By C.W. Clark January 25, 2020

Three years ago, today Hurricane Harvey devastated the Texas Coast. Countless lives were changed over the following days, weeks & months.

Everyone who lived through those days has a story relating to that monster of a storm & how it impacted their lives. Periodically throughout this past year, my wife has asked me to write down my thoughts about my experiences during, and immediately after the hurricane moved into & through the Houston area.

I captured some brief thoughts & a few pictures on almost a daily basis via Facebook during this time, which in & of themselves, are probably more informative than anything I may write today.

By the grace of God my family & I were virtually unaffected by this storm. I am very resistant to writing this & am hesitant to share what will be the final draft. I don’t care for public attention especially when it’s related to just doing what is right.

I have always been the type of person to run towards the chaos while most people with any common sense are running in the opposite direction. Without a doubt, this was a key factor in my decision to join the U. S. Marine Corps as a young man. Since that time, I have struggled to find what I consider a meaningful purpose in the civilian world. This is a common feeling that many veterans struggle with upon separating from military service as they attempt to assimilate back into civilian life.

In late May of 2017, my family & I moved to a new home in a different city near Houston, TX. We had previously lived in Dickinson, TX for over a decade. Dickinson would soon make national news as the city became an epicenter for high water rescues related to the flooding brought on by Hurricane Harvey.

Late in August of 2017 Hurricane Harvey made landfall around Rockport, TX. I used to go duck hunting down in Rockport & have fond memories of the area. This storm was huge & there was some meteorologists that were calling for significant destruction to be caused by the storm.

My thoughts were that yes, Rockport & those areas south of Houston would be hit hard, but that this hurricane was just going to dump some rain on Houston & move on.

(In case your keeping score, I was wrong.)

With all this in mind, my family & I had been invited to a friend’s home to watch a UFC fight & enjoy some brisket & ribs he had been smoking all day. We would only be about a block from our house should it start to rain, so off we went. It began to rain & it didn’t stop for days. The satellite reception went out so no fight.

The rain was literally coming down in sheets & my wife & I began to think we should get our family back to our home. We got soaked but made it home without incident. As we woke the next morning the predictions of a major flood event were being talked about on the local news channels. Little did any of us know what the following days would hold for the city & the surrounding areas.

As I have said my family & I were new to the neighborhood in which we’re living at the time. However, I knew there were some folks who had hearts for service & were itching to get into the fray to do something to help the people being affected by this devastating storm. I wanted to find those people.

A neighbor who is a pastor at a local church was standing in his garage with a group of men who looked like they had been out in the storm all day.

They were wet & looked exhausted. I stopped immediately & went to find out what was going on. They had been out doing water rescues & helping people evacuate their homes before the water reached a level that would prevent escape. I was in before I even spoke to any of them.

These folks had kayaks, paddleboards, a bass boat & 4×4 pickup trucks. They also had every intention to be out in the storm & help anyone that they could that

needed assistance. We all resolved to gather our gear & meet the next morning at 5 AM to load up & start helping people. Before we did that though we were approached by another neighbor whose mother in law was trapped in a gated retirement community & the water was rising. She needed help immediately.

We responded & ended up traversing a golf course in a kayak to retrieve the lady, a few of her possessions & her dog. Things were getting serious & it appeared that it was only going to get worse. Of course, the flooding did get worse & we headed towards Dickinson, TX which had already begun to flood.

There’s a famous photo of dozens of boats motoring down FM 517 in Dickinson that exemplifies exactly what we were encountering. People from every walk of life & from all over were running towards the chaos to rescue strangers from the rising waters.

Military vehicles, police vehicles, bass boats, jet skis, kayaks…. anything that could traverse the waters was being launched near the donut shop I had gotten breakfast at on many a weekend in previous years.

The sound of rotary blades could be heard overhead as military helicopters conducted rescues & reconnaissance. Things had gotten real in a hurry. We conducted rescues & pulled people out of apartments & delivered them to Army National Guard trucks or nearby shelters. We met some incredible people who were conducting rescues & some incredible people who were being rescued. We helped a lot of people that day. Finally, some purpose.

