Day 3 and more rescues and flooding play out in Cypress Creek
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The rescues continue in North Harris County Wednesday morning in the Westador neighborhood off FM-1960.
Tuesday, hundreds of people were brought from their flooded out homes to dry land. But Chris Westfield, who led the efforts, tells Eyewitness News there are still dozens of people who decided to stay in their homes, where water is waist deep in some places.
"We still have several families back there that refuse to take off. They wanted to try and wait it out against better judgement," Westfield said.
Westfield and other volunteers used canoes and rafts to get to the residents Tuesday. Today, they'll bring in a pontoon boat to go from house to house. The swift moving water from the flooded Cypress Creek has made their mission difficult.
"One lady was clinging to a mailbox that one of our guys in the powerboat was able to get her out safe. We've had several elderly people we were able to pull out with their medical supplies," Westfall said.
Overnight, power was cut to many of these homes. Westfield believes many who decided to stay will now want to get out. But he expects it will still take some convincing.
"We try to advise them about the hazards of staying, especially when nightfall comes. You have a lot of critters that come out, that want to get into the dry spots, into the higher elevations. Gators, snakes, we've seen it all back here over the last couple days," Westfall said.
PHOTOS: Historic flooding hits southeast Texas
These are the scenes of harrowing rescues that played out all across the area on Day 2 of this historic flooding event.
"It's been the worst experience of my life because I've never seen that much water in a long time," says Elijah Williams.
Williams lives in the Westador subdivision off FM 1960 in Spring. He says he and his wife decided to leave Monday evening when water started getting into his home. When he left, there was about a foot and a half. By time he came to check on it Tuesday evening, it was near waist-deep.
Neighbors and perfect strangers, along with the National Guard, have been boating people to safety since Cypress Creek started to rise.
"Some of the volunteer guys, those guys in the blue boat, brought us out," says Jorge Mercado. "My wife and two daughters came out in canoes. Other volunteers brought them out first. And I just got out right now."
And near Highway 249 and Chasewood Park Drive, our cameras caught another dramatic rescue. This time, a few teenagers say they thought it would be fun to kayak in the flooded Cypress Creek. They got stuck in some trees and had to be pulled out.
Justin Stanford with Houston Off-Road Recovery says this one was a rescue that didn't need to happen.
"There's a lot of people on Facebook and everything saying it's just hype. It's not. You can see for yourself, this is crazy. Don't get out in it unless you have to," he says.
Back in Westador, nobody knows what'll happen next. But they know they'll be here for one another, whatever it is.
"We're a family here. Your neighbor is your family," says Latifah Farrera.
The thing on everybody's mind here in the neighborhood is how much higher will the water go, and how much longer will the folks who decided to stick it out.
