It has been a long hard week for so many people in the Houston area. When we went to bed on Monday night, we could not have imagined what would soon be at our doorsteps, literally at our doorsteps. The thunder boomed, the lightning struck and the rain poured all night long. Many people stayed up anxiously waiting as the flood alerts rang on their phones. And then they scrambled to move valued possessions as the waters started seeping into their homes.
The insurance adjuster who later came to assess the damage told us enough rain had fallen in Houston to fill the entire state of Delaware with 10 feet of water. On some parts of our street, the water came up to my chest. The city sent rescue boats to help the elderly, or anyone else stuck in their homes. Imagine boats where streets used to be. The air was filed with the sound of helicopters and rescue vehicles. It is an incredibly surreal experience. At least temporarily, the waters had s swallowed our neighborhood. People felt dazed and confused.
Even when the schools reopened, you could see the empty looks on people's faces. I remember seeing someone whose home had flooded walking up to the school. As I reached out to give her a hug, she sobbed in my arms. This is a woman I barely know, but we are all in this together, and so, I cried too. After traumatic events like this, emotions sit right bellow the surface, and nearly anything can push then out. This is the kind of thing that is hard to capture in pictures. It is hard to capture how vulnerable people feel.
