The Flood ...

You all already know that the historic Memorial Day flood in Houston in May caused our house, cars, and garage to flood with around 16.5/17" of water.  Here is the full story and some photos ...

Monday May 25:
We spent the morning at Lowe's picking out a new dishwasher to replace ours that had just died. The kids had so much fun checking out the kitchen models and we all ooohed and aaahed over the different types of drawers, etc that we'd never have the money or need or time to replace in our kitchen (if only we knew!). In the afternoon, we cleaned the garage, including the pool side which we hadn't cleaned in the 2.5 years we'd lived in the house! Roy spent a long time cleaning up the pool again. He always works so hard to deal with the algae and to make it sparkling!  I watered and weeded all my plants and herb garden. Such a productive day! Then Charlie delivered their garage fridge/freezer to us. 

8 or 9pm-ish - The storm really picked up, and it went on and on for several hours. Roy went for a soaking wet walk at one point to see how the area at our corner was doing because apparently it floods really bad if the rains are bad.

midnight - I finally finished baking the cookies I needed to make for Riley's class the following day for their end of year fun day party.  Roy and I noticed 2 big branches came down out of our tree out front, and we talked about really needing to get it taken down and hoped it wasn't on the neighbor's driveway.  We then headed to bed. Roy went in the bathroom first and I got into bed and fell asleep. Luckily I decided to get out of bed to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth when it was my turn, or everything else that happened from here would have been a million times worse.

Out of the bathroom, window, I noticed a branch on the power lines behind our garage that was on fire. It was so windy and wet that it would burn and then fizzle out and then burn and then fizzle out. I tried to call 911 to get a fire truck. No answer. Called our local police dept. She said she'd try to dispatch a fire truck but that the roads were already flooded so it likely would be a while. We monitored it and 42 minutes later it finally burnt off and fell down. We assumed it was then wet and soggy and fine. Called the local police dept back to tell them.

We watched the storm out the windows a bit more and I jokingly picked up my new bag and the kids' school bags off the floor and put them on the table.  Then I picked up Roy's boots that were beside me at the door.  Then the lights flickered on and off a few times, so we started getting candles and flashlights ready. We both heard some really strange banging noises, but thought maybe it was branches falling again.  Then one really loud noise scared me so much and made me feel 'off'. Roy went to investigate and found someone trying to break into our house. He was using fallen branches to hit the front doors. And then he kicked in a section of the wooden privacy screens we have in front of our windows. I tried to call 911 but again there was no answer, so again I called our local police to report it. Of course, the roads were flooded so nobody could come. We turned on all the lights and the guy took off.

Very shortly after, we started noticing water trickling in under the front doors. We thought maybe the man trying to break in had just kicked water onto the porch and bent the doors, but it didn't stop. Roy tried to use a bucket and towels to keep the water under control while I started running around the house saving things. I rolled up a couple area rugs and then I went straight into Leighton's room to save all the things on his carpet because he had spent a bunch of time playing on his floor that day.  The kids woke up and we put them onto our bed since it was so much higher than theirs - both of which ended up immersed in water so I am so glad we were awake to get them to our bed.  I did the lowest shelves, cupboards, etc. in each room and then the next highest level.  The water kept rising and I kept saving things. I didn't save everything, but I managed to save so much. I ignored most of the kitchen, laundry room, and pantry, but the other rooms we did really well.  We are lucky we had so many built ins and shelves and cupboards to stack things on.  And I am lucky Roy followed me and straightened things up here and there so we could fit even more on the piles.  Roy tried to battle keeping the water out, but eventually it was obvious there was nothing that could be done.  He helped me get things higher into closet shelves I couldn't reach and carried the kids from room to room because the carpets had lifted and were floating and it was so difficult to walk carefully.  He did an amazing job at keeping the kids calm.  I couldn't sit still.  I just kept moving things higher and remembering about something important to save in one room or the other.  The kids never appeared scared and they never touched the water.  The water got up to about 16.5 inches inside and a couple inches higher outside. We never lost power so the kids were able to float on the TV room couch and watch TV.   And eat cereal - they were pretty tickled that they were allowed to eat cereal on the couch!  Around 7:30am the water finally stopped rising.

Riley and I took a nap from about 8-9am.  We snuggled in the middle of our big bed where it was dry.  Roy napped on the couch in the TV room with his feet dangling in the water.  I was so tired and so cold from being in the water all night.  When I woke up and had to get off the bed and back into the cold, dirty water was so hard!  That was the first time I cried.

Our cars were also flooded. Luckily they were able to be saved, dried out, and fixed up by our mechanic, but my car has given multiple more problems since then and both our cars still smell of flood water.

We saved so many belongings, which was great. But we lost all our furniture which to replace will be frustrating because of depreciation amounts we will be given. The same for the appliances that were damaged.

By 11:30am all the water was out.  It was so odd to open the doors and watch it rush out.  We didn't think to take any video of it, but I wish we would have.  All the water rushing out meant that the roads were starting to empty and instead of rescue boats we started to see vehicles on the road.  So Mikkel came in his jeep to pick up me and the kids and a couple back packs full of necessities and important things and a change of clothes.  Roy stayed at the house for a few hours to really get a good 'lay of the land' so to speak.  

The following few days, we had 'team mommy' friends come help us get the dry clothes, soft toys, area rugs, throw pillows, etc out. And lots of 'team daddy' and Roy's lab helpers banging out walls and ripping out trim and hauling out dry wall. They worked so incredibly hard.  Roy ripped out almost all the carpets himself the first day after the flood and then Mikkel got home form work and was able to help him finish it up. We got fans from friends and ran them with 2 dehumidifiers we bought and kept the a/c on full blast 24/7 for weeks. Roy sprayed with bleach and anti mold/mildew solutions. More friends and Roy's lab came and packed our entire house for us.  They helped load and move it to storage, too.  We had contractors will rip out all our cabinets and built ins and tile in the bathrooms to get to the insulation behind.  We did not hire a remediation company because our a/c was working and we got so much wet out by ourselves so fast.  Flood insurance will only cover so much and apparently, the companies know this and often run extra fans/dehumidifiers that could end up costing thousands out of pocket.

We stayed at Pauline & Mikkel's in their garage apartment for 3.5 weeks.  We were so incredible grateful for their willingness to have us stay with them.  I still can't put into words how comforting it was to be there with them during that time.  We have since moved into an apartment.  It is an adjustment being in a smaller space and having the kids in the same bedroom driving each other nuts, but we are making the most of our new neighborhood and enjoying life in the apartment this summer!  There is a pool, which has been great for entertaining the kids and keeping cool in the relentless heat we've been having.

Our friends were amazing at supporting us.  Everyone was doing different things to help us out.  They brought us meals & groceries to feed us and the Mathiesen family while we stayed there, they brought us medications & deodorant & mouthwash from Target, they took our kids for play dates, they did all the work in our house, they researched things for us on the neighborhood groups and facebook, they helped us move into the apartment, and they gave us all sorts of things to furnish the apartment.  It has been really overwhelming and amazing to see how many people wanted to help us.  We also had friends and family from far away checking in on us and sending us anything they could to help - stickers for the kids, gift cards for Home Depot, money to help us out.  I still get emotional thinking about all of the people who have reached out to help us.  We're realized that we have an incredible support network.

The community was super supportive, too.  Mattress Firm gave away one free mattress set and pillows, Jason's Deli donated huge platters of sandwiches and chips and cookies when a woman Roy works with had ordered them to bring to everyone helping us at the house, an employee at Trader Joe's gave me a beautiful bunch of flowers for the apartment when we moved in.  And the kids' school did a 'flood camp' for the first couple days of summer vacation so they watched and fed the kids.  They also handed us gift cards that had been donated and the Student Council gave us a gift card for HEB.  Riley's teachers were doing a summer camp for Tuesdays and Thursdays in June and took both our kids many days free of charge.  The school also organized a toy and clothing and household stuff 'drive', so I was able to get some beach towels since we lost all those trying to mop up the first signs of of water before we realized how screwed we were! The kids also got a bunch of new books and a few toys and movies. It made them happy so I let them collect a bit even though we were able to have most of our own (although much of it is in storage) while others did not. It was so hard to be there with all my friends 'working' while I was 'taking' …

I am still not finished all my thank you cards, but I think so far I've sent out about 54!

We had a lady from NPR show up to interview us the first day we were getting out of the house.  She spent about 2 hours with us asking questions, taking pictures, talking with our friends who were there to help, etc.  When her piece played the next morning, we had friends from California to New York contacting us because they heard us and now knew about our situation. It was really touching.  We also had people contacting her to offer help with restoring a piece of furniture I talked about during the interview.  A week or so ago, they played more clips of us talking on a different segment and put up some photos on their website.

We had an insurance adjustor a couple days after it happened, but he was swamped with other claims, too.  We were really lucky that we were the second house he came to.  He was at 2 or 3 houses a day for 3 weeks, I think.  We had to do a spreadsheet and photos of every content item we lost, including how old it was and where we bought it and makes and models and serial numbers and replacement costs. It took days!  So far we've heard back about the building but no news yet on the contents. 

Since Obama signed off making the flood an official disaster, we are entitled to FEMA assistance on top of the flood insurance.  They have been helpful with rental assistance so far that is covering part of our rent.  We don't qualify for some of their other programs because we had our own flood insurance.

Walking and driving in our neighborhood was incredibly depressing for weeks after.  There were piles of debris on the curbs everywhere.   Ours was almost exclusively furniture and carpets and dry wall and stuff like that, but there were people with all their personal belongings on their lawns - toys, clothes, pictures ....  We met several neighbors we had never met before while walking around.  Having helicopters hovering for days was eery as well.  The streets look more 'normal' now, but many houses are empty while people decide what to do, renovate, sell, etc.  On our street there aren't any houses for sale at this time.  We've seen some work happening in houses, including at our 98yr old neighbor's because she is moving back home soon!

We haven't decided for sure what we are doing yet.  There are several options we've discussed, including renovating, building new, elevating, selling .... lots of pros and cons to consider.

Here are some photos: