Hurricane Harvey made landfall on the Texas coast as a Cat 4 Hurricane on August 25, 2017 (According to the Weather Channel's website). Within days the city of Houston was taking on water with no end in sight. By the end of the storm we had taken 51.8 inches of water, more than any storm in Texas history. I remember waking up each day, still hearing this relentless, pounding rain and feeling nothing but fear in my heart. Would it ever stop raining? Were we experiencing The Great Flood of biblical times all over again? When would I be able to get home and would I have anything left to return to?
I lived in a tiny apartment on the ground floor of my building. I lived in one of the areas that experienced some of the worst and most prolonged flooding. The city dams were so full that water had to be released in small increments, each time further flooding the exact area where I lived. It took me two weeks to be able to reach my apartment post storm, and even then we had to park a few blocks up and wade through the water on foot. Despite all of that I was so, so lucky.
Somehow my apartment was the only ground level unit in my building that didn't have water inside. None of my belongings were damaged, and most importantly I, my family, and my pets were all safe. I spent the last few months that I lived there watching all of my neighbors packing up what they could save and having their units gutted one by one. And this was NOTHING compared to so many others around me. Some complexes had to evict everyone, close down, and rebuild. Thousands of homes had to be gutted or rebuilt. Many were just abandoned. 82 Houstonians were recorded to have died during or as a result of the storm.
It is now just a week after the year anniversary of this terrible, awful, natural disaster. I have spent this afternoon editing and reflecting on the few images I took post storm. These were taken about a month and a half after the rains finally ceased. There aren't many photos, as the destruction was so heart breaking for me that I really struggled with photographing the world around me. It has since taken me this long to even look back on them.
Forever, always, Houston Strong
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