Beyonce is the latest celebrity pledging to help victims of Hurricane Harvey, the category 4 hurricane that made landfall on Friday night in Texas.
“My heart goes out to my hometown, Houston, and I remain in constant prayer for those affected and for the rescuers who have been so brave and determined to do so much to help,” the pop star said in a statement to The Houston Chronicle on Monday night. “I am working closely with my team at BeyGOOD as well as my pastor (Rudy Rasmus at St. John’s in downtown Houston) to implement a plan to help as many as we can.”
Drake also took to Instagram on Monday, saying he was “working with local relief groups to aid and assist the people of Texas in anyway we can and in the most immediate way possible.”
Kevin Hart called for a Hurricane Harvey Relief Challenge on Sunday, tagging people like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Beyonce, Chris Rock and Steve Harvey.
“I am getting a link together now people. Help me help Houston,” he said in an Instagram video on Sunday. “I think we’ve participated in a lot of challenges on the internet. Some meaningful, some meaningless, but we’ve all done ’em. At this point, I’m going to start a real challenge.”
The challenge? To donate $25,000 to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey and then challenge other celebrities to do the same.
According to ABC News, Chris Young created a GoFundMe page with a goal of $500,000. The country singer himself donated $100,000. NFL player JJ Watt posted a link to YouCaring.com for donations, and on Monday, he said fundraising had hit $1 million within the first day.
Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4, made landfall on Friday. So far, nine people are dead, although some outlets, including Fox News, have reported 14 dead, with an unknown number of people injured and left homeless. Over the weekend, multiple people from the Houston area took to the internet to post photos of their flooded homes, hoping to draw the attention of rescue crews or other help.
The Washington Post reports that an estimated 30,000 people will be forced from their homes due to flooding.
A representative for Beyonce has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment.