When the levee breaks.

I've never liked Houston. It's too big. It takes too long to get anywhere. You can't even walk to the store here unless you're fully committed to a 30 minute (min) hike one way. The public transportation is garbage. Traffic is usually awful. It's hot all the time, and it's a wet heat, except when it's freezing cold, and it's a wet cold. It sucks.

But the last few days have really highlighted the one thing about this city that I don't hate. The people. They're just regular Texans. And I love Texans.

Steve Perez, a 60 year old police officer with 34 years under his belt, left his home on Sunday to report for duty. His wife asked him to reconsider. The roads were terrible and things were only getting worse. "I've got work to do." was his reply.

His body was recovered from his flooded police cruiser Tuesday at 8 am. He'd driven two and a half hours trying to find a route to do his duty only to be stopped by rising water at Beltway 8 and Hardy.

Here is a gofundme set up by the SBA for his family.

Samuel Saldivar attempted to brave the flooding to pick up six family members on Sunday in his van. Suddenly, a strong current caught the vehicle and swept it away into Greens Bayou. He tried to get everyone out via the back door but it was too late. Only he survived.

"I'm just hoping we find the bodies." He said later. When the waters receded they did. All of them were still trapped inside the van.

Here is their gofundme.

In Beaumont, just to the east, Collete Sulcer was trying to drive west on an interstate 10 service road with her young child when it became too treacherous for her to continue. She tried to pull into a parking lot nearby but was unable. Exiting her car, she was taken by the strong current, and swept into a canal. Rescuers saw her floating body, her daughter clinging to her still, and managed to catch them both just before they went under a trestle. With the help of a civilian in a truck they were able to get them both to an ambulance. The girl is hypothermic but alive. They were unable to revive the mother.

According to Beaumont police Officer Carol Riley Sulcer "Absolutely" saved her daughter's life.

Here's her daughter, Jordyn's, gofundme.

Alexander Sung, Sixty-four, stayed behind to mind his store. Alexander had been working with clocks for his entire life, as his father before him, and came from China, the youngest of five boys, in his twenties. He'd been working at Accu-Tyme for thirty years, a clock and jewelry repair store, and now owned it. He wasn't leaving it to flood or be looted. "Sweetie, I have to call you back!" He told his daughter Alicia on Saturday evening as he rushed to barricade his shop against the rising waters. His body was found Sunday afternoon, still inside his shop. His last words to his daughter came about fourteen hours prior via a text.

“I love you sweetie,” He told her. “You guys are all I have.”

Andrew Pasek ventured out to save his sister's Maine Coon. He stepped into rising waters electrified by a live wire. His dying act was to push away his friend and say simply, "Don't touch me. I'm dying.".

Here's his gofundme.

Noah Delgado suffered an asthma attack during the flooding that was too severe for his rescue inhaler. Help couldn't get to him soon enough. By the time rescuers got him to the hospital he was not conscious. He would not wake again. They tried. He went from North Cypress Medical Center to Texas Children's Medical in a helicopter too full to take his mother.

On her way to be with him she was trapped by floodwaters. This terrifying ordeal ended in rescue, she thinks by the National Guard, and she eventually found herself at Texas Children's. Upon her arrival, she was greeted with grave news. From the ABC Houston article about him -

She would like Noah remembered as the loving boy he was: a son, brother, friend, classmate. She says he was an "A" student just about to begin the third grade. She describes him as a "character."

"He just loved. He didn't care what you looked like, who you were," she lamented.

Through all this she does not blame anyone else for the circumstances which lead to her son's death. "If anybody, I blame myself...because I'm supposed to keep anything from happening to him," she said.

Here's his Gofundme. 

I'll be adding gofundme links and stories to this as I find them. I compiled the list that follows from everything I've read so far but I'm pretty sure, unfortunately, that it is not yet even close to complete.

Manuel Saldivar, 84 - Gofundme
Belia Saldivar, 81 - Gofundme
Daisy Saldivar, 6 - Gofundme
Xavier Saldivar, 8 - Gofundme
Dominic Saldivar, 14 - Gofundme
Devy Saldivar, 16 - Gofundme
Agnes Stanley, 89
Travis Lynn Callihan, 45
Alexander Sung, 64
Noah Delgado, 8 - Gofundme
Batool Qasem, 76
Benito Cavazos Juarez, 42
Calvin Oran Montalbano, 54
Andrew Pasek, 25 - Gofundme
Jorge Raul Perez, 33
Colby Henry Osorno, 25
Victor Manuel Acevedo, 67
Ruben Jordan, 58
Wilma Ratcliff Ellis, 73
Ruben Clifford Jordan, 58
Martin Salazar, 49
Michael Tucker, 66
Keisha Monique Williams, 32
Yahir Rubio-Vizuet, 45 - Gofundme
Gustavo Hernandez Rodriguez, 40 - Gofundme
Collette Sulcer, 41 - Gofundme
Joshua Feuerstein, 33
Efrain Angel, 26 - Gofundme
Lisa Jones, 60
Donald Rogers, 65
Rochelle Rogers, 58
Ronald Zaring, 82
Ola Mae Winfrey-Crooks, 82

Here is a general link to hurricane Harvey related gofundme pages.



Houston needs all the help that it can get right now. I'm thankful that it's a place full of people that are more than willing to do so. This is a city of heroes and in the shadow of this tragedy that's something we can all draw a little strength from.