The first duty of Houston in the wake of the flood tragedy is to care for its needy.

The second is to give a thought to the causes of the heavy losses now inflicted on us, and to determine to safeguard ourselves against a repetition of them.

The thought will be made none the more pleasant by the recollection that we have known all along that this flood damage was coming. All we did not know was the exact time and extent of it.

Hundreds of families are now homeless, and business firms have suffered losses mounting into millions of dollars - primarily if not solely because Houston and Harris County did not frankly face their flood problem following the disaster of 1929.

Help has been given the families driven from their homes. Many a heroic deed has been done in rescuing them and carrying them to safety. The homes of neighbors have been opened to them. Houston's response to the emergency has been admirable. The police and firemen and hundreds of volunteer citizen-helpers are due all praise.

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However, more remains to be done. Many families yet face destitution; and many others are without means of rehabilitating their homes. The Red Cross has come to their aid; but the Red Cross, in the final analysis, is merely an agency of the citizenship. It labors for the citizens, but it can accomplish little without their active and continuing support.

The local chapter, headed by W.A. Paddock, has opened headquarters on the ground floor of the Shell Building center. There all flood sufferers are asked to register; and from there all relief will be extended.

Clothing is needed. The citizens of Houston are asked to send supplies at once to the Shell Building center. All types of usable clothing, for men, women and children, is needed.

Funds, too, are needed. It is too soon yet to estimate the total, but at least several thousand dollars must be had if homeless families are to be re-established in a condition comparable to that which they knew prior to the flood.

Cash and checks should be sent, at once, to the Harris County Red Cross, Marine Bank Building.

When this immediate need is supplied we must turn our attention seriously to flood prevention. We must not forget this tragedy as we did the one in 1929. Houston has been visited by four serious floods in the last 40 years, each worse than the preceding one. The Chronicle has pointed out repeatedly since 1929 that the improved drainage in the western part of the county, the development of widespread Houston residential sections, with storm sewers turning floods of water into the bayou after every rain, has steadily increased the hazard. Added to this, now, is widespread WPA drainage work, which turns water from broad areas more rapidly into the bayous, and speeds it through cleaned and straitened channels to the heart of Houston - where it strikes a veritable bottleneck.

The county simply can not now be drained by that little stream reaching from the Farmers Market through the jumble of buildings and beneath low bridges to the Main Street Viaduct. Nor can it be drained by the winding, undeepened bayou leading from Main Street to the Turning Basin.

Engineers have studied this problem for years; they know just what is needed; they have all the necessary plans on paper. Very soon now we must set about putting this plans into effect.

As matters stand, we not only have failed to prepare against a known danger, we are steadily increasing the seriousness of that danger. Surely that situation, emphasized by our present cruel experience, is a call to action.