The survivors’ cries for aid — “Hey! Hey!” — could be heard just beyond Interstate 610, the freeway that loops around central Houston. Fortunately, help was close by, perhaps even closer than they knew.
The floods that slammed Houston over the weekend brought the city of 2.3 million people to a near-total halt, and nowhere was that reality more obvious than along the city’s ubiquitous freeways.
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The massive intersecting roadways thread like concrete veins through the city and tower over some neighborhoods, providing unexpected views both of the storm’s dangerous power and of the weapons Houstonians were bringing to bear against the storm: fortitude, bravery and mercy.
Daniel Gross, 15, is rescued by Houston Police after he was left stranded on top of his car on Greewillow Dr. in Southwest Houston.
Across Texas, there were reports of citizens mobilizing with boats and boots to help pull people from the rising waters. Social media lit up with a video posted by a reporter for KARK News, in which a man from Texas City, near Galveston, was preparing to deploy his small boat. “I’m going to go try to save some lives,” he said.
The nearly abandoned freeway in southwest Houston was no exception.
The thoroughfare was nearly empty of traffic except for trucks large enough to ford through the rising water and the carcasses of unlucky vehicles that died trying to. On the highway’s shoulder, biblical processions of families and other flood refugees ambled wearily on foot through the torrential rains.
Crews helps Frank Andrews, 74, into his walking chair after rescuing him from his flooded home in the Braeswood Place neighborhood, Southwest of Houston.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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“You actually can’t get on our street, ...[but] there were plenty of people willing to help us,” said Anthony Jones, who was one of about a dozen people making their way along the freeway, carrying a small plastic bag filled with the possessions he’d gathered from his flooding home.
Here in one of many low-lying areas of in southern Houston, surging waters had washed across the interstate, rendering it impassible and inundating the nearby neighborhoods of Braeswood Place and Willow Meadows.
It was from there that the pleas for help were coming, audible on the nearly deserted freeway from behind the sound wall.
In the housing tracts below, floodwaters had risen more than halfway up the street signs and into parked cars and houses, higher than anything with wheels could ford.
No matter. One person’s flooded freeway is another person’s boat ramp. Both professional and amateur brigades of rescuers turned the flooded road into an ad hoc rescue lane for residents who had been trapped in their homes by the rising waters.
At the water’s edge, a Houston Police Department high-water rescue boat hauled out a trio of men in their underwear: Alex Domingues, 41, Mitchell Calderon, 19, and Emanuel Calderon, 20, all of them grinning. They had stripped down to their skivvies to swim to the rescue of an elderly man and woman, who by now were also in the boat.
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“We seen the lady in her walker trying to walk on the other side of the water,” Emanuel Calderon said. “We took off our clothes — less weight.”
The man they helped rescue was Frank Andrews, 74, who has difficulty walking after four back operations in recent years. One of the Houston officers asked Andrews if there was anyone the authorities could call to notify that he was OK.
“I got nobody to help me, bottom line,” Andrews replied, sitting in a walker that converts to a chair. “It’s just the way it is. I don’t have a wife or a girlfriend.”
The night before the storm, he had gone to the H-E-B grocery store and got some hickory smoked barbecue, which he enjoyed as he prepared to wait out the storm.As the flood invaded his home, he shifted from room to room to avoid the rising water, to no avail.
Jesus Nunez carries his daughter Genesis, 6, as he and numerous family members flee their flooded home in Houston, Texas.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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It was the first time his home had flooded since he moved there in 1973. “And I don’t have flood insurance, shame on me,” he said. “It’s a quagmire, man.”
As another band of rain approached, and Andrews sat alone on the side of the freeway, waiting for transportation to a shelter, Domingues, one of his rescuers — now fully clothed — ran up with a roll of plastic, which he unfurled, cut with a knife, and wrapped around the old man’s shoulders to help keep him dry.
The flooding came as less of a surprise to others, including Tim Conrad, 65, who was being yanked around the edge of the freeway by his raccoon-hunting dog, Bailey. “Fourth time, it’s a pleasure,” Conrad said.
