Displaced try to stay dry and positive
As Tropical Storm Harvey swallowed this city Sunday night, floodwaters rose in the home of Marissa Nunez, 19, and her family.
“That’s when we knew we might need to get to higher ground,” she said. “Our entire house was underwater. We didn’t know what we were going to do.”
Nunez and her family escaped to the second floor of a neighbor’s house, but it wasn’t until Monday morning when a group of volunteers with boats appeared to rescue them.
Nunez was in the first of several boatloads of neighbors to be delivered to higher ground as the entire northeast Houston neigh-
borhood — and much of the city — faced the rising waters.
While waiting for her family, Nunez sought shelter from the pelting rain in a reporter’s vehicle. “They let all the women go first,” she said. “My mom and 14year-old sister are in another boat.” The men followed in another.
“We’re trying to get dry and waiting for our families,” she said. “I have no idea where we’ll go after that.”
DRY CLOTHING
All R.J. Ellis wanted was socks.
The 29-year-old wandered among thousands of evacuees at the George R. Brown Convention Center in the heart of downtown, looking for nothing more than a pair of clean socks.
Ellis, who was laid off from his job about two months earlier, was homeless and living under a bridge when Harvey hit coastal Texas and brought massive rains and flooding.
“I was looking for housing,” he said. “I was hoping someone here knew about that. I was supposed to hear something, but then when it flooded, I came here looking.”
Along with Ellis, about 3,000 people from across southeast Texas made their way to the shel- ter after floodwaters forced them from their homes. Many had nothing more than the clothes they were wearing and the possessions they could carry.
Ellis, who has family in Shreveport, La., and elsewhere in the state, had only a few possessions. He carried them in a small trash bag.
The line for clothing was long. Dry socks were in short supply at the shelter. Ellis’ feet were in thin, wet, dirty socks and sandals.
Red Cross volunteer Tina Jamieson found a pair of black lowcut socks for Ellis. “They may be too small,” she said.
Ellis tried them on. “I think I
can make them fit,” he mumbled. He slipped them on and looked up. “I’m so happy,” he said. “This is so much better.”
‘I HAVE MY TWO CHILDREN’
Stories like Ellis’ were everywhere in the shelter, said David SchoeneckCQ of the Red Cross.
Nearby, Kira Promise and her 17-year-old daughter, Kayla, said they’d lost their car and a portion of their home to floods in Clear Lake, a suburb southeast of downtown. Promise said her son’s room was downstairs.
“He lost everything,” Promise said.
She had thought they’d find shelter at their high school, but Promise and her kids were first piled into an Army truck, then a Metro bus. It brought them to the convention center.
“It is humbling,” she said. “But I have my two children, and we’re safe.”
‘JUST PRAY’
Dat Nguyen, a former Dallas Cowboys linebacker who grew up in Rockport, a tiny coastal Texas town hit hard by the storm Friday, said most of his hometown is gone. He wants to help the folks who remain.
“The church is demolished, our house is demolished,” he told The Dallas Morning News. “All the places where I grew up — all the mom-and-pop stores, the school, everything is torn and damaged.”
Nguyen, who lives in Fort Worth, said he was trying to organize an effort to bring supplies to the city, but the area had been evacuated because of gas leaks. He said he had “a bunch of friends ready to send trucks of food, but we can’t do anything now. It’s overwhelming. All we can do is just pray.”
Nguyen, 41, the first Vietnamese American to be drafted and play for an NFL team, owns and runs a Chick-fil-A franchise in Fort Worth.
He said he hopes people don’t forget about his hometown: “Right now, we’re on the back burner.”
STARTING ALL OVER — AGAIN
In August 2005, rescuers plucked Nicole Hicks and her family from the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina in eastern New Orleans. Monday, nearly 12 years later to the day, rescuers saved her again by boat, from the floodwaters of another hurricane in another city.
This time it was Houston as the remnants of Harvey sat atop the city.
“We had 12 feet of water in our house for Katrina,” Hicks said. “We lost everything.”
The family moved to Houston and started over. “Now we’re going through it again,” she said. “I’ve done lost everything again.”
Eight people and a dog woke up Monday morning as water entered the house. By the time they left on a large rescue truck, 3 to 4 feet of water were in the house, said April Robertson, a guest of Hicks’. When Katrina drove them out, Hicks’ children were too young to understand what was happening. Now, they’re older and know. “It’s hard,” she said. “I’m just trying to stay positive.”