Life Lesson #198 ~ And the Rain Came Down
"We are praying that you make it through the rain. I know nothing's gonna break the will of Houston. Oh, and we can't wait to go down there again" ~ Coldplay
When I was small, I 'd listen to the rain falling and smile. It was beautiful, peaceful and magical almost. Rainy days meant coloring books, paint by numbers, and listening to as many Disney records as my heart desired. I loved nothing more than to lie across my bed listening to The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh on a rainy day. I'd play my vinyl over and over again on my trusty old record player and turntable. Oh and I'd sing right along too. I spent hours listening to Christopher Robin tell Pooh Bear, "There is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think." You know what? Those words stayed with me. In fact they went with me everywhere. And when the time to leave the 100 Acre Wood behind me, Christopher Robin's words provided my heart and spirit a unique foundation to build on as I became an adult. Now I can't deny I was devoted fan. I mean who would't be right? I loved all things Winnie the Pooh growing up and when I had children of my own I passed this love on. As for the rain? Well it was never really a worry in my mind once I had children of my own. I'd hum and smile softly laying my baby boys down for an afternoon nap. I loved watching their little feet. Never failed, I could always count on their toes dangling out of their favorite blanket embroidered with a smiling Pooh Bear floating along inside an umbrella. My mind often had visions of Pooh and his friends floating along while I sat close as my babies sleep. Who'd have thought, then, some 20 years later the sound of rain followed by the crashing sound of thunder would shake us all to the core? I honestly had no idea as 40 something year old woman I could fear raindrops. Of course that is until the rain came down, and down and down and didn't stop for 5 days this past August.
I'll be honest any Texan, will tell you, "Texans can handle anything." I know because I'm one of them. The truth behind these words is this. Our spirits were put to the test beginning August 25, 2017. What's so significant about this particular date? Well let's just say a disastrous if not calamitous downright awful rogue ruffian and scoundrel made his debut over Texas on that fateful day. History will mark it as the day Hurricane Harvey made landfall on the Texas coastline. Harvey decimated Rockport and Victoria before long before turning right around and hitting them again. Harvey was the 8th named storm of the 2017 season and he certainly came in like a loaded gun. He was fierce. Lord knows he was about as welcome as an outhouse breeze too! Rockport endured a 10- 12 foot storm surge. Parts of this beautiful town were just crushed beneath the waters, simply there one minute and gone and wiped away the next.
Victoria suffered widespread damage. Fire spread. Homes flooded. Roofs not only collapsed they disappeared. There were total and complete power outages. Buildings were simply reduced to sticks and stones leaving nothing but rubble. And as if that wasn't enough of a slap in the face the Guadalupe River turned around and flooded poor Victoria just a few days later. The waiting was the worst as an eerie quite set in. We heard nothing for hours but dead silence on the other end of the phone. We prayed, pleading with God for word for word from our loved ones hunkering down. Morning brought the news we all feared. Victoria was leveled. Harvey was a menace. He came at us swinging, barreling in at a CAT 4. And with his 132 mph he knocked out the weather station based in Victoria as well. Unbelievably in one day this part of Texas took in over 16 inches of rain. It was crazy. I can't explain it differently. We waited for news, praying our friends in Victoria who hadn't evacuated were safe. Watching the news our worst fears played havoc as reports of fire's burning homes to the ground spread. By the time Harvey started moving we thought maybe, just maybe he'd leave the rest of us alone. Well we all know how that turned out, don't we? Harvey pretty much decided to look us straight in the eye and holler over his shoulder, "Be back directly folks."
This monster from the Gulf advanced with demented, sadistic intent moving slowly through half our state. The thing about this hurricane unlike so many others before was Harvey seemed to have no care in the world. Once he'd let loose of his angry winds Harvey decided to stay and take a stroll for Heaven's sake. Maybe he just wanted to get to know us better. I don't know but whatever his reason, once he settled down he settled in and moved ever so slowly across the Lone Star State. As for the destruction left behind in his wake? It's staggering.
With days of Harvey the world learned just how strong Houstonians were I mean Harvey did detonate over the entire Houston area. Catastrophic honestly doesn't even begin to describe the actual devastating flood waters which overtook our town and her surrounding areas. Come hell or high water has become our state motto but the truth is it hasn't come without the ultimate testing of our faith. The images you saw on TV and across the internet can't possibly accurately describe what was actually happening here on the ground in real time. the words historic flooding aren't vivid enough. No, not even big words such as biblical or apocalyptic really illustrate the situation here properly. The path of Harvey's destruction was wide and non-discriminatory.The reality we faced as Houstonians was that Hurricane Harvey left behind 9 trillion gallons of water on top of us. Frank Billingsley, a local forecaster explained our situation best really He said the water Harvey dumped "would fill the Great Salt Lake...TWICE. It would fill the Empire State Building 33,906 times. It would cover New Orleans in 128 ft. of water. It equals 9 days of Mississippi River flow. And it would cover the Lower forty-eighth States with .17" of water." Now I don't know about you, but that's a lot of water! If you do a quick internet search you'll find the numbers and facts mind boggling.
