Houston We Have A Flood

This week has been an absolute roller coaster of emotions: anticipation, sadness, happiness, fearfulness nervousness, and uncertainty.

On Monday I wittiness an eclipse something that not even my grandparents got to see. A total  solar eclipse is truly the opportunity of a lifetime. The last total solar eclipse to crossed the United States was 1918.

Tuesday morning my eldest son moved 550 miles way to attend college. I’ve know this was going to happen for 18 years, but it’s just one of those event that you cannot prepare for. I may have used up a whole box of Kleenex.

Thursday I spent the day shopping for hurricane supplies in case Harvey came our way. Friday I was on pins and needles because the hurricane was headed to Corpus Christi, my mother and sister live there. They lost power when Harvey made land fall near by in Rockport, they were with out light for four days.

Friday night we got some rain due to Harvey but by Saturday morning it had stopped. Seeing how it was my birthday, Blake and I decided to go have breakfast. While there I got an alert that Hurricane Harvey was now a tropical storm. Happy to hear this because I had a dinner date and Blake had a party to attend.

After dinner we went back to his place turned on the TV to watch the Texans game. Within the hour it stared to pour down rain. It was terrifying to see the amount of rain that was falling! Alerts on the TV from the National Weather Service warned rainfall could come down at a rate of three to four inches per hour. “This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!,”  

I was in constant contact with my son that was at a neighborhood party.  I wanted to leave, pick him up and go home. At around midnight the water eased up, so I made a run for it. Drove for about a half of mile when I notice a lot of break lights and people driving on reverse. I turned around went down a different street, it was dark and the rain was starting to pick up, suddenly I was in deep water!

O my gosh I was so scared! I put the car in reversed and hit the gas. Thank God I made it out of there, went back to my friends house. It is now raining so hard that the street is starting to flood. In addition to the heavy rain, there was lots of tornado warnings! Plus you could hear emergency sirens, helicopters and at one point a firetruck was a couple of houses down from us.

Here is the frighting thing this was happening throughout the Houston metropolitan area! We were up all night watching TV, can’t even begin to tell you how much it broke my heart to see the devastation that was happening.

Once there was day light, my friend took me home in his truck. When I saw that our neighborhood golf course was flooded and the water was spilling over into the streets I panicked. There was no way to get to my house unless we went throught the water! Fortunately the truck was much higher off the ground then my car. Once I was home my friends brought Blake over and then it started to rain yet again.

Happy to report that we’re safe at home (though surrounded by flood waters making transportation near impossible), and only have minimal damage as of now. Thank you all so much for the messages and emails checking in to see how we’re doing!

With a heavy heart, I’m sad to say that a lot of my friends, and fellow Houstonians didn’t fair as well. I’ve seen countless photos of friends homes flooded and people stranded on the roofs of their homes. There are numerous cars stranded on flooded roads!

I have had tears all day watching the news and seeing photos on Facebook of unbelievable sights.

It has been beautiful to watch Houston come together and help one another in a time of need. A few of you have asked how you can help first and foremost lots of prayers. If your able to make a donation please do here are two great organizations.

• JJ Watt Houston Flood Relief  JJ is a beloved Texans football player, known almost as much for his good guy character and philanthropy as his amazing football skills.
• American Red Cross
  • text HARVEY to 90999 to make a $10 donation (will add to your phone bill)
  • call 1-800-RED CROSS