HOUSTON — Residents whose homes flooded in the Kingwood area spent their Sunday cleaning up the mess.
“It decided to come up 12 feet and four and a half inches, hahaha,” said Northshore resident Darren Smith, who was interviewed by KHOU 11 News on Thursday. “Just enough to make us miserable.”
Smith was on pins and needles Thursday as he watched the water slowly starting to swallow up his backyard, then recede, then return.
A flood gauge Smith made is how he kept track of the height of the water every hour.
In his kitchen, he watched the projections for the flood on his laptop. Smith thought it would be close but did not think it would ultimately flood.
“Whew, but I have a knot in my stomach,” Smith said.
In preparation, Smith rented a U-Haul and packed a few things, but wasn’t sure enough to pack his heavy furniture.
“You get stuff stacked up, you load it into the U-Haul, you go to the storage unit, you stack stuff up, get back in the U-Haul, stack stuff up, you get back in the house, stuff is broken, there’s holes in the couch the refrigerators all scraped up,” Smith said.
The water did ultimately come into Smith’s home.
“Things were slow then out of the blue, three inches,” Smith said. “I’m thinking ‘What in the hell.’ It was about three in the morning when we drove away. The water was up here lapping.”
Now that the water receded Sunday, Smith and his family are back home assessing the damage.
“All my friends are going ‘Sell that house, get out of there.’ I’m like, ‘No, five more years and I retire then I’ll think about it,’” he said.
For the next month, the family will be staying at a nearby Airbnb. During that time, Smith hopes to complete the necessary repairs.
He’s not letting any of it get him down.
“During Harvey, we got 10 feet of water,” Smith said. “That thing about what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger? This made me stronger. I’m not crying.”