School was canceled on Friday the 25th so we could all prepare our families for the hurricane barreling towards the central Texas coast. We rushed to HEB with the rest of Texas to gather up water, bread, milk and definitely a whole lot of hurricane snacks. Probably our greatest hurricane prep was found in the assortment of glow sticks! There was barely any rain so we spent the afternoon at the Ginn's house chatting and laughing as we wishfully hoped maybe Harvey wouldn't be as bad as they thought.
And then the rain started!
Once that rain started, it just never stopped! It didn't just rain, it POURED! Buckets and buckets, no sheets and sheets of water fell from the sky for days! By the time it was over we had 37 inches of rain in our area in 4 days! We wondered if it would ever stop and the stress was so high as we worried about street flooding, gullys, bayous and our great city! I would go to bed each night terrified of what I might wake up to which I did a million times a night anyway. If it wasn't a flash flood or tornado warning alert on my phone then I was waking up to check for flooding around our house. Those weather alerts brought a lot of tension with them and they just kept coming just like the rain did.
We were glued to the news along with every other Texan as we watched the waters rise and the rescues pour in. It ended up being what they call a 1,000 year flood and it absolutely devestated the Texas coast and in particular the great city of Houston. Well over 100,000 homes and business went under water as the devastation and heartbreak from Harvey rose all across the huge expansive metropolis. Boat rescues and even helicopter rescues began and continued for days. Along with all our amazing Houston first responders, the Coast Gaurd, and the national guard, the Cajun navy and others like them rolled into town and hundreds of every day people with boats turned into the heros of Houston! We worried as we watched complete neighborhoods go under water as homeowners stood on their roofs pleading for help. We cheered as we watched and read about fellow Texans being rescued and making it to a shelter. We marveled at hearing the black hawk helicopters over the house and in watching the experiences of good friends in the thick of the rescue efforts. We cried when we saw so many heartbreaking stories and when we confirmed that my favorite place on earth, the Houston LDS temple had flooded.
And we did all we could to keep from going completely stir crazy as we aren't the sit at home for days kind of girls. But we were trapped by flooded streets and serious warnings of flash floods and tornados. So We painted, we did the Orbeez Crush that Keagan had bought with her own money, we texted and called to check on friends daily, we had a fashion show, we played lots of games and watched LOTS of news and social media. To get the wiggles out I shockingly let the girls splash in the rain puddles in the street several days in a row! We were all just so desperate and I immediately put them in the bath and washed everything twice! It was probably their highlight of the experience and they even pretended they were at the beach.
As the rain still tried to trap us in as SO many streets were flooded everywhere on Monday we were desperate to do something positive. So we decided to reach out to our neighbors. The girls made a huge mess of course as we made cookies to deliver to all the neighbors. We made 6 deliveries in the rain and got to bring smiles to people's faces. That of course made us smile that instead of just watching the devestation we could actually do something! That was the first of our efforts to try to do something to help!
On Tuesday we were absolutely thrilled that the rain had slowed enough and some of the street flooding had drained a little so we were able to actually get out of the house! That afternoon when the rain FINALLY stopped and the sun came out it was a beautiful thing to behold! Sa's neighborhood was full of people thrilled to be outside, including us! And my social media was full of Houstonians SO thankful to see the sun! It was almost magical!
But once the rain finally stopped it was not even close to the end of Harvey! That is when the hard work truly began but having two 8 year olds kind of limited our options on service opportunities. I am so thankful to be a member of the church that is so incredibly service focused and organized. Of course there were quickly Mormon helping hands crews formed and given assignments of houses to completely muck out. I am so inspired by all of our friends and family that went in to these flood ravaged homes and tore everything out that water had touched. That was the hardest work but we also started searching for ways we could help and I am happy with our efforts. We contributed water to the Ostermann's delivery to the national guard. We donated diapers and toliet paper and helped at a donation collection site with our friends at the French Quarter. We helped Laura Black prepare meals for firefighters including that amazing Mr. Jaron. We bought and donated school supplies to Lemm Elemrntary which was surprising the only school in our district that flooded. We donated to several friends and none other then JJ Watts campaigns for Harvey recovery. We went with Sami and Todd to help at an LDS Stake center that was transformed into a temporary shelter and collection site. We delivered lunches to a Mormon helping hands crew mucking out houses. We made dinner for a flooded family and their awesome host family the Schmutz and also for our friends the Flores since they had sacrificed so much with their daddy being a first responder police officer working around the clock. And my favorite was when Keagan and I helped deliver pizzas in completely flooded neighborhoods. Jaron and Laura organized a group of us to deliver almost 200 pizzas in 3 different neighborhoods that looked like absolute war zones! We walked around for hours giving Pappa Johns pizza and cold water to work crews and families as piles and piles of ruined furniture, destroyed memories, carpet, sheetrock and everything else imaginable that was completely destroyed by the flood water was stacked high all along the curbs. We had an incredible experience along with Allie and Izzy Monson meeting thankful homeowners and seeing the absolute devestation first hand. I know that is something neither Keagan nor I will ever forget and I was so thankful to Taryn and Ga who kept Riley so we could go!
In between serving we also had some fun too. We met the Lakes and other fun Mormon Mahaffey families at the church to play several times and we had a super fun play date with Noah and Phoebe! Oh and don't forget toliet papering the house! We also had a broken A/C scare that turned out to be a blessing and we said goodbye to Sami as she went back to BYU Idaho after a fun summer giving lots of love to her!
It has been a very long week and a half and hurricane Harvey has left destruction and horrible damage in its path. But so much beauty has also come from this. So much light is now shining through the darkness that Harvey brought to Texas. Every where I looked this week I was inspired by the hope, the service and the pure charity that filled this city! I was inspired by the hearts of Keagan and Riley who wanted to do whatever they could to help and who prayed earnestly for everyone effected.
Through out this week and a half as we have felt and then tried to recover from hurricane Harvey I have truly felt that heaven was close. I witnessed so many miracles this week that have changed me in their own way. The biggest miracle I saw was a city, a state and even a country that came together to help their neighbor, to lift a stranger, to love one another. So many people were the hands and feet of the Savior on earth and I feel blessed to have witnessed that. The best part was there was no regard or care of each others race, religion, preference, politics or social stance. It was just people helping people, what a beautiful thing. There is so much ugly in this world and so much hate in our country lately. But when Harvey brought destruction, the people responded with love! If you thought we were proud to be Texan before, this just took it to whole new level!
Oh Harvey we really couldn't wait to kick you out of our city and you definitely way over stayed your welcome. But thank you for the lessons you left behind. We will work hard to clean up and continue to rid our city of any damage you left and evidence you were here. But hopefully, the the response of love will linger and last. I think Texas is now changed forever. Come hell or high water, we are Texas Strong!
0 comments:
Post a Comment