Houston Strong

The week before Harvey hit, we realized that our enormous Pine Tree in our back yard close to our house was dead.  We had an arborist out and scheduled immediate removal.  Unfortunately, we were scheduled for Friday, August 25th.  With light rain, and the expectation of strong storms... they did not come!  Needless to say, we spent a lot of time fearing and praying that that tree would stay standing in the huge amounts of rainfall we were expecting over the next few days!

 Local Meteorologist predicts 30-40" by Thursday!

(We had 35" at our house by Tuesday morning!!!)

 Let's Backtrack a little:  Friday, Grace's school was cancelled for people to prepare or leave and the expectation of strong storms by the afternoon.  Jimmy was required to leave the building by noon... because his company is so wonderful and cares about their employees safety!

We went and stocked up on a few things.. "Just in case"

 Lots of sand bags and water

 A little ridiculous- local store boarding up

 our pantry was stocked!  We will not go hungry

 By Friday afternoon, the rain had started.  No thunder, so we went on a family walk to the park & splash pad and had so much fun

 Puddle on our back patio

 Headed back from the park

 Friday night, we were woken up at least 4 times by our phones Emergency Alerts that we were in a Tornado Warning.  We were up most of the night, listening for "the train" and watching the weather.

 Saturday it POURED ALL.DAY.LONG!

We had at least 6 hours in the afternoon/evening with non-stop Tornado Warnings over us!

The huge bands from the "dirty side" of the storm were trailing right over us!

 Sunday was no better- the tornado threats won't go away!  

The kids spent hours in our (dirty) laundry room

one of our safe storm shelters

 while Daddy watched for twisters

(and Mommy glued to the radar)

 sweeping our porch...

 while the kids painted in the garage

 We filled the tub in case our water was turned off...

We had many dinners with neighbors... which was so much fun!

the news was constantly on in the background, and we had all become numb to our emergency alerts on our phones going off simultaneously 

As we returned home... the constables came around on loud speakers announcing a "voluntary evacuation- in expectation of flooding "tonight"

 within 30 minutes, our streets were flooded and rising quickly!

Tornado warnings continued all night and some looked particularly close on radar, so we would all "take cover."  Jimmy had gotten really good at knowing when the winds were ominous.

The local Flood Control District released a map of the areas that were expected to flood as the reservoir fills up.  (our neighborhood backs up to the reservoir- probably 1.5 miles from our house)

Everyone knows exactly their home elevation, and were glued to the news reports of that the reservoir was doing at any point of any day!

On the map- our house was one of the last ones that looked like our street was defiantly going to flood... but if it continues to rain like this... who knows- our house could take water on too.

SO... jimmy and spent well into the night, moving heavy furniture upstairs or onto higher surfaces.

sofa on our dining table

 coffee table, or our breakfast table

 living room chairs on outdoor furniture chairs... we did everything we could to save our belongings

 As the water rose in the neighborhood (our streets were clear at the time), we became worried to be stuck upstairs with 3 small children, so we evacuated (on our own).

The water was expected to rise to 107 and we are at 106.

As we pulled out- Military helicopters flew low over heads and airboats were entering the neighborhood.

(Mommy lost it!)  I didn't know what we would come home to!

flooding everywhere

 We were turned around in Katy because of high water on the highway.. but managed to get out of town with 3 extra hours of driving.

We made it to San Antonio! 

Emery welcomed us

 Mimi and TonTon too

 We rode the train to the zoo with Mimi on Wednesday

(while Daddy went to work at TonTon's office)

 and went swimming with Ryan's family at their house on Thursday

Look at cousin Chase... these two were so cute!

 We had a little mexican food and sang to Carter a day early

 Thursday we went to the Whitte Museum

(They gave free admission to evacuees)

 A little learning experience about Dam's and releasing water

 And... Friday, This little guy turned ONE!!!!

 he started with a donut and candle before we headed to the lake

everyone skied

Late in the week, we learned from the flood control district that the water behind the reservoir would not rise to the expected level, and that they would be releasing from the dam more water than expected.  This was great news for us... our house would not take on water after all,  but that news also brings devastation to so many of our friends downstream.  Many of our friends have several feet of standing water in their homes now and are expected to stay that way for several more weeks!  Their kitchen counters are under water along with their cars in their driveways.

  They lost EVERYTHING!!!

Portions of our neighborhood (that did flood) are starting to dry.  Jimmy is working hard to help tear out carpet, drywall etc.  to help get people back on their feet.  School is out for another week 10 missed school days total)... so, here's to crafts and time with neighbors!

Just a glimpse into a very stressful week!  

#HoustonStrong #Thankful