Neighbors build community in the eye of storm

‘Spirit of service’ amid crisis

BELLAIRE, Texas, Aug 30, (RTRS): Shiraz Younas tried and failed three times to persuade Melanie Clampitt, an elderly amputee, to leave her house as the floodwaters rose to her front step on Sunday. She finally agreed when water covered the kitchen floor in her home of 44 years.

Lifting her wheelchair, Younas and other men struggled to carry Clampitt down the street in the driving rain to his dry home, where already he had provided other flooded-out neighbors with shelter.

Inside, Clampitt sobbed. Younas handed her a bottle of water.

His wife, Ruckshanda Majid, knelt in front of Clampitt, removed a white medical shoe and washed and dried her foot. Later Younas carefully fitted the prosthetic to Clampitt’s amputated limb.

“It was biblical,” said Darlene Villareal, awestruck by the spirit of service she witnessed in a house full of fellow neighbors, drawn together by crisis.

Younas and Majid, both 40-something physicians, had never met Clampitt and some of the others they invited into their home throughout the day. Each new arrival came to reflect the great and growing diversity of America’s fourth largest city: They were Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Christian; immigrant and native; some healthy, some disabled. The oldest was 91; the youngest 4.

Younas had gone door-to-door as monsoon-like rains swamped Bellaire, a quiet community 11 miles (17 kms) from Houston. He implored them to come to his house, and their numbers grew until he had more than 30 relatives and neighbors, a skittish cat and a large dog.

Their home served as a first-response shelter before the collection of neighbors went on to stay with friends and relatives.

The couple fed their visitors and served them hot tea. They handed out towels and dry clothes. They rounded up medical supplies for Clampitt. They offered beds, couches and sleeping bags to those who would end up spending a night or two. They got friends to make room in their homes for others.

A total of 17 people would sleep in Younas’ home on Sunday night, including Clampitt.

Balaji Kavaipatti, who lives across the street, said Younas and Majid tended to his family while he scrambled to save belongings from the rising water.

“A situation like this brings out the real character of a person,” Kavaipatti said.

Younas already had a pretty full house by the time the rains from Hurricane Harvey began pounding Houston at the weekend. Five relatives, including Younas’ father Muhammad, were bunking there. The couple’s three children brought the family headcount to 10.

On Sunday, Younas had just finished the Muslim dawn prayer with his father when he looked out the window.

Water from the flooded streets was fast approaching Kavaipatti’s home, a one-story ranch with no second floor to which to flee.

“That doesn’t look good,” the Pakistan native recalled telling his father.

The news said emergency responders were slammed. The cavalry would not be coming to Pine Street. Younas had a big house, plenty of food and a vocation dedicated to helping people.

So he waded across the street to Kavaipatti, his wife Anjali, their two kids and Anjali’s mother, inviting them in, along with their dog Ruger. Younas’ wife snapped a smartphone photo showing him ferrying one of the children across the flooded street on his back.