Unfortunately, the Harvey rains wreaked havoc on the area in northwest Houston where our rental house is located. With most area roads and freeways blocked due to flooding, I was unable to check on the Ander Oak property after the storm finally ended. But online reports on social media indicated that the Anderson Woods neighborhood was heavily impacted. I checked in with our former tenant of the property, and he had been sent a video by a neighbor showing water completely surrounding our house. We were forced to accept that we likely had flood damage at the Ander Oak house, so I began the process of filing a claim with our insurance company as well as FEMA.
A few days passed and I continued checking road status to find out when I could go check on the property. I was anticipating the worst but wanted to begin the cleanup process as soon as possible. Finally, I just decided to take my chances and make my way to the house. The kids were with me and I warned them that we might not be able to reach the house, or if we did, we might be faced with a mess when we got there. I had to take a few detours but I finally reached the Anderson Woods neighborhood. I was completely unprepared for what I found.
We had to park blocks away from the house because the street leading to our house was still underwater. It had been DAYS since the last rain, and I couldn't believe there was still standing water. There were cars lined up and down the streets and people everywhere. I didn't understand what was going on until it hit me -- these cars and people were here cleaning out their flooded homes. Block after block of flooded houses and volunteers doing the difficult "mucking out" process, a phrase we later began to hear too frequently, referring to the massive cleanup effort of flooded homes. The kids and I were stunned at the devastation.
We had to walk past the still-flooded street and all the way down to the cul-de-sac to reach our Ander Oak house. It was such a devastating sight to see these struggling homeowners bringing out all of their damaged belongings and flooring to the curbside. House after house of ruined furniture, carpet, drywall, and anything else that the dirty floodwaters had touched. It was now all garbage.
Along our walk, the part of the street that wasn't covered in floodwater was instead covered in a muddy mess. We could see the mud/water line on the fences in between the flooded homes. It was difficult to imagine these beautiful homes being filled with this nasty, dirty floodwater. The elevation seemed to vary a little based on the side of the street. Some houses had been flooded 12 inches while others looked to be over 2 feet.
The longer we walked towards our house, the more my anxiety was building at what I would find. I knew that our left-side next door neighbor had flooded 2-3 inches, so I wondered how bad it would be at our house. When we finally reached the house, I scanned the exterior for any signs of flooding like a water line, muddy residue, etc. I didn't see any obvious signs, but I told the kids to stay on the driveway in case we might have an electrical issue.
With a deep breath, I stepped onto the front porch and peered into the windows. It took me a moment to focus and figure out what I was seeing. I was looking down towards the floors to see how wet/muddy they were, but instead, all I saw were paint cans and upright ladders. I remembered that the painters had been mid-project before the storm. Then I noticed something surprising - a gleam in the hardwood floors. But it wasn't a dirty floodwater gleam. It was the normal shine to the floors. As in, the floors had not been damaged! I let out a squeal and said to the kids, "I don't think it flooded?!"
We ran (sloshed) around to the backyard and I looked into the back windows. Same thing - no residue and NO floodwater. I was astonished! We walked inside and surveyed all of the downstairs rooms, and sure enough, there was no evidence of flooding. I couldn't believe it.
I was overcome with emotion -- devastation for my neighbors I had just witnessed mucking out their homes, overwhelming relief that our house had been spared, and quite frankly, confusion over how we didn't have water in the home when our left-side next door neighbor did. The kids and I stopped to pray right there amidst the paint cans and drop cloths, thanking God for sparing our home and seeking his comfort for the people hurting all along our street.
I walked next door and talked to my next door neighbor on our right side. At the height of the storm, she had evacuated the neighborhood wading through waist-deep water in some areas. She informed me that the floodwater had risen from the creek right behind our houses. It flowed up and under our backyard fences and into our backyards (which explained the video I had seen with water surrounding our house) and then down the street, passing our houses which had a slightly higher elevation. She also told me that one of the other neighbors was convinced that our homes were spared because he had gone through and opened the gates all along our back cul-de-sac, allowing the rushing, rising water to flow more easily downstream and not rise up over our foundations.
It was an emotional experience, hearing the stories of our neighbors and watching them begin to recover from the aftermath of Harvey. Driving away that afternoon, we saw neighborhood after neighborhood of complete devastation. In the weeks to come, there would be countless piles of debris and discarded furniture on every curbside as far as the eye could see. Our house renovation was understandably on hold, but we had never felt more fortunate.
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