Former local, experienced the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey

This has been edited to space constraints.
Former Lake Mills resident Brenda Durgin, and her fiancé, Dan Thompson, recalled in their own words a recent trip to hurricane ravaged Texas:
When we purchased our airplane tickets to visit family over Labor Day weekend in Texas, we were not expecting to arrive to the aftermath of a hurricane.
Early Friday, Sept. 1, we arrived in Austin. Fortunately, Austin was spared the brunt of the storm and we quickly realized our help would not be needed here.
Dan and myself, after seeing the on-going hardship of the residents of Houston during the week prior, both discussed the prospects of changing our individual plans and going to Houston and offer our services to any agency that could use our individual talents; limited but willing.
We began our journey to Houston, Sunday morning. It started with some uncertainty, since we could not find any gas stations open along Hwy, 290 E. Yes, gas was scarce, but we are now proceeding on faith alone. Three gas stations no fuel, then we found some luck with the fourth gas station. Before we knew it, we arrived downtown Houston at the convention center, where we hoped to help feed people, sort clothing, watch children if needed, anything to help.
Since we were told we had to obligate our services for a minimum of 10 days, and we had to head back for Dan’s work in two days, we were unable to meet these requirements. Feeling a little defeated, we remembered seeing streets from the freeway as we entered the Houston city limits that were flooded, cars floating, and boats out and about, we continued driving.
We stopped along Allen Parkway and the Buffalo Bayou Park to take some pictures of the flooded streets, trails and parks still under several feet of water with only tops of light fixtures and trees showing. (Remembering seven days have already past.) I was able to speak with a couple ladies from Houston out for a walk, whom were willing to share their individual hurricane experience. They spoke of the damages, the losses, but most of all their gratefulness to all the volunteers that have come to help.
We were encouraged to continue west, because that was the area that got hit the hardest. The news clips seen on TV were of that area.
We reached areas called Belair and Meriland, we knew we were now in the right location . . . our eyes were full of devastation. Curbsides full of many piles eight feet high or more, of homeowners belongings, appliances, furniture, tons of drywall cut from their homes as high as the water rose in the houses, memorable items and more, all in ruins. We looked at each other with tears in our eyes, flabbergasted at what each and every street we drove up and down looked like, stopping when we saw people outside removing items to the street curbs, asked to help, but kindly they declined. We even experienced looters, several on one street rummaging through piles of families belongings and furnishings, while the owners stood by in tears. Over this hour of driving around, I think we did experience “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly” in today’s society.
We continued on with mixed emotions of sadness and defeat again, but still experiencing that strong gut feeling that there were others out there that could use our help . . . in and out of roadways that had signs up, “closure due to flooding” or yellow caution tape, we traveled. I drove right past one road closure sign until all that was in front of us was, a flooded street with cars, a dump truck, signs and many homes under water. A personal small craft boat was taking people over to their homes to retrieve anything that could be salvaged.
We finally met Kathy; she mentioned several persons who needed help, but felt a family of four (Charles, Lillian and their two children, 12 and 14), two doors down, who just started their clean up process, because the water just receded enough on half of their home. The mother, was also battling breast cancer. We were thrilled. This is not what we were prepared for, but it didn’t matter to us at that point. We headed right over, wading in ankle high dirty, brown, smelly water, meeting Charles, first, since he and his wife just started the clean up, he told us he didn’t know what we could do.
After Dan and I surveyed the situation, we went to work. Removing saturated items in bedrooms, bathrooms, and the kitchen area out to a trailer to dry out. We grabbed squeegees and mops, removing mud, debris and water off their new flooring they had just put down two weeks before.
Seeing Lillian in her chest waders, boots and gloves. working to save what she could, being so positive, was so powerful and encouraging to me. She said a couple of times, “I don’t know about God’s plan, but it’s okay,” as she stood by me while I worked, so she could rest for awhile. Charles was feeling so defeated when we arrived, but after seeing the challenge ahead of us. Dan shared some words of encouragement, “stay positive and before we leave today, we will have the three bedrooms, two bathrooms and as much of the kitchen cleared and cleaned up. It’s just a psychological thing, giving you some continued hope.”
Both continued to repeat that phrase several times, as we all worked together. They shared their story of that Saturday night when the hurricane struck. They had been asleep and Charles got up to check the pool and he drained a couple of feet of pool water and he said within 20 minutes the pool had filled up three feet, that’s when they knew to gather what they could and go. When we arrived, the living room and half of the house were still under three to four feet of water. )Remember seven days had already past.) Charles believes that if the levy hadn’t been overflowing, and had to be opened, that this area wouldn’t have gotten hit as hard as it did. We worked as long as they would let us, but with no electricity and they had been there all day, they wanted to stop, even though we were not ready to quit just yet, but knew we needed to. We chatted a bit with the couple, as they shared a bit more. We exchanged addresses so we could keep in touch. Lillian was having another surgery the following week and we wanted to send a card and letters to let them know they are not forgotten. Charles told us, “Seeing the rooms and floors cleaned, does indeed give us hope.” They thanked us over and over, reminding us again, we now have hope. When we got into our car and had to drive away, there was only silence; our lives too had been changed forever.
In conclusion, this family like so many others in the region, did not have flood insurance since they were not in a flood zone, but sadly the everlasting impressions that will remain with us will include seeing home after home destroyed and family furnishings and memories just sitting in a pile on the front yards. Yes. Charles and Lillian are only one family of the many thousand Houstoners that were effected by Hurricane Harvey, but this is the family whom Dan and I will be ever grateful to for opening their home and allowing us the opportunity to share part of their life with.