For Meyerland neighborhood, a too-familiar scene
For flood-prone Meyerland damage is unprecedented.
Almost two weeks ago, Michelle Comstock had just finished hanging up the last two picture frames at her new home two orange, pink and gold abstract art pieces when Harvey was just a tropical storm passing through the Caribbean Sea before ultimately heading to Texas.
Comstock and her husband, Chance, had just moved into their one-story home two months ago in Meyerland, one of Houston’s most flood-prone communities.
For days, after Harvey struck the Texas Gulf Coast as a hurricane on Aug. 25, they experienced nonstop rain, water bursting into their home, then evacuation, and now recovery.
A week after Harvey began devastating Texas, leaving dozens dead and billions of dollars in damage, residents of Meyerland were continuing to pick up damaged house items. Contractors drove in and out of the community to begin restoration.
Carpets, furniture and other belongings stacked in front yards lined street after street on Friday. Moving trucks sat still in front of homes. The bayou that runs through the middle of the community had receded drastically.
Meyerland, maybe more than any other area of Houston, is used to this scene.
It was only a year ago that the community was ravaged during the so-called Tax Day flood, which killed eight people when waterways throughout Houston spilled into neighborhoods after a night of nonstop rain. The year before that, Meyerland was one of Houston’s worst flooded neighborhoods during the so-called Memorial Day floods.
For some people in this community, they said this week’s disaster was one in a list of times they’ve experienced flooding.
At the same time, Harvey’s devastation set a new low point for the community. Some homes here that had never seen flooding saw it this time.
“This house had never flooded before we bought it,” said Comstock, 42, who works as a real estate agent. “I was overwhelmed. I feel like a deer in headlights.”
Early Sunday morning, the Comstocks began seeing water rising on their street. They began stacking furniture.
By 5 a.m., water seeped into the house. Then the street became a river and the water started rising inside the home.
A family friend came Sunday afternoon with a kayak and raft to save Comstock, her husband and their two young children and dogs. Almost 2 feet of water had breached their home.
The Comstocks came back the next day. Their two cars were totaled. Much of their possessions were ruined. By Friday, piles of floorboard and furniture sat in front of their yard. The home had been gutted by several feet.
The family leased out a nearby apartment until the house is repaired.
Near the Comstocks’ home, 41-year-old Marni Axelrad picked up toys and bags in the driveway of her one-story home. Soggy floorboards, shelves and furniture swarmed the house’s front yard. Blurred family photos were spread out on a table.
Axelrad’s home flooded several inches during the Memorial Day flood and barely escaped the Tax Day Flood.
She and her family evacuated to a friend’s house nearby last Friday as Harvey approached Houston. Then, as the storm’s rain drenched the city, her friend’s house flooded, stranding everyone on the second floor.
By the time she saw her home on Tuesday, more than 2 feet of water had destroyed essentially everything they owned — hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth.
“We’ve put too much money into this house to leave,” said Axelrad, a pediatric psychologist. “We leave the house now every time it rains hard.”
She hasn’t brought her three young children back to see the home since it flooded.
“I will not bring them to see this damage,” she said. “They will not see it until this is a home for them again.”
Across the bayou, on the other side of Meyerland, 62-year-old Beverly Schorre and her husband, 63-yearold Randy Schorre guided contract workers through their rubbled home.
In 29 years, the Schorres’ home had never flooded. Now, dry wall was torn out more than 2 feet high, floors were bare and damaged possessions were scattered throughout.
The home is not supposed to flood. It sits 3 feet above where most of the homes are here. It’s escaped numerous flooding events.
But by early Sunday, water began oozing in, slowly surround the Schorres. Then it became a foot high.
A stranger rescued them with his fishing boat Sunday afternoon. Since then, they’ve slowly picked up the pieces of the home.
They’ve lost several of their most special items, Beverly Schorre said. Their wedding album is ruined forever — as is their peace of mind for the future, she said.
Many in Meyerland feel the same way.
“Of course, there’s still a fear it will happen again,” Randy Schorre said. “We didn’t think that at 62 and 63, we would have to start all over.”=