Looking back at Harvey: UHCL community reflects on storm's impact

Despite our efforts to shore up our front and back doors, the water did finally come into our home in League City, as it poured in through the weep holes. Fortunately, we were able to seek shelter upstairs overnight. In the morning, I awoke to the water outside being lower than the inside. Our work at sealing the doors worked against us in this case.

I captured video of the water pouring out the front door, which was quite surreal. It took another 8 hours of the water receding before we could leave and head to my Uncle's house where he had a generator. Despite our losses, which at the time seemed significant, they paled in comparison to many others, who lost nearly everything. I have a former coworker who was out of town during the flooding and did not have a chance to save anything he owned. I have a cousin who had sewage back up into his home.

We were fully rebuilt by March, but both of them are still in trailers in their front yard. It was an overwhelming experience I hope none of us have to go through in this area again.

My family and I were so fortunate to not have been affected by Harvey. Whenever Harvey landed in Friendswood on August 26, 2017 I was in bed watching a boxing match. The rain had stopped at 2:30AM and I went outside to check our neighborhood and water had risen to the sidewalk. My twin sister had then walked home from our neighbors home since the roads were undrivable. When she arrived home we had witness two young teens driving in high water against oncoming traffic directly into more high water. We then immediately rushed to their car. Then, we walked into high water up to the car and guided them how to get out of high water. My sister, neighbor, and I pushed the car out of the high water.

Unfortunately, the couple did not assist us due to the fact they had suddenly totalled their vehicle by making a poor decision. We then parted ways back to our homes to what we thought was resting. As the morning approached, we were woken up by an urgent call. Our best friend’s father was trapped inside our home. We were unable to drive to the home due to high water we then decided to walk. We found that there was a makeshift loading dock for boats in our neighborhood. It look surreal. Civilian boats were everywhere. There was no city boats/ military boats in sight. The rescuing efforts were made by civilians with their personal boats. People being rescued were taken to our elementary school which was also an emergency shelter.

My sister begged and cried to be taken onto a boat to rescue our best friend’s father. My sister described the neighborhood as a war zone. Families, elderly, and children were on top of their roofs begging to be rescued from their high water homes. She mentioned that during the process of rescuing all the victims most brought onto the rescue boat as belongings were just a small box or one backpack. Thankfully, our best friend’s dad was recused. After assisting and rescuing, we walked to the emergency shelter. It was unbelievable, it smelt like an animal shelter. There was over 700 people inside of the elementary school. We assisted in further days and volunteered our time by organizing donations, and distributing them to victims.

As the water receded we then took the time to gut and clean our neighbors homes. It broke my heart to see all of their treasure and belongings lost. All that was salvageable in the homes is whatever was left on the second floor of the homes. During the process of cleaning homes I was asked to work. While working for Red Bull we donated and distributed the energy drink to first responders, emergency shelters, and churches. At one point while working, I drove back into my neighborhood and gave Red Bull to those gutting their homes.

It has been nearly a month since Harvey and it is still overwhelming to drive on my street to see the debris of homes leading up to my debris free home. It is unbelievable that my house was undistributed from Harvey. However, during traumatic times like a catastrophic event such as Hurricane Harvey is it remarkable to see the entire community come together to volunteer, clean, and donate. This event has allowed me to embrace the city of Houston more than ever, I am a proud Houstonian. Furthermore, each day I value the compassion of Houston. It is with the love Houstonians share with each other has allowed Houston a speedy recovery.

I feel that the outlook for Houston is incredibly resilient. As a young Houston living in a devastated neighborhood I feel there’s definitely pressure to “move on” quickly to immediately focus on academics. Although many Houstonian have encountered losses throughout Harvey, we are recovering at a fast pace thanks to Houstonians adoring Houston and performers such as Krewella, Wavedash, and Lady Gaga assisting during Harvey efforts. The impact of Harvey proved that Houstonians are prepared to assist their community in short notice in times of misery. That being said, it is inspiring to see Houstonians support through fundraising to assist those who have been devastated.

Before Harvey flooded our house, everyone was scurrying about trying to keep water out.  We loaded up small furniture on family-sized soup cans. Then piled items upon tables and countertops to reduce the loss of Harvey’s rising demands.   
Escape to the neighbor’s two-story house was a welcomed relief to not add to our grandchildren’s grief.  They were carried by piggy back as they wore life jackets and worried about their toys being safe in a plastic sack.  

