Evacuee forced to leave family dog behind is among flood emergency faces
Consecutive days of rain aren't unusual in southeast Texas. After all, Hurricane Harvey in 2017 changed the region forever.
So, when neighbors north and east of Houston faced rising water levels in the San Jacinto and Trinity rivers, many expressed to ABC13 that they could get through this.
On Friday, those residents in places like Conroe, Kingwood, northern Liberty County, and River Plantation essentially said the same thing: We've never seen anything like this.
The video above is the ABC13 Houston's 24/7 Streaming Channel.
Eyewitness News traveled to those communities as neighbors made sudden exits from their homes and lamented what they left behind, including, in one instance, the heartbreaking decision involving a family pet.
ABC13 also spoke to a few of the rescuers who jumped into action during Harvey and did it again during these desperate times.
Heartbreaking decision
ABC13's Mycah Hatfield reported from Plum Grove in Liberty County, where boats were launched to evacuate stranded families.
Nicole Rose, among the evacuees, explained she and her family had to make a tough decision about their Great Dane named Mya, who's pregnant with pups.
With the family and five other dogs already evacuated, Rose's husband canoed back to their home to retrieve Mya before the flood took over, but she said the canine was too heavy to make it on the vessel.
Rescue crews also went back but couldn't find Mya.
"It's kind of surreal and heartbreaking to know that us and our four kids have lost basically everything at this point," Rose said.
But there's a happy ending amid the tragedy. Rose told ABC13 that she and her husband went back out, broke a window to get inside their house, and found Mya alive. They plan to return on Saturday, but she said Mya is safe inside a bed for the night.
Have drone, will travel
ABC13's Adam Winkler set out for River Plantation in Montgomery County, a subdivision nestled next to the West Fork of the San Jacinto River.
It was there that Winkler met with a drone operator, whose father was driven out of that neighborhood. The drone operator said he used a canoe to rescue people during Harvey, but this time around, the remote-operated craft proved to be useful to his neighbors, desperate to know if their homes are safe as they wait out the flood.
Close call
Staying in Montgomery County, ABC13's Pooja Lodhia went out to Porter for a harrowing survival story.
Amid the rainfall on Friday, Destiny Deacon and her three kids woke up to a loud bang that turned out to be something a lot dangerous if they were in a different position - a large oak tree crashing into their home.
Deacon said the tree missed her kids' room.
"I'm grateful that nobody was hurt. It's a blessing," she said.
There was a lot more to Deacon's story. Just the day before disaster, she announced to friends and family that she has a baby boy on the way.
Rescued but grief-stricken
ABC13's Jiovanni Lieggi headed to Dolen, a small community about 50 yards from the Trinity River in northern Liberty County.
Entire homes were covered in water, washing away livelihoods in just hours.
Crews reached Linda Young, a retiree who escaped with just the few things she could place in bags and her two dogs.
While she made it out alive, Young was in tears. Not only did she say that she doesn't hold coverage for her home due to her fixed income, she likely lost an irreplaceable gift.
"I left a hand-sewn cape that my mother made for me, and I didn't meet my mother until my 40s," Young explained in tears. "She had made it for me and I had to leave it. I left things I had for all my life, too."
A holdout's regret
The question being asked during nightfall: did people heed officials' warnings to get out?
In the Humble area on North Houston Avenue near the Kingwood line, ABC13's Brooke Taylor witnessed several people getting rescued.
The concrete road connecting the bridge to the homes was underwater. There was no way out other than boat.
One man told ABC13 he wasn't going to evacuate, but he immediately regretted it and realized he made the wrong decision. Then, he saw rescuers outside his home helping his neighbors and knew he had to leave.
When experience helps
Southeast of River Plantation is the small community of Woodloch, where ABC13's Jessica Willey caught up with Kaden Blackburn.
He and his family live in the second to last house on River Ridge just 300 yards from the San Jacinto River.
Their backyard is completely submerged, and water from the rising river has crept into their living room. They have lived through the worst floods.
This time, Kaden said, they had more warning and were able to move out their furniture just in time. There's a point, he said, when he knows it's time for him to go, too.
"When it comes up to here is when it goes to the front of the road," he said, pointing to a spot on the doorway. "We can get trapped in here real easy."
National headline
While no major injuries or deaths have come out in the emergency's early stages, the disaster's grand scale is too hard to ignore.
As part of World News Tonight, Matt Gutman, ABC News' chief national correspondent, arrived in Cleveland, Texas, where he said neighborhoods took on inches of water in just a short amount of time.
Gutman spoke with ABC13 anchors Erik Barajas and Elissa Rivas during Eyewitness News at 6 p.m. on Friday.