Truth be told Texans aren't strangers to hurricanes on the Gulf Coast. In fact we've gotten pretty cozy more. Look at our history. Texas lived through the Great Storm of 1900 that wiped Galveston nearly off the map. We've hunkered down through Carla, Alicia, Dolly, Ike and of course the chaos of Rita not to mention Tropical Storm Allison. The first hurricane I personally remember is Alicia. I was 10 years old in 1983 and I no idea what a hurricane was. I can still remember my mom and I sitting all night, camper out in the hallway, listening, praying and sheltering in place from her winds and rain. My dad had no choice back then but to work through the storm. He was an oil and gas dispatcher in 1983. Alisha was scary and her damage widespread. Ike on the other hand was a different beast altogether. He barreled through our coast on September 13, 2008. I'm not sure any of us were really prepared for the shortages following his wake. Galveston was decimated. Gone in the blink of an eye. Ike took 195 souls with him in Galveston and another 16 were never found. We had major power outages everywhere for weeks and months in some areas. The grocery store shelves were completely bare. When the power failed every last bit of food went rancid, spoiling inside the stores. Still Texas came back. The fear of Rita spilled over 2.5 million onto the roads with some 100 deaths and still we came back again. None of those numbers even come close to the damage Harvey left behind. Think about it. Statewide some 185, 000 or more homes were destroyed, over 365,000 registered for assistance, more than 43,000 folks were in shelters, 10,000 had been rescued, 200,000 were without power, 120,000 had no water and 24,000 National Guard were deployed according to ABC News on September 1, 2017. In Houston alone hundreds of thousands of cars were abandoned underwater, over 150, 000 properties damaged
In spite of Harvey I gotta say this about Texans. We're a strong wily bunch. When I hear Psalms 16:8 these days I think of the people of Texas. "I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for He is right beside me." As a state 7 weeks ago we were completely overwhelmed by the torrential downpour of Harvey. Our faith, courage and endurance was vastly tested. We went to bed one August night and woke up to a completely new landscape. Our situation turned grave as the morning light brought Harvey's handiwork to sight. We waited and waited. We hunkered down, we stocked up, desperately tying to get our hands on what we needed as Harvey's impact began settling in. Many of us went searching for water. I know I'd gone out with myself mom on Wednesday night the 23rd of August after realizing supplies were going to go fast. I was remembering Ike and I knew the rest of our city did too. As much as I tried I still couldn't find water that night. The next morning I went to work hoping for the best just like every other Houstonian.
I assured my students we'd have school Friday, but probably not Monday. Little did I know it would be another 12 days before we'd be inside a classroom again. By the time Harvey was upgraded to a category 4 the stores were unable to keep up. It took 2 days for my family to locate enough water for both households. In fact my son and I stood in line at Walmart wrapped around aisle after aisle just to take home one 24 pack case of water. It was a very discomforting feeling let me tell y'all but Texans are a hospitable bunch. No one complained, no one pushed or shoved. However we knew whatever was coming, we were all in it together. It's like the saying goes, "Every night we go to bed, without any assurance of being alive the next morning but still we set the alarm to wake up. That's called hope." (unknown) And that is exactly what we did. Texans held on to hope side by side and arm in arm.
It wasn't until after the rain started to come down our communities began to fully understand our situation was on a grim course. Supplies were going to be hard to come by and worse roads impassable. Gas was like liquid gold. Johnny and I were some of the blessed to find propane and enough for both my parents and ourselves just before the stores closed. By the time many of us realized our 4 day supply wasn't enough the flood waters was already rising. An unsettling but calm panic set in. Lines were 50 people deep at HEB. And yet in spite of our worries no one complained. Texans were side by side, helping one another, sharing and bringing home only what we needed, nothing more. Looking back now I see Houstonians were living Audrey Hepburn's words out loud for all the world to see. "Nothing is more important than empathy for another human being's suffering. Not a career. Not wealth. Not intelligence. Certainly not status. We have to feel for another if we're going to survive with dignity." And the truth is in the wake of Harvey, we've continued to live this way even as the rest of the world has begun to forget what happened here.
In less than hour the water rose so high it was mid thigh and rising. Water began submerging vehicles on our street as neighbors rescued each other. Together we watched the rain come down, down, down. The waters rose up all around greater Houston and still Harvey didn't budge. I looked for comfort in the familiar. And so as the rain continued to come down I found myself singing along with my old friend Winnie the Pooh again. "The rain, rain, rain came down, down, down in rushing riv'lets 'till the river crept out of it's bed and crept right into piglet's." I suppose it was my way of coping. We were blessed but so many of our friends continued to wake up in the middle of the night, water surrounding their beds. Boats were out and rescues none stop. The military had taken up residence at our local high school not too far from our home. Police departments from all over the country converged on our mall, staged just up the road from our house. Shelters overflowed. All day long and through the night we heard the chinooks flying over head. By the time we could make it out anywhere all you could see for miles were lines of military trucks coming in and out of our beloved community. Neighbors and friends carried out away from the reservoirs. We weer living a nightmare as the evacuations just kept coming. In the middle of the night people woke to the sound of the National Guard at their doors. And still the water's just kept rising as watched our bayous overflow and rivers crest. Finally, when the sun eventually came out the reality our city faced was almost impossible to wrap our minds around.
