A Texas congregation dries out its flood-damaged church, then cries and sings about the water
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Wayne Christopher, center, weeps as his wife, Helen Christopher, looks on during the first Sunday service since Tropical Storm Harvey caused widespread flooding and damaged the First United Methodist Church.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Church pews damaged by floodwater are thrown out as volunteers rush to clean up First United Methodist Church in preparation for Sunday services in Dickinson, Texas
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Calvin Walker lowers his head in prayer.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Senior Pastor Jack Matkin leads the recovery effort as volunteers rush to ready the main sanctuary space at First United Methodist Church in Dickinson, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Colbin Holtz, left, and Steven Hanks load up a tractor with damaged furniture, doorways and other items on Saturday as volunteers clean up the church.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Elaine Wadkins greets Pastor James Littleton for communion during Sunday Service at the First United Methodist Church in Dickinson, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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The church’s damaged pews were thrown out, but the pew ends were saved for future use.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Pastor Jack Matkin leads a song worship during Sunday service at the First United Methodist Church in Dickinson, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Debris is left over from the flooded sanctuary at First United Methodist Church in Dickinson, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Community members greet one another during Sunday service in Dickinson, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Dylan Cumberland puts in temporary chairs after church pews damaged by floodwater were removed at First United Methodist Church in Dickinson, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Todd Coleman and his wife, Wendy Coleman, whose home was damaged by floodwater, attend the service on Sunday.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Volunteers ready the main sanctuary space for Sunday services at Dickinson, Texas, church.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Debbie and Charlie Willing stand in the back of the sanctuary, where the damage wrought by Harvey is evident.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Dylan Cumberland sports a Methodist tattoo as he puts in temporary chairs after church pews damaged by floodwater were removed at First United Methodist Church in Dickinson, Texas.
Reporting from DICKINSON, Texas — The Bible has plenty to say about dangerous waters. Moses and the Israelites fled Egypt through a parted Red Sea. When Jesus’ disciples were at sea on a boat, rocked by the winds, Jesus walked to them on the water and told them to take courage.
And then, of course, there was the great flood that washed nearly the whole world away.
The First United Methodist Church in Dickinson, Texas, sits on one of those nearly anonymous business strips you can find in most cities, next to a Wendy’s and across the street from a car dealership and a modest community bank. But its history stretches back more than a century, including in 1900 when the original building was destroyed by a hurricane and then rebuilt.
A little over a week ago, as Hurricane Harvey bore down on Texas, senior pastor Jack Matkin canceled Sunday services, fearing the coming calamity. His assessment was correct. When Harvey arrived in this southeastern Houston suburb of nearly 20,000, the rains fell torrentially and the bayou rose precipitously.
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Colbin Holtz, left, and Steven Hanks throw out damaged furniture, doorways and items as volunteers clean up First United Methodist Church.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Floodwaters rushed into the church and poured into the main sanctuary. Several rows of pews were nearly underwater. When the sun finally came out again, the colored light coming through the stained glass shone down on a pool of brown water several feet deep.
When the flooding receded enough, a contingent of staff and congregants visited the church to see what Harvey had wrought, including the church’s organist, Bob Simpson, 56.
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“It was overwhelming at first,” Simpson recalled. A second thought immediately followed: “The first thing you got to do is fix it.”
And fix it they did. For several days, dozens of volunteers from Dickinson and all over Texas went to work, including people Matkin had never seen before. Everything wet had to go.
After closing for the previous Sunday, the building roared to life with the sound of pumps and shop vacuums draining the water, saws cutting up ruined pews, hammers knocking through soaked drywall, power screwdrivers to remove swollen interior doors. Files in the bottom drawers of cabinets and desks had to be thrown out.
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Many soaked pews were thrown into a pile out back, and the thick wooden pew ends were stacked for storage in a front room, perhaps for a future art project.
Senior pastor Jack Matkin leads the recovery effort as volunteers ready the main sanctuary space damaged by floodwaters.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
By Saturday night, with a few volunteers still at work, the building was mostly dry, mostly quiet — and mostly ready. A homemade sign hung out front said, “WORSHIP SUNDAY AT 11.”
Pondering how to address the disaster to his congregants Sunday, Matkin, an easygoing and soft-voiced reverend with a wispy white beard, decided to go with the story of Jesus and the blind man. Jesus’ disciples asked him who had sinned, the blind man or his family, and Jesus replied that no one had sinned: “This man is this way so the glory of God could be displayed in him,” Matkin recounted.
“There’s going to be a lot of children asking their parents why this happened,” Matkin explained, standing in his church where the floodwaters used to be, the stained glass casting its colorful glow over ripped-out drywall and torn insulation.
