Hurricane Harvey

As I sit here writing this, I have such mixed emotions. Feeling so blessed, however guilty at the same time. Hurricane Harvey made land fall Friday night and has been reeking havoc on our area every since. The floods that our area sustained in both 2015 and 2016 did not compare to the devastation that Harvey is causing - and sadly too many of our students, friends and church family have been affected. Our neighborhood historically has remained an island amidst the flooding and this time proved the same. As of yesterday, our neighborhood has had 25"of rain, and it rained through out the night and is still raining as I type this. However, our neighborhood retention pond has done its job and has kept up with the rain and kept us dry. Neighborhoods less than a mile from us have not been as lucky and many do not have flood insurance as we are not in flood plains.

The neighborhood retention pond

The H-E-B parking lot which is right
across from our neighborhood

Yesterday Shane went out to a local church to see what he could do to help. He ended up at an Exxon station very close to my school where people where being dropped off after they were rescued in boats. When he arrived there, he heard a woman yelling his name, and it was the assistant principal from his school who had been waiting there for about 30 minutes after having been rescued. She apparently had been taken out by canoe at 1:00am in the morning and taken to a two story home, who also had flooding, however was able to stay upstairs with 15 other people until a boat came and took them out. She was so happy to see Shane. He called me close to noon and I went and picked her, her one back pack and one garbage bag which had a small suitcase in it, up. She was wet, cold and had not eaten since 12:00 pm the previous day. She stayed with us last night until a friend could make his way to us today to take her to her daughter's house. She is just one of many that have and are going through the same thing. I am a firm believer that God places people in places at certain times, and this was no exception. She was there, waiting for no one, just glad to not be in her previous situation and finally a familiar face showed up. Tears.

Please pray for our area as the devastation is unreal. Many, including Shane, are out doing what they can to rescue people from their flooded homes in order to get them to safety. At this time, we have no idea when school will resume in our area as no one knows of the actual destruction it has caused to the schools. It will take months, if not longer, for people to rebuild not only their homes, but their lives.