Wiped out by hurricane harvey
Donation protected
Hi, my name is johnathan pena. Hurricane Harvey ripped through our apartment complex in Dickinson TX. We are now evacuees, taking it day by day. We suffered the loss of vehicle and home... and when we evacuated we could only take one bag. Right now we (my son and i) are safe and ok for now but the near future is unseeable. By that i mean i dont know where we will be tomorrow or what the next step is. I have applied for fema but im worried it will take a while and time is yet another thing we lost. We need food clothes help with shelter and any positive thoughts you can send our way. Its really hard staying positive but we are.
Now we ask for help. We will be using donations to buy food and basic necessities as well as trying to replace our vehicle. We lost everything so we will be trying to replace enough to get by.
Everything we've worked to build is gone and we are starting over from nothing.
Every little bit helps
... and we THANK you
Now that we are safe i wanted to elaborate on our journey. We were ar our apartment on dickinson prepared to ride out the storm as it was heading for corpus christy and wasnt projected to hit us. We were doing good it started raining thursday night. By friday night our courtyard was flooded and seeping into the 1st floor apartments. We moved everyone up to the second floor and all became roomates. My downstairs neighbor that stayed with me was so worried about not being able to call in for her shift at walmart i dont think she realized the situation we were in. I got her and my son nick comfortable and started on social media. I saw a post a couple of hours old from a lady whos brother was stranded in chest deep water at the car dealership down the road he didnt have use of one of his arms and was told the emergency crews couldnt get to him for a few hours. I contacted her and told her to verify he was still there (couple of hours had past since the original post. She did he was still there so i told my neighbors what i was doing and about 4 followed me. We walked in chest deep water (i know stupid... but he was desperate needed help and i felt i was in the best situation to help him) we fought the current for 1/2 mile and finally found him. We moved skow and careful and formed chains of humans when it started getting deep/faster we saw snakes and trees floating but we were able to get him back to my apartment so he could rest. A few hours later the water was even higher. It was clearly time to gtfo of there. Our rescuee walked up the road to a place he said he knew someone with a big truck. An older guy in a canoe towing a flat bottom with a small motor came and asked who wanted to go. So we hot in his noat with only what we could fit in 1 backpack (didnt want to be weighed down in water) got our dog and we were off. We went a few nlocks to higher ground a bridge where we were told a bigger noat would be there soon to get us. About an hour later a fanboat showed up and took us to an interstate bridge where hundreds of people were being brought. There were submerged vehicles boats that had been capsized and rescue choppers in all directions. Its extremely hard to keep track of all your people when its that chaotic. But luckily we had at least 1 adult per child so we were ok. We were able to get on a bus after a couple of hours of walking back and forth on the bridge not knowing what was happening in the future in the next week or even where we would end up on this bus we just went. We arrived at a shelter that was already overcrowded so we started trying to find a motel hotel dry floor we could sleep on. We were really lucky and got the last hotel room for 30 miles. We got in cleaned up and it hit us. We just lost everything we had ever worked for except sone clothes on our backs. The kids were able to get some clothing at the shelter but they were limited on adult stuff. Were safe. Fema has been contacted and we are so grateful this was such a crazy experience but the generosity and kindness of everyone helped us get through it. To the heros in their own boats and all first responders thank you for saving my family.
Now we ask for help. We will be using donations to buy food and basic necessities as well as trying to replace our vehicle. We lost everything so we will be trying to replace enough to get by.
Everything we've worked to build is gone and we are starting over from nothing.
Every little bit helps
... and we THANK you
Now that we are safe i wanted to elaborate on our journey. We were ar our apartment on dickinson prepared to ride out the storm as it was heading for corpus christy and wasnt projected to hit us. We were doing good it started raining thursday night. By friday night our courtyard was flooded and seeping into the 1st floor apartments. We moved everyone up to the second floor and all became roomates. My downstairs neighbor that stayed with me was so worried about not being able to call in for her shift at walmart i dont think she realized the situation we were in. I got her and my son nick comfortable and started on social media. I saw a post a couple of hours old from a lady whos brother was stranded in chest deep water at the car dealership down the road he didnt have use of one of his arms and was told the emergency crews couldnt get to him for a few hours. I contacted her and told her to verify he was still there (couple of hours had past since the original post. She did he was still there so i told my neighbors what i was doing and about 4 followed me. We walked in chest deep water (i know stupid... but he was desperate needed help and i felt i was in the best situation to help him) we fought the current for 1/2 mile and finally found him. We moved skow and careful and formed chains of humans when it started getting deep/faster we saw snakes and trees floating but we were able to get him back to my apartment so he could rest. A few hours later the water was even higher. It was clearly time to gtfo of there. Our rescuee walked up the road to a place he said he knew someone with a big truck. An older guy in a canoe towing a flat bottom with a small motor came and asked who wanted to go. So we hot in his noat with only what we could fit in 1 backpack (didnt want to be weighed down in water) got our dog and we were off. We went a few nlocks to higher ground a bridge where we were told a bigger noat would be there soon to get us. About an hour later a fanboat showed up and took us to an interstate bridge where hundreds of people were being brought. There were submerged vehicles boats that had been capsized and rescue choppers in all directions. Its extremely hard to keep track of all your people when its that chaotic. But luckily we had at least 1 adult per child so we were ok. We were able to get on a bus after a couple of hours of walking back and forth on the bridge not knowing what was happening in the future in the next week or even where we would end up on this bus we just went. We arrived at a shelter that was already overcrowded so we started trying to find a motel hotel dry floor we could sleep on. We were really lucky and got the last hotel room for 30 miles. We got in cleaned up and it hit us. We just lost everything we had ever worked for except sone clothes on our backs. The kids were able to get some clothing at the shelter but they were limited on adult stuff. Were safe. Fema has been contacted and we are so grateful this was such a crazy experience but the generosity and kindness of everyone helped us get through it. To the heros in their own boats and all first responders thank you for saving my family.
Organizer
Johnathan Pena
Organizer
Dickinson, TX
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