File Family Was Battered by Harvey!

We went to bed Saturday night in our Dickinson, Texas home after watching Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and expecting a normal night's sleep. My wife got up around 1:30 and said there was some water on the floor, so we got up and started getting important things off the floor before we walked over to my parents house since their house was built higher than ours. I looked outside to check my cars and the water was approaching the bottom door, so I thought I would back them up to the front of the driveway, which was the highest part of my lot. After I back it out and started walking toward the house, the water was starting to rise and flow rapidily. At that time, I decided to get my wife and dogs in the van and get it out in the street which was built much higher than the houses on my block. (At this point the dogs had to swim out.) As we were backing up to the high point with our neighbors who was doing the same thing, the people who lived in a house near the high point were out asking everyone to come into their house. After I got my wife safe, I started walking to my parents house, but knowing they were in their upper 80's and would not have any chance of walking in these flowing waters, I walked up and talked to another nieghbor who had a boat to see if we could use it to get my parents out. Of course, he agreed, and after bailing all the rain water out of the boat, we were able to get to my parents front door and get them out. (The water was up to their waists.) We boated over to the "high" house and the water was started to get in that home, so I called my daughter, who was at my son's house about 1/2 mile north of us, and she said they were still dry. At that point we decided considering my parents age we needed to boat them as far north as we could and walk them to my son's house. The scary thing was we could boat them all the way to my son's property. After dropping my parents off we headed back to our neighborhood to pick up my wife and take her to my son's. We when returned to the house, it now had nearly a foot of water in it, so we also took another neighbor who had a 6 month old baby to my son's and then my fantastic neighbor went back to get his family.

Our feeling of safety lasted for about 10 minutes before water started coming in the house. (This home had never flooded.) By morning we had about 8", which is not healthy for anyone, let alone elderly and babies.) We then waded over to one of my son's neighbors who had a two story home and he invited all of us to come shelter there. That is where we stayed until a rescue boat showed up and took all of us to an expressway overpass, where my former son-in-law was able to get to us in his truck and took us to his parents home. (We had soooo many fantatsic friends and family help us through this ordeal.)

Now we have returned to our houses and the results are frightening. I ended up with 7 feet of water, my parents 5 1/2 feet, and my son about 2 feet, and obviously all our cars were gone. In addition, I have a storefront business  called the Technology Lounge about 1/4 mile away from my home and it was wiped out. (The theme photo for this campaign is a picture of the Tech Lounge.)

So what do we need? That is a good question at this point. We all have flood insurance, but that doesn't cover temporary expenses while our home are being rebuilt. We have had an outpouring of friends donating clothes, and FEMA did give us each $500 for stort term medicine and other expenses, but we are all looking at expenses for temporary living for at least 5 months. Plus, with my business gone, so is my source of income until we can rebuild that. I really have no idea what kind of unexpected costs we are going to be facing, and how long the insurance settlements will take considering the massive amount of claims the companies are facing. So any financial support that you can give to my family would be extremely appreciated.

Thank you for taking to time to read our story. We are so grateful that we are all safe and sound, and to all the wonderful peole who helped us during our trials.
Mike & Patty File
Bob & Pat File
3520 Maple Drive
Dickinson, TX

The following photos are pictures of my home, my parents home, and my business, taken after the waters receded.