VIDEO: ‘Incomprehensible’ flooding overwhelms Houston

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

Forrest Ryan Cox is a born and raised Houston native. He, along with thousands of other Texans, is watching his city swell under hurricane forces.

The disaster spun under Harvey is extreme. The storm came ashore as a category four hurricane on Friday but has since been downgraded to a tropical storm.

The National Weather Service had to add two more colors to its precipitation scale by Monday to map up to 30 inches of rainfall, and up to 50 inches in some areas were reached by late Tuesday.

“It’s just unbelievable,” Cox told the Press Monday morning.

Like many others stuck in their homes, Cox has been keeping friends in Charles City and elsewhere updated on his surroundings as Texas reaches nearly a week of extreme weather.

Cox lives on the north end of greater Houston, bordering Humble, Texas, and said his neighborhood is escaping the worst of it.

“I live right off the freeway, so it drained OK. But the area 4 or 5 miles away is 16-18 inches underwater,” Cox said.

After less than a week of life-changing weather the tropical storm isn’t even slowing down.

The National Weather Service predicts Harvey will spin back out into the Gulf of Mexico, gain strength then make landfall again, this time northeast of Houston and crossing the border into Louisiana.

Staying sheltered

Just west of Houston in Katy, Texas, Iowa native Ron Johnson and his wife, Janice, are riding out the storm with their dog, and trying to keep tabs on Janice’s elderly parents nearby.

“All the freeways are underwater. An hour ago my wife wanted to check on her parents and she couldn’t get through,” said Johnson, who graduated high school in Spencer.

“Tow trucks are pulling people out of neighborhoods and blocking everything,” he said. “We have bayous, and they are mammoth. One hundred feet across, 75 feet deep, and they are full and overflowing. What you’re seeing on the national news is really true.”

“They said something like 400 trillion gallons have dropped in the Houston area. That’s incomprehensible,” he added.

“You can’t even wrap your head around that,” said Patty Zahara, who grew up in Charles City until her family moved in 1998. “Thousands and thousands of people have lost everything. I don’t know how you come back from this.”

Homes that have never previously flooded — like the Johnson’s home — are still at great risk, even though they are located on what’s considered the thousand-year flood plain, Johnson said.

The two live about four blocks from the Barker reservoir in Katy — which the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers began releasing water from Tuesday in an attempt to control the massive amount rising above the dams.

The Corps warned residents like the Johnsons that the reservoir’s release would endanger more homes and add to the flooding already present.

“In the fourth largest city in the country, maybe 80 percent of it is underwater. We tried to plan. It’s been scary,” Johnson said.

Zahara’s family watched floodwaters rise across their driveway on Saturday, but by Sunday water was already receding without entering their home. The family has lived for seven years in Santa Fe, between Houston and Galveston. Patty’s husband, Scott, is a firefighter for the Galveston Fire Department.

“We’re one of the very few areas that is not heavily flooded,” Zahara said. “I have never seen my neighborhood flood.”

When Harvey makes another landfall, Santa Fe expects to receive another 12 to 18 inches of water on top of everything.

Zahara didn’t know her neighbors’ homes had taken in water until her family was able to leave the house on Monday.

The lines for the grocery are out the door, she said.

“We’re running out of food, and we don’t know how long it’s going to be to get supplies back in here, because trucks can’t come in,” Zahara said.

Catherine Dobbs, who graduated from Charles City High School in 1965, had a 10-minute warning from firefighters to evacuate her apartment complex in Mont Belvieu, Texas, on Monday.

Dobbs is currently sheltering at a nearby church, and said she expected to remain there for up to a week.

Dobbs moved down to Texas in 1969, and has weathered hurricane forces before with family. This time, she’s alone. Her two daughters live 40 or more miles away, and are both experiencing flooding at their homes as well.

“My daughters are worried that I’m here without either one of them, but there’s not much to do now,” Dobbs said. “There were 58 units in my apartment complex, and everybody’s gone. I don’t know where they’re all at. We waded through waist-high water to get to the (evacuation) boat.”

Neighbors stepping in

Like many Texans coping, Johnson and his wife are keeping their spirits up with a sense of humor.

“We have power, food and rum. All the essentials,” he joked.

In a disaster that’s overwhelmed full-time emergency workers, Texans are relying on friends and strangers to be first responders. Louisiana volunteers have brought their boats into Texas — the “Cajun Navy,” as residents call them — to rescue those trapped in homes or on rooftops as the flood waters rise.

The entire Texas National Guard has been deployed to aid in rescue efforts. The Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System, which is maintained by the state forestry service, is also staging emergency responses across southeast Texas, said Scott Zahara.

“It’s a nice thing, because a lot of our guys affected (by Harvey) can’t make it into work,” said Scott, who grew up in Texas. “We really have no way to go out. What we have is what we work with.”

Near Humble, Cox, who has worked at a local high school as the head football equipment manager, said staff and volunteers are trying to take care of each other.

“One of our coaches got flooded in. … The other coach had a boat and rescued him and his wife,” Cox said. “It’s amazing to see people from Louisiana, Dallas — anybody who has a boat has been coming down to help.”

More than 200 residents are waiting out the storm in Dobbs’ shelter. Eighty-four truckloads of bottled water brought from Dallas to the church was gone within one day.

“It’s still raining out there, oh, my God in heaven,” Dobbs told the Press. “I would ask that anybody reading this please donate to the Red Cross, because they’re going to do the most to help people get back on their feet.”

In Katy, the Johnsons were attempting to contact family members, but were blocked from reaching the neighborhood by flooded-out roads.

“My wife’s parents live 10 minutes from us, but the phone lines were down. Her mom is a stroke victim. … We were frantic,” Ron Johnson said.

His wife went to Facebook, asking friends if they knew anyone who lived in her parents’ neighborhood. Within 30 minutes, someone reached their home and reported back to the Johnsons that Janice’s parents were doing just fine.

“That’s an example of how we’re working together,” Ron Johnson said. “Watch the news and say a prayer. We’ll make it through, but it’s some serious hardships, and many people haven’t begun to experience it.”

Zahara said, “We’re going to help because we’ve been so blessed.”

But “we don’t know where to start,” she added. “The magnitude is just so crazy. We’ve posted online that our home is open to anyone who needs a shower, to wash clothes, anything. The amazing thing about Texas is everybody always comes together.”

“Donate to the Red Cross. … We need money and we need prayers,” Zahara said.

Cox said, “It’s been a lot of comfort to know everybody in the nation has their eyes fixed on Houston. The support pouring in, it’s just been great to see.

“It’s just a traumatizing experience.”