Country music royalty performing live from San Antonio to help with Harvey recovery
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Country music royalty coming together to help Texas recover after Hurricane Harvey battered the coast and flooded Houston.
George Strait made a few phone calls to his country music friends and put together Hand In Hand Texas. Strait said he's also planning on visiting Rockport soon.
"With efforts like this we'll be able to get those businesses up and running which really needs to happen because it's such a vacation spot and those people depend on the tourists to come in there and make their living," Strait said.
Governor Greg Abbott was at Strait's Tuesday afternoon press conference at the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio. He issued an official gubernatorial proclamation making September 12th Hand In Hand Day in Texas.
"It's a celebration of the way that Texans have responded, a celebration of the way that Americans, in fact people across the globe, have come together in partnership to show the very best of humanity," Abbott said.
The Governor also applauded the generosity of the Dell family.
"Tonight, every dollar that is donated, Michael and Susan Dell will be matching those dollars up to $10 million," Abbott said.
Native East Texan Miranda Lambert is performing. She helped animals find shelter after Harvey in the Houston area.
"Texans are very proud as we all know but we like to come together in hard times and this is a time where we have to lift each other up in every way possible," Lambert said.
Chris Stapleton, the only non-Texan of the bunch says several years ago his home was flooded in Nashville.
"It is a horrific, traumatizing thing that is really hard to get over and you have to. We need this help here immediately but also in many, many months, even years to come. There's going to be a lot of rebuilding to do," Stapleton said.
Lyle Lovett's Harris County home wasn't affected...but he said houses just a few miles away from him were underwater.
"The pastor of my church Trinity Lutheran Church in Cline, his house was flooded and to see the outpouring in our community as an example has just been inspiring and George that's what you're doing in bringing us all together," Lovett said.
Houston native Robert Earl Keen grew up visiting many of the spots on the coast affected by Harvey.
"When I think about how much destruction that something like that could cause and how much it takes to repair, if this particular show happened every day for the rest of the year I would be in on it," Keen said.
The Hand In Hand telethon will be broadcast live on all major networks tonight including right here on Fox 7 at 7:00.