After four long days and nights guarding over my family and neighbors watching endless news report and only cause I was flooded in and couldn't go out even in my big truck, I will drop a few words as long I have energy this evening, here I’m sitting at the “end” of what will likely go down as the most devastating flood in modern American history, 9 Trillion Gallons of water estimated.
I want to record my thoughts and emotions at this precise moment in time.
As a 21 year Houstonian "cause in '96 I moved here from Europe" this event has impacted me deeply.
First, I am thankful to God.
Many bad things happened, but many more amazing and positive things will happen
Some atheists may say “How can you be thankful when your God is the one who created the storm?”.
To them, I say you don’t understand how it works.
God created a universe where storms are possible and even inevitable and he doesn’t intervene to stop every possible negative occurrence.
Earth is not heaven and was never meant to be.
I had a teacher once as I went to a Catholic school back in Europe, and did ask some difficult questions along those lines one time and he had a great response: “We have little peanut brains and we can’t understand everything that God does.
That will only be revealed to us when we pass on to the next life.” So, I don’t know why God set it up the way he did because I have a peanut brain and I’m not really going to spend too much time trying to figure it out, because I have faith that it will be revealed to me in due time.
I am thankful that my Family and I spent all this time together and we were fortunate to suffer no harm to our bodies or any of our belongings.
We feel blessed.
Our biggest discomfort was that we had to drink soy milk today instead of dairy milk, that’s not too bad.
We were very comfortable together in my house in Katy.
We spent quality time together.
We ate together, we worried together, we grieved together, we laughed together and we celebrated together.
I was amazed by the way people from Houston and the surrounding areas came together to help neighbors, to my understanding is that the whole world is amazed how we came together in this horrifying event.
No one seemed to care about color or creed, they only cared about their fellow humans, and it should always be that way.
I can’t count how many examples I saw of people from different backgrounds helping one another.
There was plenty of love and zero hate.
I am now convinced that what we see on the nightly national news is complete unadulterated BS designed to divide us.
What they present is not natural human nature.
When the chips are down, Houstonians loved one another and did absolutely everything they could to help one another.
We even had the “Cajun Navy” come to help and we appreciate them.
We had a group of fishermen from Waco come down to help in any way they could.
They had no place to stay when they set out, but the good folks at Buc-ees fixed that little detail for them.
We had civilians working side by side with governmental agencies to save lives.
City, state, and county agencies were overwhelmed and they were not too proud to admit it.
They asked for help and they got it; in spades.
There was no bureaucracy or red tape.
Folks just created processes on the spot to save their fellow human.
They gave their time and resources freely to get the job done.
The city, counties, and state do not have the resources to handle a situation like this.
It’s not reasonable to ask that they do.
A very good friend of me Sergio Nuncio picked up a tweet from the National Guard that they needed energy drinks and a place to wash clothes, well he and his wife Mandy came to that task to them and as of now they still washing clothes for these service members.
I was very proud of our local leaders including Mayor Turner, Judge Emmett and many, many other mayors, commissioners, chiefs and directors. Considering the magnitude of this disaster, things have gone incredibly well thanks in great part to their planning and leadership.
They were open and honest and gave me a feeling of confidence through the whole experience.
I believe deeply that they truly care about their fellow citizens and that they have done all they can within their power to ensure our safety and they were honest about what they could and could not do.
To those (especially outsiders) who want to criticize our local leadership about evacuation orders, etc.,
I say “Go to hell!”. You don’t understand the logistics of evacuating 6.5 million people, nor the fact that we face similar threats regularly.
The last time there was a mass evacuation (Rita), about 100 people died in the evacuation and the storm wound up being nothing. So, go back to wherever the hell you came from and shut your danged mouth.
If you want to come and help out we will welcome you and put you to work and thank you for it.
If you want to stand back and criticize while we save our neighbors we will simply ignore you.
You’re not worth our time or breath.
We also saw many large companies and rich folks step up and open their hearts and wallets.
Buc-ees opened their doors to first responders and told them to take whatever they needed off of the shelves.
Gallery Furniture opened their doors to evacuees, Leslie Alexander has pledged $10 million, Jim Crane pledged $4 million, and Bob NcNair pledged $1 million, even JJ Watt raised in 24hrs 1 million and what not will happen in the next few days.
I’m sure many more will be giving generously and many we will never hear about.
These are good folks who are sharing their good fortune with their neighbors.
I personally appreciate it.
This storm was a gut punch to Texas and Houston in particular.
Houstonians take care of their own and Houstonians are strong.
The rebuilding has begun.
Don’t count Houston out!
It’s going to take more than a little ole 800 year storm event to kill our spirit!
We will rebuild and we will be back and better than ever.
Thank you R2R members for support in this thread and that will be never forgotten.
God bless America and God bless Texas (especially Houston).
Ben
Pearland Area. Took on some water but never lost electricity. Water didn't get inside but came very close. Streets impassible by lifted vehicle. It has stopped raining and the water has gone down the yard by only a few inches. Low tide shows 4:38p today so maybe that will help the swollen creeks leading into clear lake. Blaxkhawks and coast guard helos were all around my neighborhood. Air boats traversing bwy8 at pearland Pkwy, Scarsdale, and Beamer. 
