It started thundering.
And the lights like kind of flickered.
Then the rain came.
It was fine it stopped.
Saturday, the rain came.
It start thundering and the lights, the lights went off.
Forty two years being living in Houston Texas, this is the worst that we have ever had on
record.
You know whole cities under water.
It was wild.
It was like, I would think I wouldn't believe it till I seen it.
When I seen all the water you know what I'm saying.
Oh sure.
So you know the water was up here to me.
In my home, my neighbor was taller than me.
So the water was up to his chest.
so I had to tiptoe.
I know I know it flood out there.
But when I seen it for myself and I had to get in the water.
Oh man I was terrified.
I was like oh many they got snakes and stuff out there.
I really got frightened when the water came inside the house.
And the water came all the way up to my knees.
I live right there.
He just comes by and asks you if you need help.
I live right there and the last time we flooded like this I went and bought this jon boat
and I'm like if it ever happens again I'm going to have a boat here.
If anybody needs anything I'll help them the best I can.
I want everybody to be safe and be able to get out of the neighborhood and stuff.
Don't wait on the help.
We are the help.
Coordinate.
Maybe one team go with these boats one team go with these boats.
And another team go with these boats.
That way we know medical training is in that area.
This is a chance for us to do some good.
We will certainly give it a shot.
We're heading over to try to head as far west as we can see if we can help people out.
Man I flooded last year in 2016 in August and people came and helped me and it's a chance
for me to give back.
You know we'll never forget.
You know when they came to our rescue basically.
So we just want to help out in any way we can.
I was able to take some time away from home.
I've got an able body and some hands and my cousin's got a boat.
And there's a lot of people that need help right now.
We're going to help out as much as we can.
We was in the flood last year.
We know how it feels.
So we're gonna give, help out as much as we can.
And it looks like we're headed towards a subdivision.
There's an area where the roads are washed out.
They're saying that they need some help.
You're in a situation like this.
And myself, I can't swim.
And when you're in a situation like this and you don't know what to do or where to run
that's hard.
And some people you know
when they tell you to evacuate, do it.
Normally I'm fixing these things not riding in the bucket of it.
We just wanted to get out.
It was just too much.
No water. No lights.
We know that there's going to be another rainstorm coming in.
Hello.
We're going to come back by here in just a minute okay?
OK.
Just being there, seeing all of this and not being able to do anything, for anybody.
We're just helping people.
These streets that are flooded.
And we thought we saw a couple of people down here in boats.
They looked like they need help.
So we decided to come out here and help them.
I've never seen nothing like this in my life.
wasn't here for any of the hurricanes or nothing like that.
So this is craziness.
A lot of sadness.
We just look for people on their porch waving.
Or you try to find somebody who maybe who has help written on their door.
Maybe a white towel hanging or something like that so that they can signal somebody that
they need some help.
Everybody wants to stay till it gets dark.
And when it gets dark everybody wants to get out.
I may not be in as good a shape as I used to be.
But at least I can do to help.
We lost everything.
Everything.
Yeah my mom lost everything.
So, it sucks.
OK we've got room. We're coming to get you.
I 'm worried I ain't gonna have a place to lay down or nothin.
You'll have a place to lay down.
I can take care of that.
Look at me.
I can promise you that.
Search and rescue, anyone home?
We are search and rescue you all OK?
Yeah we're good.
If ya'll need to get out now's the time.
No running water no electricity.
So we started dipping buckets to flush toilets and stuff.
I was ready to get out of here.
It had already gotten up to the furniture.
and the living room.
And I'm sure that my bed and my television all of this is gone.
Guys fire hydrant.
We were dispatched to a house on fire.
And was surrounded by three feet of water.
The only thing we could do was connect a hose directly to the fire hydrant which was under water.
We had a little bit of challenge finding the hydrant that was under water.
Once we were able to find the hydrant and connect to it we got our initial hose line
on there and we basically just protected the exposure surrounding the house.
It was burning.
It was nearly fully involved when we arrived.
Fire.
I mean they're keeping it off of the (inaudible).
But we just don't have enough water pressure.
Everybody on the bottom floor were evacuated or they left.
But we tried to stick it out on the second floor because we were on the second floor.
But the water kept rising.
So we had to get really just leave when the police officer came by.
Just like that we went in.
And before we can do anything the water had already gushed into the house.
I said well y'all we can't stay here so.
And it was coming up higher and higher.
I lost everything.
I lost stove, refrigerator, food.
We had just grocery shopped and just filled up the deep freezer for the month.
And we lost everything.
Clothes, shoes, furniture. you want to use.
I gotta start all over again.
Our apartment, we had over six feet of water.
My car, I lost it.
This is a truck and this is my car here under water.
I lost everything.
And I was praying and hoping that it wasn't going to be this bad but it was.
We opened the door and looked inside.
It was all broken.
The smell is really bad.
It's really really really bad.
I mean I can't even breathe.
I was about to throw up.
A lot to clean up.
The whole city is a mess right now.
It's a mess.
I came inside.
And the first thing that I went to see my room.
I was like, oh my room.
It was the first one to get flooded, my room.
The water started coming from my room first.
So I went inside and it was still water in there.
And I was like wow.
And all my clothes they were just on the ground.
My bed went, it up to my bed.
Everything got ruined.
I was, I started crying because it was really bad.
The water damage, you can see the line.
It was about two feet up in here.
It happens. Stuff happens.
You know everyone's, all right everyone's safe.
You know my family's safe, my kid's safe.
So we're just on to the next phase of what happened.
We care about each other.
We love each other.
And when things get hard we all come out, hundreds and thousands to help each other.
I'm 50 years old and it's enough to make you cry.
It's amazing to see.
A lot of people come out and help those that are, that are in need.
Had it not been for the volunteers a lot of people probably would have lost their lives.
And we're going to get through this.
We got through Katrina and we're going to get through any other storm anything that
comes our way.
I've lived here all my life.
And with this disaster coming, it was just amazing how people have stepped out, you know
to help.
And it's the best part of people.
And it gives me hope for the future that, you know, people are able to come together
for this and that we're more alike than we are different.
People coming down from Dallas, from Austin, and San Antonio, you know just to you know
spend their life to help us you know regroup and you know get back on our feet again and
start going.
People care more than you think.
And people are more resilient than you think.