Houston Astros fans haven’t stopped celebrating as the club plays the World Series matchup against the Los Angeles Dodges.

Hurricane Harvey left wounds no baseball game can repair. Thousands lost their homes; dozens lost their lives. And yet, two months later, as Houston prepares to host the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 3 of the World Series, fans still picking through the damp remains of flooded-out houses are looking to their beloved Astros for a sign of hope.

Like the Saints after Katrina, the Red Sox after the Boston Marathon bombing, and the Yankees after 9/11, Astros players and coaches say they are on a mission to give storm-weary fans something to celebrate.

“I hope they can do it,” said Kevin Martinez, a 42-year-old lifelong fan. “After all that my wife and I have been through, we needed something to lift our spirits.”

He believes a World Series victory could do that, even if it can’t take away what happened in August, when Harvey battered the region with record-setting rain. At first, the murky floodwaters came slowly up Martinez’s street, flowing out of Cedar Bayou in his Baytown neighborhood. Then it jumped the curb and into the yard. Soon it was trickling under the front door and then kept coming, inch by inch, until Martinez and his wife were swimming out a window and flagging down a stranger in a boat.

The emotions that came in the hours, days and weeks that followed were shared by hundreds of thousands across the region: Panic. Stress. Disappointment. Fatigue. Depression.

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Article By Mike Hixenbaugh, houstonchronicle.com