Stories from Texans after Harvey
Like you, I am thinking about those who are still being rescued in Port Arthur and Beaumont, in awe of the courage of those who are responding to this crisis and saving lives in those communities. Hurting for the families of those who are lost, those who have been lost, and those who are anxiously awaiting rescue.
We are also mindful that search and rescue operations are still ongoing in Houston, and as we met with the Rockport volunteer fire department, they shared that they are still helping evacuate people in that community every day.
I’ve spent the last 34 days straight on the road meeting with people throughout Texas. Outside of marriage and children, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. Renews and strengthens my faith in people, in Texans, in this county. I’ll share the full story in a future note.
But the last four days — in Victoria, Cuero, Port Lavaca, Rockport, Richmond, Greenspoint, Houston — have been the most powerful reminder of the spirit of Texas. The courage, the strength, the determination that is saving lives and helping people endure one of the worst disasters this country has ever seen.
In Victoria, we dropped medical supplies off with Lisa who was helping to oversee evacuations of patients to San Antonio while her husband Jason, who is a state trooper, was patrolling the roads that were lacking traffic signals and streetlights to make sure people were safe.
Both admitted that they had gone 72 hours with very little, if any, sleep. Each was essential to ensuring their neighbors would make it through the after effects of the storm. People like James, who had been sleeping in his restaurant so that he could keep it open 24 hours, serving food to anyone and everyone who needed a meal — “pay what you can, or nothing at all, just come in and get some food and let us take care of you.”
In Cuero, we met a family led by Kerry and Stephanie, stranded without a car or connection to get the help they needed for their kids. They were staying with a family friend named Ricky because their house had been crushed by a tree.
We dropped off supplies and a birthday cake and made our way to the shelter at Cuero Middle School. The man running it, Micah Dyer, had a command and control of the supplies, sleeping quarters, food and volunteers that made me incredibly proud considering he’d just moved to the community two months before and also was serving as the Cuero ISD superintendent (he’d been working in 22 hour shifts). We called Kerry and Stephanie and encouraged them to get over to the shelter for food and supplies.
In Port Lavaca, we met Danyiel and her 22-month-old son Luke Walker (big Star Wars fan). They had lost their trailer in Aransas Pass, and were staying in the hospital while Danyiel’s husband received treatment. They didn’t have much left in possessions or money and didn’t have anywhere else to go. Erin (who had also had a 72-hour stretch) was the RN helping to organize efforts at the hospital including taking care of them. You could tell she was giving this all she had, wanting to make sure little Luke was OK.
Also in Port Lavaca, I met Dave who had just come back from Seguin where he’d gone to ride out the storm. He’d come back to find that his boat (the “Lady J”), which is also his home, had been badly damaged and sunk. He was now living out of his car, hoping to get to Palacios that night where he had a friend he could stay with. If he can get the money and help from FEMA he’s going to get his boat fixed and rename it “F U HARVEY.”
Two things he told me: don’t forget about the smaller places that got hit. And, he never thought he’d need help from the government — took unemployment once for a total of $57, and has since done his best to work hard and live independently — but needs us to be there for him now to get him back on his feet and back on his boat.
I met up with Jay and Jesse, prospective members of the “Texas Navy,” in Richmond. They had towed their boat from Victoria in hopes of putting in somewhere in the Houston area to perform water rescue. Last I talked to them they were back on the road to Beaumont and Port Arthur to see if they could help there.
In Greenspoint, we met with Rev. Deckard who opened up his church to receive donations of clothing, water, diapers and food and was distributing them out to those in the community without the means to get to other shelters or distribution points.
At the George R. Brown convention center in Houston, I met Jacob, a veterinarian helping to take care of the animals who’d been rescued with their owners. He had a backpack full of running shoes and was carrying more of them in his arms. Why? Because he’d met an evacuee yesterday who’d spent the previous two days pulling people out of their homes, towing them in a boat to safety, losing his shoes in the process of pulling the boat through waist-high water. Jacob posted on Facebook the story that night and dozens of pairs of shoes showed up at his front door.
We met an evacuee named Raul who over the weekend had paddled his way out of his neighborhood to a nearby church from which he was transported to the convention center. A neighbor had just called him this morning to let him know that waters had receded from his home, but that his dog and 15 chickens were stranded on the roof of his house. Frank, David and I helped him pack up his minimal belongings as well as two cots that the Red Cross let him take with him since he had no furniture left and met his son outside and helped them load the truck.
On Wednesday, we went to Rockport and met the unbelievable volunteer firefighters, many of whom have lost their homes, who are living in the firehouse with Chief Steve Sims, rescuing their neighbors and taking care of each other to the best of their ability. Indomitable spirit in the face of tragedy and epic loss. The Elder brothers, Manuel, Charlie, Jeffrey, Gillian, many others — joined by rescue dog “Harvi” who had followed some of the firefighters around town as they conducted rescues and joined the department soon after.
As we were leaving a firefighting team from Guanajuato, Mexico pulled up. They’d just traveled 2 days to come up and help their fellow firefighters in Rockport.
On Wednesday night, I talked with Jefferson County Sheriff Zena Stephens and Cade Bernsen in Beaumont by phone. Cade had just opened the doors of the Democratic Party headquarters as an additional shelter to folks in Beaumont and those able to get out of Port Arthur. Sheriff Stephens was focused on recovery and rescue efforts despite having lost her own home. Just talked to Cade, as Beaumont loses residential water and faces the prospect of having to potentially evacuate the entire community, he and his neighbors are showing incredible strength and courage.
I will continue to fight with everything I have for the federal funding for disaster recovery and rebuilding, and strengthening the agencies — FEMA, National Flood Insurance, etc. — and to ensure that the aid comes quickly and upfront so that communities can put it into the cleanup and rebuilding effort immediately.
I am working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do this. It’s a moment of true bipartisanship. There will be no better opportunity to put country before party or self.
I will take as my inspiration everyone who has risked their life to save someone else’s, all of our first responders who are operating without sleep and comfort, the local leaders who are not waiting for anyone else to direct them but are taking matters into their own hands to do their best for those they serve.
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