Houston is currently experiencing the worst flood in US History. Thank you for all of the calls, emails, texts, messages and well wishes-our house is dry and we have power, we are extremely lucky. The last several days have been a whirlwind, here is how it happened for us.
Early Last Week
A tropical storm is heading toward Texas. I honestly don't pay much attention to it, as we are hit with a lot of storms here.
Thursday 8/24
The tropical storm is upgraded to a category 1 hurricane, Harvey. After school, the kids and I head to pick up Jillian and I am surprised to see lines of cars at the gas station. HEB's parking lot (our local grocery store) is 100% full with people waiting for spots (for point of reference, our parking lot as 2-2.5x larger than any Publix lot).
I take the kids and immediately fill up on gas at a different station, luckily there was no wait (they were already out of 89 and 93 octane). We go grocery shopping at Randall's, another store close to us, that is known as the 'expensive store' around here that is never busy. The lot is already 3/4 full, which is unheard of. There is no bottled water in the store but I'm able to find 3 gallons of water in the baby aisle (marketed as 'baby water' but it's just filtered water). I get the last few loafs of bread and buy several boxes of granola bars, crackers and snacks. While we are at the store, the storm is upgraded to a category 2. School is cancelled for Friday in preparation for the storm.
Friday 8/25
The eye of the hurricane is heading towards Corpus Christie with expected landfall late Friday/early Saturday. The meteorologists are worried the storm will stall and Houston will be on the 'dirty side' (right side) of the storm, with flood potential. We have light rain Friday and nothing is out of the ordinary. I receive several calls from people thinking everyone is over-reacting and this storm will be nothing big, we aren't even going to be hit with the eye.
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| behind our house Sunday |
The kids and I go to HEB for a few more things and are shocked to find zero water and zero bread. Hannah and Tammy come over for dinner and we all have fun. JD finds a live broadcast of an Emmy winning storm chaser, Jeff Piotrowski, as he reports live from Corpus. The storm is now a category 4. I'm up until 11ish watching Jeff, JD is up until his broadcast lost a signal. It's raining heavier now.
Saturday 8/26
The green space (aka retention ditch) behind my house is as full as I've ever seen it. It's raining on and off all day and we're thinking "well, that wasn't so bad for us." The area hit by the eye is destroyed. I spend the day doing laundry and I'm chuckling seeing a woman kayaking behind our house in the retention ditch.
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| in front of our neighborhood |
Late that evening, the rain starts coming down HARD and FAST. My phone is beeping with flash flood warnings and tornado notices every few minutes. JD is at a neighbors house playing board games and moves his car into their driveway. He eventually makes his way back home, soaking wet.
Sunday 8/27
The rain has not stopped. JD stays up watching the water rise and wakes me up at 4am advising the cul-de-sac is flooded. We have to start moving stuff upstairs in-case water comes into the house. We move financial records, pictures, the computer and baskets of things on the ground. Tammy's house was almost flooded-water came up to her garage and back door. By morning, the rain has slowed down but the streets around us are flooded. The ditch behind my house is so full, there is a secondary river of water that's formed next to it.
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| bridge next to school |
Our street and all the streets around us are flooded. People are literally kayaking around our neighborhood. It isn't safe to drive anywhere. Mid-afternoon, the water has started to recede. JD and the kids don their rain-gear and take a walk. Another heavy band of rain hits and they are stranded at Tammy's for several hours, where everyone has to hide in Tammy's half bathroom during another tornado warning. I am glued to the news watching the devastation all of the city. Neighborhoods just a few miles from us are completely underwater. People are on their roofs being rescued by boat. Downtown is underwater. Houston has 2 level 1 trauma centers and one of them is being evacuated. Both major airports are closed.
Monday 8/28-Tuesday 8/29
It is still raining. JD goes to the store on Monday and happens to arrive right when they opened. No perishables are available. He waits in line 30min to buy 3 items.
The store is open only a few hours and closes for the rest of the day. Other stores are open for short hours, with people wrapped around buildings waiting to get in. The water behind our house hasn't gone down but hasn't entered our yard. Our house is dry and we have power. Many of our neighbors aren't so lucky. There is a street of houses near our school that back up to a bayou-they all flooded. The back half of our neighborhood has no power (and still doesn't have power as I'm typing this). Houston has 2 dams that are at risk of breaking-the Army Corps of Engineers releases water to control the dam, flooding areas that were previously dry (it was necessary, otherwise mass destruction would have ensued). Galveston, which was not flooded, flooded on Tuesday.
Wednesday 8/30
Parts of Houston are still underwater, people are still being rescued from flooded homes. Shelters are set up all over the city. The rain has finally subsided. Roads around us are mostly clear. There is no way to drive around the city though, sections of every major highway are closed due to flooding. We know people who evacuated who cannot get back. Airports are still closed. Grocery stores are either open for a few hours (no milk) or not open at all. Tammy and I packed up my car with shelter donations (clothing, toiletries, carseats) for the convention center. The kids and I went to a swim mom's house for "Kids for Harvey" event. The kids put together 250 gift bags that were then donated to a local shelter.
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| laundry helper before the rain |
Thursday 8/31
We continue to watch the devastation around Houston. The storm is now hitting Beaumont and Louisiana. Part of I-10 east, between Houston and Beaumont, looks like a lake. Beaumont has been decimated and they have no water already. The kids and I are gathering more stuff around the house for a neighbor's friends who have lost everything. JD's cousin texted me that their good friends in north Houston (with 5 children) have also lost everything and are living in a hotel. We've offered up our home, not sure if they'll come. Nic may also move in with us as well (his home is completely flooded, he's currently stranded in San Antonio). Today, we found out a chemical plant north of Houston has caught fire and a major pipeline from Houston to the east coast, has been shut down. We do not currently have any mail service of any kind. Coast Guard helicopters fly by every 15min or so. I have to give a shout out to AT&T for our internet, I can't believe it's still working. And Verizon should use footage of storm chaser Jeff for his incredible coverage of the hurricane touching down in Corpus, he had service for quite awhile.
Is is the weekend yet? Longest week EVER. #houstonstrong
Boardgames are a good way to pass the time
Harvey Bags for Kids
she ate her way through the hurricane
Hurricane snuggles
My engineer neighbor monitored the rainfall and put this graph together (neighborhood next to me)
