our city was submerged by Harvey, leaving us with no place to go but to rooftops and to the highest reaches of shelters in some instances.

The flooding is worse than our worst imagination could have conjured, and it’s clear we will forever be impacted and changed by this drenching storm that took not one but two swipes at us.

But we are Port Arthur strong and today is our first day of respite from the rain. Today is the day we can join together both literally and figuratively and say a prayer for Port Arthur, then start taking the tiny steps toward getting the shelter and help we need as the flood waters recede.

It won’t be easy, of course. Our people are suffering. Harvey has taken lives. It has ruined possessions. Homes will be unlivable. Workplaces inoperable. We don’t even know the full extent of Port Arthur’s damage.

All we know is Harvey’s water trapped our beloved in homes and that by Wednesday morning, after overnight deluge, we didn’t know where to turn to escape the rising water, as major roads out of the city were swamped, isolating us momentarily from the rest of the world with nothing but water in every direction.

In that moment, we did the best we could. The heartwarming stories of survival are many, like the one about how 500 people, and dozens of dogs, cats and even a lizard and a monkey took shelter at the Max Bowling alley in the city.

“The monkey was a little surprising, but we’re trying to help,” said the bowling alley’s general manager Jeff Tolliver, according to the Associated Press.

Even our newspaper has not been spared. We printed an abbreviated newspaper today, but floodwaters may prevent many regular readers from seeing it. We hope to distribute free copies at shelters as we are able. In addition, we are relying upon digital delivery and the help of colleagues in other cities to deliver the news.

Everybody that’s able is trying to help, and that’s the most heartwarming element of it all, since we need all the help we can get.

The rain fell on Port Arthur into the early hours of this morning and it is hard to imagine Harvey had anything left for us. Finally, however, the storm is pulling north and the clouds will break.

The worst, it seems, is over. So, let’s say a prayer for Port Arthur, together.

Let’s pray for help. Let’s pray for healing. And, let’s pray that our city will emerge from Harvey stronger than ever before.

Rich Macke is Publisher of The Port Arthur News. He can be reached at rich.macke@panews.com.