Both man and dog had been rescued by police. Conrad’s house had filled up with 4½ feet of water, sending him into his attic.
Not all pets were so lucky. Beth Berens, a nurse who had stopped to help rescuees on the freeway, said that one family’s boat had overturned while they were shepherding two dogs to safety. They could only choose one dog to grab and had to leave the one furthest from the boat to its fate.
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Samir Novruzov wades through water to get to a vehicle after spending the day clearing out his flooded home in Katy, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Melissa Teague, right, instructs her children Andrew and Emily as they clear out their flooded home in Katy, Texas, on Monday.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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People ride through floodwaters in Katy, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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People hop off Chris Ginter’s truck as he helps ferry residents around Katy, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Two men collect a disposed mattress as residents in the Trinity/Houston Garden area of northeast Houston gut their flooded homes.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Wayne Christopher, center, weeps as his wife, Helen, looks on during a Sunday service at First United Methodist Church in Dickinson, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Hurricane Harvey severely damaged the First Baptist Church in Rockport, Texas. Worshipers on Sunday brought their own chairs to take part in an outdoor service.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Ken Garrett, right, hugs Pastor Jordan Mims after they both delivered prayers on the grounds of the First Baptist Church in Rockport, Texas.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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University of Houston law professor Johnny Buckles props up an American flag on the debris pile from his flood-damaged home in the Kingwood area of north Houston.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Jose Esquivel flags down motorists to visit a parking lot full of donated clothes, supples, water and brisket in Refugio, Texas.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Despite heavy damage and no electricity, a homeowner displays his patriotism while clean up and recovery efforts continue in his devastated neighborhood of Rockport.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Volunteers from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association, Yusuf Seager, from left, Rahib Ahmed, Rahman Nasir, and Khalil Nasir help tear out drywall damaged by floodwater in the Westbury neighborhood in Houston.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Volunteers from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association help residents of the Westbury neighborhood in Houston clear debris from their homes. It is also the Islamic holiday of Eid-ul-Adha. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Many roads and Interstates in Texas remain flooded, including this one in west Houston. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Jenna Fountain and her father Kevin carry a bucket down Regency Drive to try to recover items from their flooded home in Port Arthur, Texas on Thursday.
(Emily Kask / AFP / Getty Images)
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Lillie Roberts talks with family members as contractor Jerry Garza begins the process of repairing her Houston home on Friday.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
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Volunteers from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association to perform holy prayer as they help local residents in the Kashmere Gardens area of Houston clean out their flooded homes.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Volunteers assist Cornell Beasley with repairs to his damaged home in Houston on Friday.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
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Katie Estridge organizes hundreds of soaked family photographs on the front lawn of her father’s home in northeast Houston.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Wes Higgins wipes sweat from his face after spending five days patrolling flooded Houston neighborhoods in his boat. Higgins, from Knott, Texas, organized a volunteer team of 10 boats to help Houston residents.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Members of the California Air National Guard 129th Rescue Wing, Senior Airman George McKenzie, left, and Master Sgt. Adam Vanhaaster, right, help a man carry his infant, who has a serious medical condition, to a hospital in Orange, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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A search-and-rescue crew speeds along Maple Rock Drive in west Houston looking for flood victims.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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A woman and a child are among those rescued by California Air National Guardsmen in Lumberton, north of Beaumont.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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California Air National Guard 129th Rescue Wing’s Master Sgt. Adam Vanhaaster searches for people in need of help near Lumberton.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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A man prepares his dinner at home near Lumberton.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Boys sit on a damaged railroad track near Lumberton.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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A woman waves to a California Air National Guard helicopter from her neighborhood near Lumberton.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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A drop-off point for boat rescues in Lumberton.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Baseball fields in Lumberton are inundated.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Coca-Cola delivery trucks are trapped by floodwater in Lumberton, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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A military search and rescue helicopter refuels mid-flight before resuming nighttime missions over areas flooded in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Houston police search a flooded home after hearing that an elderly couple lived there. The house was empty. Police later learned the couple had safely evacuated.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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West Houston resident Pedro Albiso uses trash bags to protect his shoes and pants as he prepares to cross a flooded street.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Patients are evacuated from Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas after the city of Beaumont lost its water supply.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Fatima Flores, 12, gets her hair done by cousins Shelly Flores, 7, left, and Ashley Flores, 7, as their family takes shelter at Max Bowl, a bowling alley in Port Arthur, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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James Benoit, left, and George Clipton sought refuge at Max Bowl in Port Arthur, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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June Ayrow spent the night with his oxygen tanks underneath a table at Max Bowl in Port Arthur, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Floodwaters surround homes Thursday in Port Arthur, Texas.