Devastation was everywhere. Rivers flowed where neighborhoods once stood. So many lost everything. Homes, lives and possessions were completely washed away. Unbelievable or not once the rain finally stopped the plunder wasn't over, not in a long shot. Families were displaced, our neighbors, friends, family and many of my students were without anything but the clothes on their backs. And still the water kept rising day after day. Lives continued to be taken, washed away as Harvey's deadly waters prolonged his unwelcome, overextended stay.
As for normalcy. What normalcy? Curfews were in place, imposed all over. Houston, Katy and Fort Bend just to name a few. Most ran from 9-17 days straight depending on where you lived. And still folks were out volunteering, giving and sharing thankful for what they had. Harvey's deep waters couldn't keep Texans down. Yep, Harvey made a mess, a big Texas sized mess that's for sure. An unknown member of the twitter community pegged it quite humorously. "See what happens when you name a storm after a man! He won't ask for directions, wanders around lost, leaves a mess and doesn't clean up after himself!" That was Harvey but you know what? In spite of THE adversity Houstonian's faced they were out helping one another proving Harvey had barked up the wrong tree.We rose up. side by side, together as Texans and Houstonian's. So many people talk hate on a regular basis. They say borders, color and race are set in stone or unmovable issues. Many say nothing can change, but then they haven't been to Houston have they? People were in HTown were need. Color, religion or culture didn't matter. I'm well aware as a community we will continue to agree to disagree when it comes to politics or current events. It''s a given. However I also know Houston will continue to lead anyone wishing to follow our example. Harvey proved this. We may disagree on any given day of the week but when the waters rise, you'll see us carrying one another on our own backs. Yes our city sank but our spirit did not. The goodness of people just didn't disappoint. What I know today is Harvey didn't have a chance. Why? Because the Spirit of Texas is bigger! As they say around here,"We will rise!"
Winding things down I know I've had a lot to say today but then a lot has happened here. I realize we still have a long road ahead of us. Some of our bayous are still receding, and just getting back to a semi-normal routine has been quite a feat for all of us. Sometimes just the sound of rain, and the crash of thunder can cause me to stop and ask in a hesitant tone, "Is that rain?" When my heart's troubled and my mind is thrown back to the floods I repeat Matthew 7:25 to myself. "Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against the house, it won't collapse because it is built on bedrock." When I'm shaken by the rains, I hold out hope. We all do. I see it everyday in the beautiful smiling faces of the kiddo's I teach. I see it when I step out into the grocery stores; and despite the stacks and stacks of bleach greeting each of us front and center, folks want to know how you are. There's a lot ahead of us yet. We know this better than anyone else. believe me. Take a drive through the streets of Greater Houston and her local communities. Know what you'll find in the midst of Harvey's footprint? The strength of Houston and her people.
The waters are almost gone thankfully. What I've learned in all this is understanding the physical, emotional and spiritual waters are going to rise in life. It's unavoidable but they will recede, eventually anyway. God never lets us go completely under water without tossing a life preserver. He's our spiritual high water rescue. Try as I might, I can't understand the why of high waters? Sometimes there's no point. It is what it is honestly. Faith on the other hand is our life boat. After everything I've seen, the cards that have been dealt me and those I love, I've found my saving grace in the confidence of Jesus Christ. He's my salvation, my hope and my rock. I will choose to feast on optimism, reflect on goodness and trust God in whatever process He's leading me through. Truly, I get it now. Haruki Murakami's words hit home like never before. "And once the storm is over, you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about."
I don't know exactly why but Eeyore's words have come rushing back. "It's snowing still, said Eeyore gloomily. And freezing. However, he said, brightening up a little, we haven't had an earthquake lately." This is the spirit of Houston and her people. The rain may have come down, but we're still standing strong. And this is where I hope Life Lesson #198 ~ And the Rain Came Down leaves us...with HOPE. The rains may fall. God may even allow the Heavens to open up and swallow us whole. The water's might even rush in, but He will never allow us to drown. He is a constant, the rock which is higher than us, a shelter and our rescue. As for me, I will continue to trust Him with my life despite the water rising. His promise relays this to our weary hearts in Habakkuk 3:19."The Lord God is my strength, my bravery. He will walk with me through places of trouble and suffering."
~ Merida Grace
Comments
Post a Comment
Please leave your comments and share your thoughts.