“The storm named Harvey, on the outside, is over,” Matkin said. “For many of us, there may still be a storm within. And it doesn’t have to be that way. That storm within us, we can walk on top of it, or we can sink in it.”
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On Sunday morning, young people in shorts and T-shirts hurriedly arranged blue chairs where pews once stood. The sanctuary, associate pastor James Littleton said, was only about 6 years old. It took the congregation years to raise money for construction.
Just before the service, Phyllis Essary, 75, tended to a countertop in the lobby bearing hot coffee, pumpkin bread and muffins. All around her, people, their voices soft, asked, how are you? And they held one another.
“It’s here every Sunday, to get a cup and talk,” she said of the coffee. “But I think the subject of conversation is changed today.”
The water crept close to Essary’s home but didn’t get in. She came to church because she needed to reinforce what she truly believes: that God is good. Her voice cracked, and her hazel eyes clouded. She couldn’t help but wonder why this happened. Why here? Why so many people hurting?
But she was heartened to see so many people coming in. Safe. Surrounded by friends.
“It’s just good,” she said. “We’re here. We’re here.”
The sanctuary was filled. There was hardly a dry eye as they sang of water:
“And I will call upon your name. And keep my eyes above the waves. When oceans rise — my soul will rest in your embrace.”
Matkin called the children to the stage. Raise your hand, he said, if you have water in your house. Several hands went up. Some of you probably lost toys, he said. A few kids nodded.
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Each child was handed a bottle of water that had been left over from volunteers drying out the church. They were asked to pour it in the baptismal font so that they could bless the water.
“We’re going to pour water in here,” Matkin said. “And you know what? If it fills up to overflowing and it floods the floor, don’t worry about it.”
The parishioners cheered.
Matkin told the congregation not to fall for “pop theology and TV evangelists that say Hurricane Harvey is God’s judgment on sinful people or a sinful nation or a sinful city.”
Focus instead, he urged, on the opportunity to help one another.
“We are called to bring deliverance from floodwaters, whether that’s through … big trucks or boats or helicopters. We are called to bring healing to the hurt. To bring food and water to the hungry and thirsty. To provide a place to stay for the family, the friend, the stranger.”
He told them to try to avoid saying, “I lost everything.” Instead, say, “I lost all my stuff,” because they still have love.
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Wendy Coleman, whose house is less than a mile from the church, was one of those whose family lost all their stuff, which is now in piles on the lawn. On Saturday night, she, her son, daughter and two dogs crouched on her bed, watching the water rise around them “like Rose in ‘Titanic.’”
Getting out involved multiple boats, a truck and a walk over a highway overpass in pouring rain. The family has spent the last several days gutting the house.
“Harvey Sucks 2017,” she wrote in marker on the exposed sheetrock in the living room.
Coleman can’t sleep, but she prays every night. She thanks God for leaving their house standing, and for sending so many people to help.
Coleman wouldn’t have missed church.
“It wasn’t even an option,” she said. “I needed to be with my church family. My husband said we had so much to do. I told him it would still be there when we got back.”
As the congregation sang, she wept. She hadn’t done that in days.
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Samir Novruzov wades through water to get to a vehicle after spending the day clearing out his flooded home in Katy, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Melissa Teague, right, instructs her children Andrew and Emily as they clear out their flooded home in Katy, Texas, on Monday.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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People ride through floodwaters in Katy, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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People hop off Chris Ginter’s truck as he helps ferry residents around Katy, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Two men collect a disposed mattress as residents in the Trinity/Houston Garden area of northeast Houston gut their flooded homes.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Wayne Christopher, center, weeps as his wife, Helen, looks on during a Sunday service at First United Methodist Church in Dickinson, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Hurricane Harvey severely damaged the First Baptist Church in Rockport, Texas. Worshipers on Sunday brought their own chairs to take part in an outdoor service.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Ken Garrett, right, hugs Pastor Jordan Mims after they both delivered prayers on the grounds of the First Baptist Church in Rockport, Texas.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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University of Houston law professor Johnny Buckles props up an American flag on the debris pile from his flood-damaged home in the Kingwood area of north Houston.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Jose Esquivel flags down motorists to visit a parking lot full of donated clothes, supples, water and brisket in Refugio, Texas.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Despite heavy damage and no electricity, a homeowner displays his patriotism while clean up and recovery efforts continue in his devastated neighborhood of Rockport.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Volunteers from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association, Yusuf Seager, from left, Rahib Ahmed, Rahman Nasir, and Khalil Nasir help tear out drywall damaged by floodwater in the Westbury neighborhood in Houston.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Volunteers from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association help residents of the Westbury neighborhood in Houston clear debris from their homes. It is also the Islamic holiday of Eid-ul-Adha. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Many roads and Interstates in Texas remain flooded, including this one in west Houston. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Jenna Fountain and her father Kevin carry a bucket down Regency Drive to try to recover items from their flooded home in Port Arthur, Texas on Thursday.