(Gerald Herbert / Associated Press)
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Volunteers rescue patients from the Cypress Glen nursing home where floodwaters trapped dozens of elderly patients in Port Arthur, Texas on Wednesday.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Residents lie on sofas as they wait to be evacuated from the Cypress Glen senior care facility in Port Arthur, Texas, which was inundated with floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey on Wednesday.
(Matt Pearce / Los Angeles Times)
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Emergency crews help rescue elderly residents from the Golden Years Assisted Living home in Orange, Texas, on Wednesday.
(Gerald Herbert / Associated Press)
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Rescuer workers help a woman from her flooded home n Port Arthur, Texas.
(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
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Evacuees ride on a truck after they were driven from their homes by the flooding in Port Arthur, Texas.
(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
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People wait in line to buy groceries at a Food Town during the aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey.
(Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images)
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Juan Figueroa removes damaged furniture from his mother’s northeast Houston home where residents begin rebuilding from the devastating effects of the storm.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Rafael Minor, left, and Miguel Ramirez remove the contents from a flooded home in northeast Houston on Wednesday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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A construction crew cleans out a home that was flooded by Tropical Storm Harvey in Spring, Texas.
(Brett Coomer / Associated Press)
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A flooded residential neighborhood near Interstate 10 in Houston, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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A flooded residential neighborhood near Interstate 10 in Houston, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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People come out to view the flooded areas near their homes in Houston, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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CaroLine Kirkpatrick of Salt Lake City, Utah, is evacuated from the Omni Hotel by rescue worker Adam Caballero in Addicks, a suburb of Houston, Texas.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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People displaced by flooding fill the shelter at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston.
(LM Otero / Associated Press)
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Mark Ocosta and his baby, Aubrey, take shelter at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
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Frantzy Thenor receives an embrace from a fellow evacuee after he helped her leave from the flooded Omni Hotel, in the Addicks area of Houston, Texas.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Storm clouds over Houston skyline.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Recreational vehicles sit on their sides in flood water in Houston, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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A woman carries a dog above the rising floodwaters near Addicks Reservoir.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Eduardo Retiz, 21, drives his elevated pickup truck through a flooded street near Addicks Reservoir.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Mike Hoskovec, left, walks to a boat after helping friend Ben Berg, behind, move some photo albums to the second floor of his Nottingham Woods home.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Matthew Koser looks for important papers and heirlooms inside his grandfather’s house after it was flooded by heavy rains.
(Erich Schlegel / Getty Images)
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Residents wade through floodwaters as they evacuate their homes near the Addicks Reservoir Tuesday.
(David J. Phillip / Associated Press)
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Larry Koser Jr., left and his son Matthew look for important papers and heirlooms inside Larry Koser Sr.’s house after it was flooded by heavy rains.
(Erich Schlegel / Getty Images)
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Portions of Interstate 10 remain flooded in Houston, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Rising flood waters stranded hundreds of residents of Twin Oaks Village in Clodine.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Comfort Morgan is helped to dry land after being rescued from her flooded home in Twin Oaks Village in Clodine.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Rising flood waters stranded hundreds of residents of Twin Oaks Village in Clodine, where a collection of small boat owners, including some with pool toys, coordinated to bring most to dry ground.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Rising flood waters stranded hundreds of residents of Twin Oaks Village in Clodine, where an collection of small boat owners coordinated to bring most to dry ground.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Hundreds of residents of Twin Oaks Village are evacuated in Clodine Monday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Residents are stranded at Twin Oaks Village in Clodine due to rising flood water.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Stranded residents of Twin Oaks Village in Clodine are evacuated from the rising flood water.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Jan Tullos, 32, searches a flooded home for an injured woman who was reportedly stranded inside in Clodine, Texas. The home was empty.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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People walk down a flooded Houston street as they evacuate their homes after the area was inundated with rains from Tropical Storm Harvey.
