Rescuers grab trapped family
Escape flood with Cajun Navy
Houston mother of five Brenda Cavazos and her family broke down in tears after being rescued by boat from their flood-ravaged dream home late Monday — leaving with little more than the clothes on their backs, but grateful to be alive.
“It was a relief to where you get in the boat and you just break down and cry, just thanking them,” Cavazos told me yesterday. “My kids were so grateful. They kept saying thank you over and over. My girls were scared to get on the boat. We don’t have clothes. We don’t have anything but we have each other and that’s the best part.”
When I first spoke with Cavazos by cellphone Monday, she was stranded on the second floor of her home with her husband, their five children, aged 9 to 26, and two of their children’s friends. Rising floodwaters had turned their first floor into a “swimming pool.”
Later Monday, the family was rescued by the Cajun Navy — the now-famous volunteer boaters from Louisiana — who took them to higher ground. A truck then brought the family to a shelter.
“It was chaotic and very unorganized but everyone was just grateful to be there,” she said. “We weren’t able to take much because the boats are small and they fit as many people as they can.”
Cavazos, 43, a restaurant manager, fled with her purse and some toiletries. Her children each took two sets of clothes. She said her son’s friend picked them up at the shelter and took them to her house. She said they were forced to leave behind their two dogs and three cats. “I just hope and pray they are safe,” she said.
Seeing the home she worked so hard for destroyed has been devastating. They don’t have flood insurance because the area hadn’t flooded before.
Two years ago, Cavazos said her husband of 21 years, Ram, a mechanic, was diagnosed with a stage 4 cancer carcinoid tumor. There was no chemotherapy options available for him, she said, and surgery would have done more harm than good. At the time, the couple was in the process of buying their five-bedroom dream house.
“I almost gave up our dream home because of fear that if I lost my husband or he couldn’t work anymore, I would have the big responsibility of keeping up with this big home and big mortgage,” she said.
“My husband was against me giving up and said that he wanted to make sure the kids and I always had our own place,” she said. “And to lose it like this, after so much hard work and sacrifice from my husband — it’s devastating. Such a heartbreaking moment. My husband still has the tumor and we live day by day with so much faith because the only healing and treatment he’s getting is from our faith in God.”
She now faces the prospect of having to rebuild their home. She fears they lost everything they left behind, including her late mother’s China cabinet.
“We’re going to survive,” she said. “It’s going to be hard but we’re going to make it.”