My husband would not abandon our home, so my daughter turned back after dropping off her niece so daddy would not be alone.  My tears fell in the water as I begged her to stay with me, but she felt a different loyalty.

Fear for their safety from electric shock kept me awake through most of the night as tears fell every hour as I watched the clock.  They had shop vacs going throughout the night, but that proved useless as the water came in from each angle of sight.
At day break, the choppers were hovering again.  Finally, the sun was shining and then the water receding began.

My baby was due on September 3 and when the hurricane hit, we were worried about getting to the hospital. Flooding was so bad we were not able to get out, but our neighbor said her son was in the Coast Guard and if need be she could call him and he could pick me up in a helicopter to bring me to a hospital. Luckily, I did not go into labor until the next week. When I got to the hospital, the nurses were exhausted and said the maternity ward had been completely full during the storm and that many mothers had not been able to go home once they were medically ready due to the storm affecting their house. After three days of labor, my baby girl was born in the hospital. She is a happy, healthy baby Hawk!

AFTER THE STORM
Walking outside
Is like a memory flooding back
For we’d forgotten
That there actually was an outside

There’s no one else around
Like no one was ever here
But still we hear the voice
Of the earth sighing in relief

There’s not one other sound
And silence swallows the fear
The earth says we’ve a choice
To just give up or start to breathe

It breathes in and out
It calms our inward oceans
And we become still

The only sounds we remember
Are rain, thunder and alarms
So the sound of peace is hard to get used to

But if peace has a sound
It must be this

ROLLING THROUGH
The first sunlight in five days
Casts its light upon morning dew
It’s so much brighter in many ways
Than every other sunlight I once knew

The green grass and leaves
Had never looked so bright green
Before the rain came

Fearful eyes peer outside their window
And they see us march by each other
Crowds once isolated by wind’s blow
Embrace us like sisters and brothers

And it feels right
Nobody in this city
Is still a stranger

As fear trickles into the storm drain
Love comes rolling through wet city streets
As the floods wash away all our pain
Our darkness dies as its match it meets

Our home didn't flood, but I remember being so scared that we would never be able to recover from all the flooding. Logically I knew we would be able to, but at the time I just couldn't see how. I made art to express my feelings: https://www.deviantart.com/puellaignava/art/Hurricane-Harvey-Flood-701494752

We took in over 18” of water in our house and had to evacuate the first morning. Water was up to the front door of our house, and neighbors came on a boat to take my grandparents and I to safety. From there, we were fortunate enough to stay with a close family friend who had no flooding at all, where we remained for the next two weeks.

Harvey gave us just enough water damage that we had to rebuild the whole interior of our house, while losing all of our furniture, and even [our] vehicles. We finally moved back into our home on Easter of 2018.

Harvey was a surreal experience for me. Our house has never even come close to flooding in the 20+ years we've lived in Texas but we ended up with 15 inches of water in our house and much more than that in our garage. The cup holders in my car were filled with water when we were finally able to get back into our home. We were out of our house for 6 months which seemed like forever until I took a step back and it soaked in that tons of people are STILL not back home, a year later. It was just this crazy, unreal time feeling like we were in a movie or something. In a season so full of disorientation and fear, my family saw such love and compassion poured out by our community. Of all of the mess that Harvey caused, the unwavering boldness and sacrifice of the Houstonian community was insane and gave me such hope.

The picture I submitted was taken in my neighborhood a few weeks after the storm hit. Our houses were all in ruins, torn apart and stripped of everything. Everything (inside and outside) was covered in a film of drywall dust or mud, and the various musty, grimy smells that engulfed our town was overwhelming. The air was heavy and our streets felt like a ghost town. After the initial rush of everyone tearing their homes apart to avoid molding and other issues, many just left and didn't come back to their homes so it was dead silent a lot of the time and you'd see one or two people out on the entire street. I was walking around my neighborhood one afternoon and I was overcome with emotion reading all of the spray-painted messages scrawled on people's belongings dumped into their yards. Many people had written "Don't Take" for insurance purposes, but I connected it to this deep despair that so many of us felt. Like it was an outcry for everyone and everything to stop depriving us of things that we loved and needed. People lost family members, pets, their homes, and irreplaceable belongings to Harvey and I felt like we were all just hoping and praying that nothing else would be taken from us.

