I woke up
that Monday morning to the soothing sounds of a rain storm. When Esquire came
into the bedroom he was practically humming with energy. Since my sweet husband
is not generally a morning person, his energy level didn’t make sense until he
quickly showed me a photo of our slightly flooded street.
Ellie and I
got up and marveled at the view from our front door for a few minutes, but it
quickly became apparent that the water was rising at an alarming rate. Esquire
told me to think about what was important enough to save if the house flooded.
I started brainstorming and packing irreplaceable things like hard drives and
hard copies of photos, certain toys of Ellie’s that she would be upset to lose,
diapers, a couple of changes of clothes, and family heirlooms into bags that
would be easy to carry.
We called
E’s uncle who had his house flooded a few years ago during one of Houston’s big
storms. He suggested elevating our couches using soup cans. We went to work putting
cans under the feet of our couches, raising our coffee table and the wooden play kitchen set my father made on card tables or other tables with metal legs. Anything else we wanted to save, we put up as high up as we could on the kitchen table or
built-in cabinets.
We were
frequently checking the water level as it quickly crept closer to our house. It quickly went from this:
To this:
Esquire called his old roommate and the conversation as I heard it went
something like this:
“Hey buddy. Did you ever buy those kayaks you were talking
about?”
“Well, how would you like to use them to come rescue us?”
“No, seriously. No, your truck won’t make it. I’m actually
not sure you can even get close enough to kayak in.”
“Okay, well if you can get here safely, we’d really
appreciate it.”
Esquire’s
buddy and his wife showed up about an hour and a half later and just in the
nick of time. They kayaked up to our front door and we hauled their kayaks into
the front hall. Water was already covering most of the living room and the hall
leading from the back of the house to the living room.
The guys made about five trips down this waterway that used to be our street.
After they got all of our stuff out, Ellie and I waited with Hannah in her car while the men spent a few hours hauling stranded people out of their houses. This mother was stuck with a three year old and a week old baby while her husband was away at military training.
It ended up over the next few days rising to about a foot deep in parts of our house, but we were lucky compared to some of the other people in our neighborhood. Some houses had water three to four feet deep when we left on Monday. Ellie gets excited whenever she sees pictures of the kayaks. Thankfully, she seems to remember it as a great adventure.
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Ellie visiting with Daddy while he takes a break from kayaking
Our house is undergoing a major renovation because of all the flood water. The type of water is considered Category Three (or Cat 3) water...which is basically sewage. I'm going to post pictures of the work soon. Our little house is going to be so gorgeous when it's finally finished!
We're so grateful for Blake and Hannah's superb kayak rescue service. I'm hoping it's the only time we'll need to be kayaked out of our house! Seriously...thank you, Blake and Hannah! You guys turned a potentially scary day into a funny story that we can share with a grin.
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| Blake and Hannah |
