Hurricane Harvey

We've been watching the news more the last couple weeks than probably ever in our lives. It's been crazy to know that there is some real devastation going on just a couple hours away from where we live. If I didn't know any better, it would have just been a rainy week. We did have tarps and sand bags against our doors but never had any water get close to the house. We are grateful.

Sunday we went to sacrament meeting and Bishop announced that a stake in Orange, TX was asking for volunteers from our stake to come down and help. Volunteers would go home after sacrament and pack food and clothes for the next two days. As much as I was looking forward to a longer weekend with the family, Jenny and I had both been looking for ways to help and we knew this would be a great opportunity. 

So we decided during sacrament. I leaned over and told Ashlyn that I would be leaving during church and wouldn't be back until the next day. She kept reading the Book of Mormon (she's on 1Nephi 22!) and got a smile on her face. "That's okay Dad. Because that means that Mom will let me and Brinley sleep in her bed!"

We met at the church, made sure we were ready and took off. 

We arrived at the Vidor, TX stake center a couple hours later. They had a bunch of supplies for evacuees and volunteers.

We broke into teams and made our way to different addresses to help people. It was heart breaking to see the flooding in person. I've been watching it on the news but seeing it with my own eyes was just heart-wrenching. I can't imagine being in this type of situation with my own family. 

There were abandoned vehicles all over the place. There were several in the middle of the highway.

This was about a block away from our first destination.

About 100 yards away from the first house we went to.

The house in the upper left corner is where we stopped at first. We all had to hop in the back of a truck to get to the house. They pulled into a house. Well, it turns out the house was still under 6 inches of water. The family was planning on deserting the house but wanted to get some of their valuables and furniture out before leaving.

Moving furniture out to the trailer.

It's tough to see in the picture but many of the houses we went into that had wood floors, had areas where the wood had expanded and was bowing up.

Tough to find gas around here so we brought plenty of our own.

We headed back to the church where we stayed the night. I slept in the nursery on my comfy air mattress. It really wasn't too bad although I missed my warm Jenny by my side.


We got up the next morning and left the church at 6am. We made our way to this house. The guy that owned the home was named Brent. He met us there. He told us his mother-in-law had been staying there. After talking to her, she said she woke up in the morning with mold growing on her clothes. She wasn't the most intelligent person but I imagine she didn't have many options on places to stay.

In houses where there water had been sitting inside for some we removed the lower 4ft of drywall, carpet, mats, trim, etc. We wore masks to avoid inhaling mold.

The guy on the right is Brent. He had just finished remodeling one of the rooms two weeks ago.

These were Brent's kids. They are now staying with his sister in a one bedroom apartment.

This picture doesn't do it justice. We gutted most of the house.

Estimates are that 0.5-1million cars have been totalled due to water damage. This guy's name was Matt. He took his family on a road trip two weeks before Harvey hit. They stayed with family and he came back just today to see the condition of his house for the first time. He had no idea he would receive so much damage. He told us that he was planning on going to Houston to help others. Now his home is in a state of needing a total remodel after removing all flooring and affected sheetrock.

It was a very humbling trip. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around what this means to most people. I don't know how they will survive without work or a place to live for such a period of time. We got a lot done for these people but they still have so far to go.

I was telling Jenny that really none of the people seemed super grateful for the help that we provided. I was realizing later that many of them are in such a state of shock and don't know how to process everything that a little bit of help is welcome but really doesn't get them too far. They have so many decisions that need to be made it has to be so overwhelming. Either way I'm grateful I was able to help out. We may be going back again in the coming weeks to help out more families.