RICHMOND, Texas - Dozens of Chicago high school students descended on a small Richmond neighborhood devastated by Hurricane Harvey this week to clean the debris and rubble that continues to linger nearly half-a-year after the flood.
The small community of about 40 small homes and trailers is situated on the banks of the Brazos River and is composed of mostly undocumented immigrants, according to an aid volunteer.
“Just think about, the people that live here, the majority are undocumented and they don’t have resources and their friends don’t have resources,” said “Friends of North Richmond” volunteer Tim Bell. “So who’s going to help them?”
Bell says the entire area is uninhabitable and both the City of Richmond and FEMA have ordered that residents may no longer live in the area.
Volunteers along with high school students are cleaning up debris strewn throughout the streets and attempting to make repairs to flooded trailer homes so they can be relocated.
Although the neighborhood is unsafe, some neighbors have chosen to continue to live in camp-like dwellings because it is all they have.
“[They are] building a little shack out of whatever debris they find and just surviving,” Bell said.
One of the residents showed KHOU 11 the home where he lives which is without walls.
“There was a lot of water coming very fast from the river and I took nothing,” said resident Victor. “I didn’t have time to take nothing.”
Victor located a small raft and managed to rescue the neighborhood cats and dogs while the entire area was submerged in six feet of water.
Many of those rescued now live with him.
“I was watching it on the news and I was just in disbelief and shock,” said Chicago high school student and volunteer, Brooke Yursich. “I can’t imagine how people were feeling who were down here in it. I just wanted to clean this up as fast as I could to make sure that they had a home to come back to eventually.
The students, who belong to the organization Merge, return to Chicago on Sunday.
“They’re all very grateful for us, said volunteer Miguel Ortiz. “They call us angels.”