Hurricanes can bring out the best in people
We asked you to share your thoughts five years after Hurricane Harvey made landfall. Here’s what you said.
Community shines
Harvey ruined a home and many of the artifacts that inspire stories of a family that lived there for nearly 40 years. But it brought out the bravery of a young woman, the kindness of a neighbor and drew a family closer together.
The brave young woman was my niece, who was living in the house. She floated across the street using a styrofoam cooler, as the Meyerland house that had never flooded before filled with water. The neighbor let her in and allowed her to stay until family could come. And the family — siblings, their spouses and their adult children donning work gloves and N95 masks — worked in the Houston humidity and heat to salvage some, trash most and tell the stories before the house was demolished.
A hurricane might ruin things, but it can bring out the qualities in people that don’t shine every day. Hurricanes draw loved ones closer around what really makes brothers, sisters, sistersand brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews a family.
Pansy Gee, Houston Our pastor called, word spread and people responded. The church was opened, with folks hauling generators, cots, mattresses, bedding, clothing, food, water. Leaving their damaged property, the call to help was answered. People were fed, comforted, prayed for and cried with. Congregants with medical backgrounds triaged, treated and labored to obtain prescription drugs.
A business that sponsored a rodeo cooking team just showed up with a kitchen trailer, a full staff and began cooking for three days straight. Grocery stores asked us to take food which would spoil with no electricity. Emergency volunteers came from everywhere to use us as a rest stop and feeding station. One family was heartbroken after abandoning a beloved pet. Using a high-water vehicle, the pet was located and reunited with his owner.
Embedded in my memory of Harvey is the joining of community, a spirit of giving and working together. We must reignite that flame!
Cliff Bodin, Humble
I am a resident of Sienna Plantation and my home was not affected by Hurricane Harvey. However, a wonderful and thoughtful neighbor wanted to help other Sienna Plantation residents who were impacted. This caring neighbor had a two-day barbecue in front of his house and offered free food with a request for donations to help those in need. His efforts produced nearly $60,000 which was given to those neighbors who experienced damage to their homes from wind and water. I salute this caring neighbor who went out of his way to relieve the burden of those who suffered so much from the hurricane. Robert T. Haas, Missouri City
We are an elderly couple living in Cinco Ranch in the Katy area, far away from the major flooding as it turned out. Our daughter’s neighborhood in Grand Lakes was flooded, but her home remained a blessed quarter-inch above the flooding which came from the Addicks reservoir operated by the Army Corps of Engineers. We have many friends and acquaintances in west Houston who suffered major inundation downstream from that preemptive release. When the water rose around our daughter’s home, we made our way through 3 miles of partially flooded streets to where volunteers in boats were bringing neighborhood residents to safety, including our daughter and teenage grandson; her husband insisted on remaining to try to mitigate flood damage if it occurred.
It was terrifying, minute to minute, to try to anticipate the effect of probable additional rainfall and flooding.
We were so grateful to those volunteers and will never forget our relief to have these loved ones safely taken to higher ground. They remained almost a week with us until their neighborhood water resided, helping us take up carpets when the flooding was in our yards, threatening to come inside. We are so grateful that we escaped major damage and physical harm. We are encouraged by current measures being planned for flood management. And we will never forget the heroism displayed by our fellow Americans who risked their lives in thousands of rescues.
Britt D. Davis, Katy
There’s very little good to talk about regarding Hurricane Harvey. Except that our state Legislature set aside its typical partisan agenda just long enough to pass a bill aimed at putting together a state flood plan in the same mold as our state water plan. Rather than focusing on water supply opportunities to meet the state’s water needs for the next 50 years, the statewide flood plan recognizes flood risks across Texas and identifies engineering solutions for each.
I am one of more than a dozen volunteer flood planning group members who have been meeting no less than each month for the past two years putting together the San Jacinto Regional Flood Plan that will be combined with 14 other regional plans from across the state to serve as the initial Texas State Flood Plan. It will be updated in fiveyear intervals going forward and is intended to relieve the kind of flooding we Texans saw in the aftermath of Harvey. I like that there can be good things that come out of bad experiences.
