Hurricane Harvey:
The Year Long Lesson
Today marks the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Harvey. The day Hurricane Harvey dropped more than 50 inches of rain on parts of Texas since making landfall on August 25.
I was staying at my brother’s house in Meyerland during Hurricane Harvey. Since his house never flooded, we stocked up on water and general storm provisions to ride the storm out. The house survived several historic storms like Hurricane Rita, Ike, and Katrina with minor damages so we thought we were safe.
Hurricane Harvey proved us wrong.
My brother’s house flooded and we were rescued by the HPD Dive Team in a small boat. They went door to door in Meyerland collecting families whose homes were flooded.
My brother, sister-in-law, niece and I were transported by boat and SWAT truck to the parking lot of Kroger in Westbury. It looked like an island filled with displaced flood victims (babies, children, teens, adults, elderly, disabled, pets) who were cold, hungry, lost, scared, and exposed to the elements. Everyone tried to find shelter underneath the awning of Kroger.
The first responders did a fantastic job of rescuing us, but the next step in the plan wasn’t exactly in place when we arrived. Buses were supposed to pick up the displaced flood victims and transport them to reserved shelters.
To avoid being unprotected outside, my brother, sister-in-law, niece, and I returned back to the flooded house and stayed in the attic until it was safe to flee to my parents’ house.
A week later when I return to my condo, I came home to a major roof leak caused by Harvey. Yes, that was uncomfortable because it took a few weeks to repair. But what really tipped me over emotionally was seeing the surrounding Memorial neighborhood underwater weeks after the storm was over. My heart went out to them because I could relate to their pain.
A year later, my brother and his family are still out of their home. Words cannot describe how emotional this has been for my family.
It’s been a year-long lesson of humility. We learned from this experience to be grateful and trust God.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
How often do we place importance on our material stuff, our titles, our pride, and our routines? God showed us that in a flash, our lives can change.
I can truly say that Hurricane Harvey stretched my family in so many ways. And, I know there were times we all wanted to run away from Houston and start over. However, it’s our perseverance and trust in the Lord that made us so much stronger.
We are so thankful for the many friends and family who supported us during this year-long aftermath of Harvey.
I want to especially thank St. John the Divine Episcopal Church for the Harvey relief funds that helped with my roof repairs, and Blog Elevated and Media Vine for the Social Media Day conference sponsorship. These organizations rose above and beyond to help with the healing process.
If you were impacted by Hurricane Harvey, what were the lessons that you learned?
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