美国国家公共电台 NPR Houston Police Chief Speaks About Situation In City Following Hurricane Harvey

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

In Houston, Police Chief Art Acevedo has been helping¹ to lead the city's response to Harvey. Now as the city begins to move from the search and rescue into the recovery phase, we wanted to check back in with him. Chief Acevedo is on the line now. Thank you for joining us once again.

CHIEF ART ACEVEDO: Hey. Thanks for having me, and thanks for telling our story here in Houston.

SHAPIRO: We last spoke² to you on Monday. Have you slept since then?

ACEVEDO: A little bit - enough, enough. There'll be time to sleep later.

SHAPIRO: When we spoke then, you said you think this will go down in history as the worst flooding of all time. Now that you've had a few days to take stock, is this situation better or worse than you had feared?

ACEVEDO: I think it's as significant as I had feared, and - but I am so heartened by the fact that so far, the deaths out of this storm of a lifetime, of historical proportions has been so low. It's just so much we have to be grateful for.

SHAPIRO: Well, your officers are partly to thank for that. And I know that during this flood, you lost one of your own, a veteran officer, Steve Perez.

ACEVEDO: Yeah.

SHAPIRO: You became emotional as you paid tribute to him at a news conference on Tuesday. Have you and your staff had any opportunity to mourn and remember him?

ACEVEDO: You know, we mourn as we move, right? I mean we haven't had the opportunity to actually sit and mourn him. But believe me. Everybody's mourning him in their own way. I had an officer today when I was visiting with my officers call me outside and tell me a story about Steve. He started crying. I started crying.

And it's just - what - instead of mourning, he's actually - we're using him as a point of inspiration. We want to finish this mission. And we know we're across the 50-yard line, but now we want to take it all the way into the end zone and help our community secure a victory out of this big, large, tragic³ event.

SHAPIRO: Well, tell me about how your mission changes as the sun comes out and the floodwaters recede⁴.

ACEVEDO: Well, you know, our fire department partners - brothers and sisters with our assistance are - they're conducting secondary searches. And they're getting well ahead of that. Unfortunately today we see water still rising in the west side of the city, in the memorial area. And the mayor, Mayor Turner, issued - very strongly issued evacuation orders that are not mandatory⁵ but strongly, strongly encouraged because we still have people in flooded homes, living upstairs.

And unfortunately, they will not be able - that water will not - we recede for 14 or 15 days, and we can't afford to continue to risk our men and women and the fire department's men and women delivering food and supplies so they can stay in their house. It's not safe, and that's what's been going on, too. That's been the biggest issue today.

SHAPIRO: Yeah. I know that after other disasters such as Katrina, looting has been a big problem. It was something you cautioned people not to do earlier in the week. Have you seen that problem?

ACEVEDO: It is. We've had less crime occurring here in terms of burglaries, which, you know - outside of a natural disaster, you'd call it a burglary. During - right after the aftermath of natural disaster, we call it looting. We've had fewer instances because of the high visibility of the police department and all of our partners in law enforcement and the air assets and everything else that we've deployed⁶, including some of our friends from the FBI and other federal agencies in undercover cars.

We've got the city blanketed. We're not going to mess around. And I think the criminals do a risk-benefit assessment⁷, and they know that right now the risk of getting caught is very high, and the penalty is going to be worse than usual.

SHAPIRO: Well, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, the whole country is thinking of you and your city, and we appreciate your time.

ACEVEDO: Hey, thank you for telling our story.

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

4 recede   

vi.退(去)，渐渐远去；向后倾斜，缩进

参考例句：

• The colleges would recede in importance.大学的重要性会降低。
• He saw that the dirty water had begun to recede.他发现那污浊的水开始往下退了。

5 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

6 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

7 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？