Gene Fisseler, Houston
Rowing past our house was a rowboat, something we never thought we would see. We ran out to watch and they stopped and said, “We have two more places for you to sit, so come with us!” — which we did. On we rowed, past familiar streets filling with water. Then someone began singing, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and all joined in as we merrily rowed 2 miles to Target on Westheimer, where we were later picked up and driven to our former house in Bentwater on Lake Conroe.
We wished we hadn’t gone since the water never came up to our house but stopped midway on the walkway. Yet, we loved how our unknown neighbors were so kind to include us on a merry boat ride we will never forget.
Marianne D. Trapnell, Houston
What struck me the most during Harvey was the caring and generosity of so many ordinary people who were willing to help others at their own peril and to show a genuine regard for their fellow Houstonians as well as out-oftowners coming in to help their fellow Americans. I didn’t realize until now that the wonderful spirit of caring and cooperation since seems to have been replaced by so much crime, so much ill will toward fellow Americans and so much lack of will to work together to help each other. I’m not saying that spirit no longer exists, just that you almost never see it anymore.
I refuse to believe it’s gone because I know so many people who would again be unsung heroes by helping those they don’t even know. I miss the feeling I got during Harvey and look forward to it resurfacing whenever it becomes necessary. I’m sure help will be needed again and I’m equally sure that ordinary people will be there to unselfishly help out.
Len Kaplan, Houston
Lucky breaks
I returned to Bush airport from a trip to South Korea and Japan at 11 p.m. on Friday. My Super Shuttle reservation was not available; there were no taxis. I was ready to spend the night at the airport when a driver for Bentley Limos walked up and said he could take me home. I happily got into his Suburban. Driving on the freeways was good, but when we turned off of Kirkwood and into Riverview the water got too deep and we pulled into the driveway of a townhouse a block from my home. I left my luggage on a neighbor’s porch and waded across Riverview, which was about 2 feet deep under water.
The rain stopped but the flooded street got deeper as more water was let out from the nearby dam. The lights went out in our home and I decided that if they were not back on by 4 p.m., we would evacuate. Karen and I got on one of the “airboats,” the kind with a big fan that propels the boat. It took us to Walgreens, where my daughter picked us up and we stayed with her for nine days before we could get back into our home.
I was lucky in three ways. I was on the last plane that made it into Houston. I did not have to spend the night in Bush airport. The floodwaters came into two homes across the street and the one next door but stopped at my slab.
Nearby neighbors had piles of carpet and furniture 6 feet high by their curbs, thanks to Harvey’s floodwaters and living just south of Buffalo Bayou.
I called the limo driver; he did not make it home that night but spent the night with a kind couple from England. I’m a lucky guy!
Jimmy Dunne, Houston
We live in a high-rise located on the banks of a small ravine that feeds into Buffalo Bayou. During Harvey, once Addicks Reservoir was opened, Buffalo Bayou became a raging torrent of water — dirty, nasty water that flowed up our ravine and into our parking garage. We had about 15 inches of this stuff and as a result, we suffered about $3-4 million in damage to our mechanical equipment and to our garage structure.
Our building lost power and water and we had to evacuate, with some older residents being carried down over 20 flights of stairs in the dark. As repairs were being made, our residents were forced to find somewhere else to live for three weeks. That’s the bad news, but there is also a lot of good news to share.
During that time we rediscovered our staff, who stayed to protect our building and to help residents who could drop by and pick up a few things. We also discovered just how fortunate we were in that our homes were not damaged and we would be able to return in a short time. We discovered that we had enough and we knew it.
Harvey dealt a lot of people a bad hand but as we read about what other people had to deal with, we discovered, as we already knew, that we were holding a winning hand. We had to suffer a bit, but in the grand scheme of life, we were blessed. Bill Turney, Houston