I was renting a house in Clear Lake Shores during Hurricane Harvey. I've been through some previous Hurricanes in the past. I thought I was making the necessary precautions, putting things up high enough and evacuated the Friday before the storm hit. I went to stay with a friend further inland as my home was two blocks from the water.

I started receiving some pictures during the storm from some of my neighbors that had decided to stay in their homes. When I saw the pictures I knew it wasn't good for me! I couldn't get in my home until the Wednesday after the Hurricane hit. I had to wait for the flood waters to go down on the streets in my neighborhood! When I got to my home, almost everything outside had floated away! I could see the waterline which was almost up to my windows.

I went inside my home, which still had electricity on. Throughout the whole storm my home never lost power! I opened my door, looked to the right could see a lot of my furniture, shelves and chairs fell over due to the flood waters! There was still water all over my floors! I looked to the left and couldn't believe what I saw! My daughter's bedroom closet door had fell off and was bowed so bad it now looked C-shaped and was leaning up against the wall, just inches away from the window! If it would've fell off and hit the window I probably would've had a worse mess on my hands!

I couldn't believe some of the other things that flood waters had done inside my house too! Turns out by the water line inside my house that I had 2 1/2 feet of flood water inside my home! I now had mold already growing on my television stand! It ruined my new living room furniture along with my old set out in the sunroom! The door to my utility/wash room was stuck and I had to wait until a neighbor man came over to help me open it.

Once inside I found my washer had been knocked over by the flood waters and was now laying on it's back side! Some items I had stacked on top of my washer not anticipating it to fall over were now on the floor ruined by the flood waters, such as my DVD stand & DVD collection! A new lamp and some new wall art I had recent bought! My area rug in the sun room that I rolled up had fell off the couch in the sunroom where I had put it thinking it would be safe on the top back of the couch.

The flood waters had moved my couch & a heavy chaise chair in the sunroom away from the walls in to the middle of the room now. Again I'm thankful it didn't move it the other way or they might've broke the 2 glass doors leading to the outside/side yard! In my bedroom found more ruined items. It flooded my shoe basket, with all my shoes in them, including the ones on the top! It was a tall shoe basket too! It knocked some boxes over. Inside the boxes was all my winter wardrobe being as I had a small bedroom closet. It ruined my bed, boxspring and mattress along with my daughter's in her bedroom too. It started soaking through the boxspring & mattress as if it was a sponge!

Now some of the items that were on top of our beds for safety up high were starting to get wet and ruined due to flood waters swirling around too! Me & my daughter lost about 80% of our household items, including furniture and clothing! I had to right away get another place to live, an apartment. What made things worse was that my landlord had a stroke immediately after the Hurricane so it took awhile before his maintenance man was contacted & came to look at the damage. I had to deal with most of the salvage and recovery of my things without much help! Walls, doors, drawers and such were starting to swell inside the house, making things hard to open. Mold was starting to grow on the walls making it not a good place to be inside trying to recover items!

Even though it was sad to see most of my belongings sitting outside for the trashmen, I was just grateful that no one got hurt and that I had taken out flood insurance back in the Spring just in case of such a weather event! I recommend everyone be insured, it sure helps with life's disasters! The university was nice about helping out us students with aid and allowed us to drop some of our classes if need be, being as our lives had just been interrupted and changed by this bad hurricane! I was very appreciative of the University for helping us students out!

My first floor got flooded with 8 inches of water and outside the water was 3 feet deep. I fell and hurt my head and my wife fell on her knee. Both of us had to be [evacuated] to the closest elementary school. No food, water, lights and food were setup. We had to travel 14 miles in the storm to my son's home. We had to stay with my son and his family for two months. I am still paying for medical bills and my home is not completely repaired yet.

Harvey was a storm that many under estimated this hurricane brought out the best and the worst in people in our community. What we witnessed was the boundless lengths that good samaritans would go to just to help out a stranger. People helping people, with courage and humility where others failed to do or took our need lightly others found it in their heart to help their fellow man. 

On the other side of the coin was those who took advantage and looted, stole, robbed and lied just to get what they needed. In our community we had our local high school open as a shelter and rescue boats out in the area to help get families to higher ground. Other schools principals would collect and redistribute food and other items to those in need. On a more personal note HARVEY impacted our family and as we still recoup the resilience of my children and how they have learned to cope and adapt makes me a proud mother. I know now that if we were to experience any thing like this again we can and will be ready.