(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
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Dean Mize holds children as he and Jason Legnon use an airboat to rescue people from flooded homes in Houston on Monday.
(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
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Dean Mize, left and Jason Legnon carry a person to an airboat as they rescue people in Houston.
(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
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Evacuees walk down a flooded street after leaaving their homes Monday in Houston.
(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
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Dean Mize holds a child as he helps evacuate people in Houston as Tropical Storm Harvey continues to drench southeastern Texas and Louisiana with heavy rains and surging floodwaters.
(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
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People evacuate their flooded homes on Monday in Houston. By Monday morning, 911 operators had received 56,000 calls, city officials said.
(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
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Adults use a kiddie pool to transport children as they evacuate on Monday.
(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
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People catch a ride on a construction vehicle down a flooded Houston street.
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Alexendre Jorge evacuates Ethan Colman, 4, from a Houston neighborhood inundated by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey.
(Charlie Riedel / AP)
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People push a stalled pickup to through a flooded street in Houston on Sunday, as Tropical Storm Harvey dumped heavy rains.
(Charlie Riedel / Associated Press)
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A Houston police officer helps Frank Andrews, 74, into his walking chair after rescuing him from his flooded home in the Braeswood Place neighborhood, southwest of Houston, on Sunday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Wilford Martinez, right, is rescued from his flooded car by Harris County Sheriff’s Department Richard Wagner along Interstate 610 in Houston, Texas.
(David J. Phillip / Associated Press)
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Daniel Gross, 15, is rescued by Houston police after he was stranded on top of his car in southwest Houston.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Andrew White, left, helps a neighbor down a street after rescuing her from her home in his boat in the upscale River Oaks neighborhood after it was inundated with flooding from Tropical Storm Harvey.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
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Volunteers and officers from the neighborhood security patrol help rescue residents in Houston’s River Oaks neighborhood Sunday.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
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Jesus Nunez carries his daughter Genesis, 6, as he and numerous family members flee their flooded home, walking nearly four hours to the safety of a relative’s house on Sunday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Presently, a group of onlookers gathered on a nearby freeway overpass began hollering. Out in one of the flooded neighborhoods, an older woman was wading toward the freeway in chest-deep water, holding a bag over her head. She had just cleared a sign that bore the name of the mayor and an enthusiastic political message from a now-bygone era: “Better streets, better drainage, better future.”
Kenny Bank, a local business owner clad in hip-wader boots, shouted encouragement to the woman. “Take your time — good, take your time,” he said.
Another man waded out to the woman to steady her and they slowly made their way closer to the freeway walls, where the flood currents were not so strong.
Daniel Gross, 15, a sports columnist at his Jewish private school’s newspaper, had joined his father in a kayak to rescue stranded acquaintances in his neighborhood.
“I needed to do something,” he said.
It proved tricky, though, and on one trip, he got separated from his father and the kayak. Daniel had to climb on top of a car until police rescued him.
Now he was on the freeway, alone, still holding his oar. Soon, out on the water, his father reappeared in the kayak, along with another man wearing a yarmulke. Daniel’s father asked his son, in a shout, if he wanted to go back out again.
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Daniel didn’t really need to answer. He headed toward the water.
Matt Pearce was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times from 2012 to 2024. He previously covered the covering internet culture and podcasting, the 2020 presidential election and spent six years on The Times’ national desk, where he wrote stories about violence, disasters, social movements and civil liberties. Pearce was one of the first national reporters to arrive in Ferguson, Mo., during the uprising in 2014, and he chased Hurricane Harvey across Texas as the storm ravaged the Lone Star State in 2017. A University of Missouri graduate, he hails from a small town outside Kansas City, Mo.
