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As the rains fell and the water rose on August 27, the families on Hazelton Street in the Willowbend neighborhood in Houston knew their neighborhood was in trouble. We could see streets that were now rivers. Several families began going door to door on flooded Willowgrove Drive and helped many people out of their homes filled with three feet of water and rising.
After making a trip in kayaks to check on friends a mile away near South Loop 610, James Andreatos saw family after family asking for help as he and Paul Loupe paddled back to Hazelton Street. So, Captain James pulled out his 24-foot bay fishing boat and miraculously launched it on Hazelton Street.
With the help of Loupe, Brian Robertson, Kirk Schwartzenburg, and Brian Sasser, James and the crew rescued more than 60 neighbors, including a couple with a four-week old baby, a 93-year-old woman riding in an inflated mattress, a woman in a wheelchair, and countless animals. Another crew of neighbors from across Willowbend was wading door to door to help direct the boat to people who needed help the most.
Meanwhile, families on Hazleton Street welcomed each family or person rescued with a dry house, food, drink, warm clothes and love. In all, the Hazelton families took in 30 people overnight among seven houses with no power. One home took in four elderly ladies who all needed special care. Other rescued families stayed for days on Hazelton.
We knew we lived on a special street in Houston. Harvey proved it.
After making a trip in kayaks to check on friends a mile away near South Loop 610, James Andreatos saw family after family asking for help as he and Paul Loupe paddled back to Hazelton Street. So, Captain James pulled out his 24-foot bay fishing boat and miraculously launched it on Hazelton Street.
With the help of Loupe, Brian Robertson, Kirk Schwartzenburg, and Brian Sasser, James and the crew rescued more than 60 neighbors, including a couple with a four-week old baby, a 93-year-old woman riding in an inflated mattress, a woman in a wheelchair, and countless animals. Another crew of neighbors from across Willowbend was wading door to door to help direct the boat to people who needed help the most.
Meanwhile, families on Hazleton Street welcomed each family or person rescued with a dry house, food, drink, warm clothes and love. In all, the Hazelton families took in 30 people overnight among seven houses with no power. One home took in four elderly ladies who all needed special care. Other rescued families stayed for days on Hazelton.
We knew we lived on a special street in Houston. Harvey proved it.
Creator
Brian Sasser
Title
Hazelton Street
Type
personal narratives
Language
en
Rights
This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
Source
This item was contributed via the Harvey Memories Project "Contribute an Item" form.
Date Created
2018-07-03
Date Submitted
2018-08-27
Date Available
2018-08-27
Spatial Coverage
+29.646453-095.493512/
77035
Temporal Coverage
start=2017-08-27; end=2017-08-28; scheme=ISO 8601;