Quake expats likely to lose Houston home
A family of Kiwi expats in Houston will likely lose their home and most — if not all — of their possessions after their neighbourhood was ravaged by Hurricane Harvey.
Stuck in his Canyon Gate home by the rapidly rising flood waters, Blad Guzman posted a plea for help to Facebook on Tuesday night asking anyone in the area to come to the aid of his young family and three visiting relatives.
When help arrived by boat about 2am the waters were waist-deep — and Guzman, his wife Lina, their children Sanitago, 7, and Gaby, 3, his elderly parents and Guzman’s son Felipe from a previous relationship were forced to flee with only a change of clothes for the children and their passports.
Friend Fleur Wiig, also a Kiwi based in Houston, said the family did the best they could to prepare by moving downstairs furniture about 1m off the ground, but didn’t anticipate how bad the flooding would be.
It was unclear whether anything in the house or the building itself would be salvageable and the Guzmans had been told by authorities they would be unable to return for at least a month, Wiig said.
She told the Herald the Guzmans’ insurance policy did not cover flood damage and any payment they received from the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) would likely be well below the cost to repair the home, which could easily reach hundreds of thousands of US dollars.
Originally from Columbia, Blad and Lina Guzman moved to Christchurch in 2004 for Blad’s job at Tait Electronics.
Wiig’s husband Hamish also worked for the company and the two couples quickly became good friends.
Both families emigrated to Houston around the same time in 2011 after the Christchurch earthquakes.
She said the Guzmans had obtained New Zealand citizenship while living in Christchurch and were proud Kiwis. Santi was also born in New Zealand.
”[They’re] very traumatised. In shock, but in some ways stoic, humbled, overwhelmed with people’s generosity,” Wiig said.
The family were staying with other friends from Christchurch — Jenny and Steve Cragg — Wiig said.
She has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for the family.