HANDICAPPED HURRICANE FAMILY

Our family lost everything, but we have more than we could ask for, all of us are safe and together as a family.  The photo is from the beginning of the storm, the water is now over the house. 

My wife thought we should try to leave over the weekend, however everyone was telling us to stay.  Come Sunday morning my mother-in-law got up at 7 am and drove to the back of our subdivision and saw that the houses were already flooded and Cypress Creek which is two block away was already over the road and impassable, and the water was quickly creeping up to our house.  She woke us all up and said " we got to go now," knowing we had special circumstances and could not wait to see how high the water would get. We have three small children one only 7 months, a three year old, a 8 year old, and my wife who is in a wheelchairs, unable to fend for herself.  Within minutes the water was over the curb and beginning to cover the driveway. What do you grab when you only have minutes to spare, you grab what you need to survive daily life., a few clothes, blankets, a few toys, we had to leave everything behind, including my wifes wheelchair.  You can't think everything is chaos.
We literally threw what we could grab into our vehicles as we watched the water climb up our driveway. We had to turn our vehicles around in the driveway so we could drive out through the deep water accumulating in our street without stopping. I put my wife and our 7 month old son, in the van, our three year old, and 8 year old were so brave, they grabbed what toys they could and quickly got into the van and didn't even cry. We didn't have much room for our belongings because we couldn't leave our 8 furry family members behind (our dachshunds).

We struggled to find a way out of the neighborhood, with several streets closed, but somehow made it to the highway.   Some cars stopped in the right lane, but one truck ahead of me was brave enough to charge through.  I gunned it and followed after him practically floating 15 feet to make it to the other side, with my mother in law, Laurie right behind us.  I thought it would be safer once I got further north, but it took some time, probably past Conroe before I stopped seeing flooded areas beneath me. My mother in law said It was like the movie "2012" when they're trying to get out and everything is closing in behind them,  we felt like we we're raceing to get out before the flood overtook us. 
We are currently safe in a hotel in Tyler, TX awaiting financial assistance from FEMA.  We struggled before the storm, most of us do I think, but we always managed to keep our heads above water. We had a home, our home, it wasn't a mantion but it was a safe place for us  just to be us, and now it's destroyed. My neighbor who is stuck on the second floor of her home, has been giving us updates, which is almost more then we can bare.  My mother in law, Laurie is not the kind of person who asks for help, she's always the one helping others.
We thank God we are all safe and together and thank you all so much for any help you can give our family in this time of need.

Sincerely, 
Ben, Michelle, Laurie, Hannah, Elijah, Josiah, Malachi, and Mike