New deluge brings hard lessons to soaked area
Weary residents continue to battle the floodwaters
As many Houstonians spent Wednesday drying out and cleaning up, crisis — not recovery — remained the order of the day in northwest Harris County.
Floodwaters, fed by a swollen Cypress Creek and more unwelcome rain, remained stubbornly high in the northern parts of the county, even as water receded elsewhere.
Twain Kennedy, 56, moved to the Westador subdivision just three weeks ago. Then, like so many others this week, he watched the region get swamped.
“I called my neighbor to see if his house was OK,” he said. Instead, he learned, “the water was already halfway up his truck.”
Along with other plucky residents, Kennedy made his way to the water’s edge, just past Nanes and Baltic, and began
paddling into the neighborhood. They checked on friends’ properties, rescued stranded neighbors, and brought groceries and water to those who didn’t want to leave their homes.
“This is how I met all my neighbors,” Kennedy joked, chatting with several of them before paddling back into the floodwaters with a reporter.
Water lapped at the base of many of the stately brick homes that dot the neighborhood, 20 miles north of downtown Houston. In many areas, water rose nearly to the top of cars parked along the street, including one whose unlucky owner had been trying to sell it.
The words “4 Sale” could be seen, scrawled in marker across the back and side windows, just above the floodwater.
A clear plastic bottle of vodka — drained — bobbed atop the mocha-colored floodwaters, as Harris County sheriff’s deputies zipped through the streets in droning airboats.
“It looks like Katrina,” said Kennedy, who moved to the Houston area from Lafayette, La., several years ago. “There’s nowhere for it to go, and we had it in about six hours.”
Sheriff Ron Hickman said that while deputies have spent sleepless hours in rescue operations, they have not had to deal with any looting.
“We haven’t had any, and if we do we will vigorously prosecute it,” he said.
The sheriff’s office reported rescuing about 45 people from the subdivision as of Wednesday afternoon. Emergency crews from the sheriff’s office, the Precinct 4 Constable’s Office, the U.S. National Guard, the FEMA-Task Force 1, the Spring Fire Department and from as far away as Austin worked at different emergency sites in the area.
Amanda Westfall watched deputies in airboats trawling the Westador area for residents they might have missed, as she sat on a nearby driveway, trying to soothe her aching legs.
“Before all of them showed up, we did it on inflatable kayaks and paddle boats,” she said. Three days of wading and paddling through the water had left the skin on her calves peeling and starting to blister. In need of supplies
About six miles east, emergency responders also scrambled to help the hundreds of residents at the One Westfield Lake Apartments in Spring. The complex’s parking lot had turned into a muddy lake, with water in some places creeping more than six feet high.
Over the past few days, many people had gathered to help bring residents groceries after the waters rose. Jacqueline Moreno was among them.
Moreno, a teacher at nearby Hirsch Elementary, said she came to the flooded complex after a student’s parent called, saying he and his children didn’t have any food.
“We waded in and found out what they needed,” said Moreno, who along with several others had spent the past few days wading or floating through the floodwaters to take groceries and other supplies.
Moreno, 34, a U.S. Navy veteran with a no-nonsense attitude, said she and others soon tracked down several of the school’s other pupils and their families in the complex.
“A lot of students were scared and needed supplies,” she said. “Once they saw the food and water, it calmed them down a little.”
Residents of the complex — which first responders estimated held between 800 and 1,000 people — had at first been loathe to leave their homes.
By Wednesday, even as emergency responders ferried people out of their homes, several residents were trying to make their way back home through the floodwaters.
Among them was Sofia Hart, who was trying to get back to her French Chihuahua, Tiny.
“We’ve just been having a hard time,” Hart said with a tired smile, pondering the muddy expanse. “I’m about to walk back in and get my dog . ... I’m not going to let it starve.”
The 29-year-old bartender and part-time model arrived home from work Monday about 3 a.m. By the time she woke up several hours later, the parking lot was flooded.
She’d made a run for groceries that day. On Tuesday, she whiled away the time playing cards with a friend in the complex. ‘If you want to go’
Nearby, however, Spring Fire Department District Chief Kevin Wiseman warned residents not to return. Crews at the complex had already rescued more than 80 people and their pets, he said.
“I simply don’t have the resources,” he said. “If you want to go, now is the time.”
Back at the Westador, Kennedy continued paddling around looking to offer assistance.
About 1 p.m., as Kennedy was paddling down Zagar Lane, he spied Victor Mosqueda on his front porch, two bags in hand.
“I would have stayed if the flooding hadn’t turned off the air conditioning,” the 67-year-old military veteran said.
After the power died, his generator kicked on, he said. He’d planned to ride out the flooding in his home, but the rising waters swamped the generator, forcing him to endure the sticky heat without air conditioning.
“That was it,” he said, in an interview back on dry land as he waited for a friend to pick him up.
The water had come about a foot into his home. It appeared to crest, and then recede, only to begin rising again.
Now, he faces the prospect of replacing his bamboo floor and cabinets.
“I already contacted some contractors,” Mosqueda said. “I did that the first day. I knew there’d be a backlog.”