George and Beyonce lead telethon for hurricane Harvey victims

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By JENNIFER SMITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 14:41 BST, 5 September 2017 | UPDATED: 14:49 BST, 5 September 2017

Beyonce and George Clooney will lead a line-up of celebrities at a telethon later this month to benefit the victims of Hurricane Harvey.

Hand in Hand: A Benefit for Hurricane Harvey Relief will air on ABC, CBS, CMT, Fox and NBC at 8pm EDT on September 12.

It will also be available to live stream at the same time on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Viewers will be able to donate towards relief funds by texting, calling or online throughout the show and for one hour afterwards.  

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Beyonce (left in Philadelphia on Sunday) and George Clooney (right at the Venice Film Festival this week) will lead stars taking part in the Hand in Hand Hurricane Harvey Relief Benefit on September 12 

Proceeds from the show will be distributed across charities including United Way of Greater Houston, Habitat for Humanity, Save the Children, Direct Relief, Feeding Texas and The Mayor's Fund for Hurricane Harvey Relief. 

Barbara Streisand, Oprah, Kelly Rowland, Adam Sandler and Jamie Foxx are among other stars who will take part.  Karlie Kloss will also make an appearance as will Hollywood darlings Reese Witherspoon and Mathew Mcconaughey. 

The one-hour telethon will take place primarily in Los Angeles with stages in Nashville and New York. 

Country music star George Strait will perform from his own benefit concert in San Antonio.

Beyonce is a Houston native who faced calls to lead fundraising efforts from other stars after Harvey hit last week. The star celebrated her 36th birthday on Monday. 

Clooney, who is at the Venice Film Festival with his wife Amal and their newborn twins, is from Kentucky which suffered heavy rain as the storm tailed off last week but did not suffer the same devastation  as some of the worst hit parts of Texas. 

Also taking part is Michael Strahan who was rumored to have outraged bosses at Good Morning America last week by refusing to end his vacation in order to cover the devastating natural disaster. 

On Tuesday, Strahan returned to the airwaves from Houston.  

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Hurricane Harvey brought devastating floods to Houston and other parts of Texas. Above, homes in Orange, Texas, on August 31 

Thousands lost their homes as a result of the devastating storm which has left at least 60 people dead

The Hand in Hand benefit was announced on Tuesday. Its organizer is mega-agent Scooter Braun. 

Hurricane Harvey has so far claimed at least 60 lives and destroyed 100,000 homes. 

Fundraising efforts have been underway since during the storm and tens of millions of dollars have so far been raised. 

NFL player J.J. Watt raised $10million for relief efforts through a YouCare online donations page to which he pledged $100,000 of his own money. 

The president gave $1million of his personal fortune, the Kardashians gave $500,000 and Miley Cyrus donated $500,000 through her charity. 

Real Housewives of New York star Bethenny Frankel donated $30,000 and raised more through her charity B Strong.

Kevin Hart kicked off celebrity fundraising while Harvey was still ongoing by calling out a handful of stars to donate. He gave $25,000 himself. 

Businesses have also donated to relief funds in large numbers. Most notably Walmart has raised $25million by doubling public donations to the American Red Cross and by giving additional cash itself.

Dell, which is run by Texan native Michael Dell, gave an enormous $36million. Starbucks has pledged $250,000 and Home Depot has given $1million. 

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by Taboola 

Brilliant.

And I see that it's being organised by Scooter Braun, who is Arianna Grande's manager, and who assembled all those names so very quickly for the charity concert at the Manchester Arena after the bombing there......

Yes it is brilliant!  Way to go George!  The residents of Houston and the surrounding areas devastated by the storm will need all the help they can get.  Not just immediately but for a few years to come.  It's overwhelming to think of the rebuilding residents will have to undertake to get their lives back on track.  I still don't know where all these people are going to live while they rebuild homes or look for apartments.  How do they go back to work when they don't have a home to go to.  Just boggles my mind.

But have to say so far it has been reassuring to see so many reaching out to offer support!

I know they'll raise a boatload of money and I'm glad to see that it's going to go to several charities, not just the Red Cross. This is going to be a long-term problem for many Texans. It isn't going to be easy to rebuild and they'll need help for more than a few weeks. Hopefully they'll put some money into preventing the same thing happening again.

I wonder whether George will join the telethon from LA or NY. Or will he be in Toronto for TIFF and just send a video or skype? I'm also wondering if the LA wildfires are a consideration in their travel plans.