(Emily Kask / AFP / Getty Images)
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Lillie Roberts talks with family members as contractor Jerry Garza begins the process of repairing her Houston home on Friday.
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Volunteers from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association to perform holy prayer as they help local residents in the Kashmere Gardens area of Houston clean out their flooded homes.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Volunteers assist Cornell Beasley with repairs to his damaged home in Houston on Friday.
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Katie Estridge organizes hundreds of soaked family photographs on the front lawn of her father’s home in northeast Houston.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Wes Higgins wipes sweat from his face after spending five days patrolling flooded Houston neighborhoods in his boat. Higgins, from Knott, Texas, organized a volunteer team of 10 boats to help Houston residents.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Members of the California Air National Guard 129th Rescue Wing, Senior Airman George McKenzie, left, and Master Sgt. Adam Vanhaaster, right, help a man carry his infant, who has a serious medical condition, to a hospital in Orange, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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A search-and-rescue crew speeds along Maple Rock Drive in west Houston looking for flood victims.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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A woman and a child are among those rescued by California Air National Guardsmen in Lumberton, north of Beaumont.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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California Air National Guard 129th Rescue Wing’s Master Sgt. Adam Vanhaaster searches for people in need of help near Lumberton.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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A man prepares his dinner at home near Lumberton.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Boys sit on a damaged railroad track near Lumberton.
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A woman waves to a California Air National Guard helicopter from her neighborhood near Lumberton.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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A drop-off point for boat rescues in Lumberton.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Baseball fields in Lumberton are inundated.
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Coca-Cola delivery trucks are trapped by floodwater in Lumberton, Texas.
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A military search and rescue helicopter refuels mid-flight before resuming nighttime missions over areas flooded in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Houston police search a flooded home after hearing that an elderly couple lived there. The house was empty. Police later learned the couple had safely evacuated.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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West Houston resident Pedro Albiso uses trash bags to protect his shoes and pants as he prepares to cross a flooded street.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Patients are evacuated from Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas after the city of Beaumont lost its water supply.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Fatima Flores, 12, gets her hair done by cousins Shelly Flores, 7, left, and Ashley Flores, 7, as their family takes shelter at Max Bowl, a bowling alley in Port Arthur, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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James Benoit, left, and George Clipton sought refuge at Max Bowl in Port Arthur, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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June Ayrow spent the night with his oxygen tanks underneath a table at Max Bowl in Port Arthur, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Floodwaters surround homes Thursday in Port Arthur, Texas.
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Volunteers rescue patients from the Cypress Glen nursing home where floodwaters trapped dozens of elderly patients in Port Arthur, Texas on Wednesday.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Residents lie on sofas as they wait to be evacuated from the Cypress Glen senior care facility in Port Arthur, Texas, which was inundated with floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey on Wednesday.
(Matt Pearce / Los Angeles Times)
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Emergency crews help rescue elderly residents from the Golden Years Assisted Living home in Orange, Texas, on Wednesday.
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Rescuer workers help a woman from her flooded home n Port Arthur, Texas.
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Evacuees ride on a truck after they were driven from their homes by the flooding in Port Arthur, Texas.
(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
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People wait in line to buy groceries at a Food Town during the aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey.
(Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images)
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Juan Figueroa removes damaged furniture from his mother’s northeast Houston home where residents begin rebuilding from the devastating effects of the storm.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Rafael Minor, left, and Miguel Ramirez remove the contents from a flooded home in northeast Houston on Wednesday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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A construction crew cleans out a home that was flooded by Tropical Storm Harvey in Spring, Texas.
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A flooded residential neighborhood near Interstate 10 in Houston, Texas.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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A flooded residential neighborhood near Interstate 10 in Houston, Texas.
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People come out to view the flooded areas near their homes in Houston, Texas.
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CaroLine Kirkpatrick of Salt Lake City, Utah, is evacuated from the Omni Hotel by rescue worker Adam Caballero in Addicks, a suburb of Houston, Texas.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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People displaced by flooding fill the shelter at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston.
