Life during and after Harvey: Evacuating, rescuing, patrolling

Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath are having a major impact on people in Baytown and surrounding communities. This is the account of one person, Justin Pedersen, of life during and after the storm.
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The Pedersen family during a vacation this year

“Even with Hurricane Harvey hitting 175 miles away in Rockport, we still parked our cars up off the street in the event that we had some pooling water. My home is classified as ‘X’ on the Effective Flood Insurance Rate Map. This is the lowest category available for flood zoning risk. Based on conversations with my neighbors, we estimate less than 8% of our homes had flood insurance. No one could have predicted what was to come over the next couple of days.

“I stayed up Saturday night watching the water inch closer. About 5:45 in the morning, the water level passed our front tree. Shortly after, the power went out. I immediately woke the family. We started moving electronics and valuables upstairs. We also frantically cleaned out a section of the garage for my daughter’s car, which wasn’t under full coverage insurance. Little did we know, it wouldn’t make a difference. By 7:15, it was coming through the front door. As the water continued to climb, our immediate neighbors came over due to having a one-story house and two small children. My neighbor and I then went to check on other neighbors, including the elderly couple across the street. It was a surreal scene with 4 feet of water in the street, people standing knee deep on their front porches, and others having fun floating in pool floats.

Their neighborhood on Monday

“In less than two hours, the heroes showed up. They had five or six boats taking people to Highway 146 for evacuation. With my family upstairs starting to pack, I joined one of the boat teams and helped get multiple families to the front of the subdivision. Wading through the water was extremely cold, and the rain was incessant. Yet these volunteers came from other neighborhoods and even other towns risking their lives and their boats to help get our families to safety. Later in the day, we got my family out as well. We rode in the back of a pickup truck to a friend’s house. I wish I knew the name of the guy who selflessly ran us across town during the pouring rain. Some families decided to stay, thinking the worst was behind us. Among them were the elderly couple across the street, since they had nowhere to go. Unfortunately, they were wrong.

“After 36 hours without sleep, I fell asleep on my friend’s floor while waiting for my wife to check on a potential place for us to stay. When I woke up at 4:30 a.m., reality set in that this wasn’t all a nightmare. A quick glance at the TV news showed that another band of rain had dumped more water on our area during the night. Checking the water level gauge of Cedar Bayou, it had surpassed the 500-year flood level and was continuing to rise. I pulled up the Devinwood Facebook page and immediately realized how much worse the situation was. Several families were citing waist-deep water inside their homes and begging for rescue. I didn’t have a boat, but I thought maybe I could find a rescue team to help. So I jumped in our borrowed vehicle and ran up to the Cedar Bayou bridge. It was under water on both sides and the current was very strong. More and more volunteers showed up, but it was pretty apparent that the current and water level weren’t going to permit us to cross or safely deploy boats.

A view of the Pedersens' house from a boat

“Meanwhile, my wife was compiling a list of addresses of families calling for rescue on Facebook. The number was growing rapidly and now included our elderly neighbor, who recently had a heart transplant. I finally found a way around by going out to Horace Mann Junior School and heading down FM 1405. Shortly after arriving, the heroes once again showed up with their boats. We literally had over 10 boats running around, trying to find those in need. The water was over 7 feet deep in some places, giving them enough depth to use their outboards. The problem was they couldn’t exactly go door to door without risking their motors hitting items in people’s yards. With my wife and another neighbor coordinating the calls for help, I relayed those addresses to the boats. I couldn’t get to the back of the neighborhood, but I did go door to door on the first three streets trying to urge people to get out because Cedar Bayou was still rising. Once again, those heroes risked their lives and boats to help strangers. I was on the boat that helped rescue my elderly neighbor. It was a very sad sight, as he was shivering and struggling to talk. One of the heroes gave him his raincoat to offer a little protection from the battering rain. When we parted ways, they were being taken to a shelter by yet another hero.

“It’s been an exhausting week. To make it worse, talk of looting and people being held up at gunpoint has my already beaten-down neighbors nervous that what little they have left is exposed. To try to provide them with some peace of mind, I set up a checkpoint to monitor in/out privileges to the neighborhood. Everyone has been extremely grateful. We now have a rotating shift and multiple people on post at any given time. According to Baytown police officers who we are working with, we are the only neighborhood with this sort of checkpoint. My neighbors can’t get back to their homes due to the water still being 4 feet deep in some places, but at least they have one less thing to worry about. I hope and pray they are getting some rest as our journey of rebuilding hasn’t even begun yet.”

Batman the cat

Footnote about the family’s pets:

“We have two dogs (Khloe and Slinky) and three cats (Maverick, Snow and Batman). When we left on Sunday we got them all out except Batman, who we couldn’t find. I went back on Monday to find him, but I couldn’t. My daughter was ready to swim back herself that evening to find him, but the water was rising again. Finally after a second trip back on Tuesday, I found him hiding inside my daughter’s mattress. He had dug a hole through the bottom of her box spring. My daughter was hysterically happy when Daddy brought Batman home. She woke up from a dead sleep to see me standing over her with her cat.”