(LM Otero / Associated Press)
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Mark Ocosta and his baby, Aubrey, take shelter at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
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Frantzy Thenor receives an embrace from a fellow evacuee after he helped her leave from the flooded Omni Hotel, in the Addicks area of Houston, Texas.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Storm clouds over Houston skyline.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Recreational vehicles sit on their sides in flood water in Houston, Texas.
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A woman carries a dog above the rising floodwaters near Addicks Reservoir.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Eduardo Retiz, 21, drives his elevated pickup truck through a flooded street near Addicks Reservoir.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Mike Hoskovec, left, walks to a boat after helping friend Ben Berg, behind, move some photo albums to the second floor of his Nottingham Woods home.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Matthew Koser looks for important papers and heirlooms inside his grandfather’s house after it was flooded by heavy rains.
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Residents wade through floodwaters as they evacuate their homes near the Addicks Reservoir Tuesday.
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Larry Koser Jr., left and his son Matthew look for important papers and heirlooms inside Larry Koser Sr.’s house after it was flooded by heavy rains.
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Portions of Interstate 10 remain flooded in Houston, Texas.
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Rising flood waters stranded hundreds of residents of Twin Oaks Village in Clodine.
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Comfort Morgan is helped to dry land after being rescued from her flooded home in Twin Oaks Village in Clodine.
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Rising flood waters stranded hundreds of residents of Twin Oaks Village in Clodine, where a collection of small boat owners, including some with pool toys, coordinated to bring most to dry ground.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Rising flood waters stranded hundreds of residents of Twin Oaks Village in Clodine, where an collection of small boat owners coordinated to bring most to dry ground.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Hundreds of residents of Twin Oaks Village are evacuated in Clodine Monday.
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Residents are stranded at Twin Oaks Village in Clodine due to rising flood water.
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Stranded residents of Twin Oaks Village in Clodine are evacuated from the rising flood water.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Jan Tullos, 32, searches a flooded home for an injured woman who was reportedly stranded inside in Clodine, Texas. The home was empty.
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People walk down a flooded Houston street as they evacuate their homes after the area was inundated with rains from Tropical Storm Harvey.
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Dean Mize holds children as he and Jason Legnon use an airboat to rescue people from flooded homes in Houston on Monday.
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Dean Mize, left and Jason Legnon carry a person to an airboat as they rescue people in Houston.
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Evacuees walk down a flooded street after leaaving their homes Monday in Houston.
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Dean Mize holds a child as he helps evacuate people in Houston as Tropical Storm Harvey continues to drench southeastern Texas and Louisiana with heavy rains and surging floodwaters.
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People evacuate their flooded homes on Monday in Houston. By Monday morning, 911 operators had received 56,000 calls, city officials said.
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Adults use a kiddie pool to transport children as they evacuate on Monday.
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People catch a ride on a construction vehicle down a flooded Houston street.
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Alexendre Jorge evacuates Ethan Colman, 4, from a Houston neighborhood inundated by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey.
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People push a stalled pickup to through a flooded street in Houston on Sunday, as Tropical Storm Harvey dumped heavy rains.
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A Houston police officer helps Frank Andrews, 74, into his walking chair after rescuing him from his flooded home in the Braeswood Place neighborhood, southwest of Houston, on Sunday.
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Wilford Martinez, right, is rescued from his flooded car by Harris County Sheriff’s Department Richard Wagner along Interstate 610 in Houston, Texas.
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Daniel Gross, 15, is rescued by Houston police after he was stranded on top of his car in southwest Houston.
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Andrew White, left, helps a neighbor down a street after rescuing her from her home in his boat in the upscale River Oaks neighborhood after it was inundated with flooding from Tropical Storm Harvey.
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Volunteers and officers from the neighborhood security patrol help rescue residents in Houston’s River Oaks neighborhood Sunday.
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Jesus Nunez carries his daughter Genesis, 6, as he and numerous family members flee their flooded home, walking nearly four hours to the safety of a relative’s house on Sunday.
Matt Pearce was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times from 2012 to 2024. He previously covered the covering internet culture and podcasting, the 2020 presidential election and spent six years on The Times’ national desk, where he wrote stories about violence, disasters, social movements and civil liberties. Pearce was one of the first national reporters to arrive in Ferguson, Mo., during the uprising in 2014, and he chased Hurricane Harvey across Texas as the storm ravaged the Lone Star State in 2017. A University of Missouri graduate, he hails from a small town outside Kansas City, Mo.
Hailey Branson-Potts is an enterprise reporter on the State Team who joined the Los Angeles Times in 2011. She reports on a wide range of issues and people, with a special focus on Northern California and the Central Coast. She grew up in the small town of Perry, Okla., and graduated from the University of Oklahoma.