We had decided not to perform night time rescues as they presented special challenges that we were not necessarily equipped to tackle, although had we been aware of a specific need I have no doubt that to a man we would have gone out into the night to do whatever we could to help.

So, with the sun setting down we made our way back to our island neighborhood.

We never flooded, only lost power for a few minutes & had home-cooked meals & hot showers every evening.

This was totally surreal given what we had seen throughout our day. We resigned to perform rescues daily for the foreseeable future.

My wife is the industrious & organized type, God knows I am not. Hence, he gave me her to help me at least appear to be organized on occasion. She had been on the phone & internet all day talking to people who wanted to help or who knew of people that needed help. She even had people from outside the state coordinating information to pass along to teams about rescue needs, gasoline availability, hazards or government warnings. All in all, it was amazing to witness.

The men I had been working with the day before met bright & early the following morning. Coffee in hand we worked on a plan for the day & said a prayer before we departed. Overall, we knew it was bad outside our subdivision. We had no idea how bad it might get or what we were going to run into today. We rescued several people in the Friendswood, TX area this day.

The most memorable was in a secluded neighborhood adjacent to a creek. Obviously, any home near a body of water was going to be affected by the deluge. I never even knew this neighborhood existed.

The homes must have been close to a million dollars in value, Harvey didn’t care.

We couldn’t get the boat into the far back of the neighborhood due to the stone walls & decorative stonework near the homes. Should we have damaged the prop we would have been out of commission & rendered mostly ineffective in future rescue efforts. Fortunately, we had a paddleboard & a canoe. We waded for about a half a mile to a large home at the rear of the subdivision.

A family of 4 needed rescue and we were going to get them out. As we were making our way to their home I took a step & ended up in chin-deep water.

I am 6’0” tall, a former lifeguard & have surfed for many years but this development kind of freaked me out. I regained my composure & we made it to our destination.

The mother & 2 teenage daughters along with 2 dogs were going with us. The father refused to leave his home.

The first story was flooded & he had no power but just couldn’t bare to leave his property to the unknown.

I don’t know what happened to him but often think of stopping by that home to hear their story.

We evacuated the ladies & went forward with more rescues. Some areas were impassable in our boats, so we were limited by that factor.

Do you think my wife would be ok with me buying an airboat?

Those guys did some amazing work & could go anywhere. In the subsequent day or 2 we performed more rescues & decided that we would not travel outside of our local area due to the needs within our immediate community.

The rains stopped & the water began to recede in some areas. I was losing my purpose.

God had other plans for me. My home church was collecting supplies like bleach, paper towels, gloves, dust masks, cleaning solutions.

The highway I traveled to get to work was under 6-10 feet of water, so I was not going in to work any time soon. If I recall correctly this was a Wednesday…I don’t know for sure though. I gathered what supplies we had & made my way to my church. I dropped off those supplies & asked how I could help. I was told I had just helped & that if I wanted to do more I could fill out a form & they would call me.

Come again???

The world outside my door looked like an over-budget poorly scripted Kevin Costner movie & you want me to fill out a form to help.

I departed with a bit of an attitude.

I just so happen to have to drive by my pastor friend’s church. The parking lot was packed. What are they doing I thought? I pulled into the parking lot & made my way inside.

The music minister & his wife said hello & asked if I was here to help. Why yes, I am, even though I only knew one person in the entire congregation. So, I was placed on a team, was given a sack lunch, a case of water, tools & several addresses of people who needed assistance mucking out their homes. God supplied me with more purpose than I could possibly have handled on my own.

For the next several days I worked on teams with people I had never met, cleaning out homes for people I had never met. We worked hard & laughed & ate & prayed together. I am holding back tears as I remember those times.

There are some great stories relating to those times, the group of Mormons who helped us & got to be on the receiving end of talking about our true Lord & Savior.

Or the guy who was an amateur taxidermist who literally had a house full of stuffed ducks.

Or the retired couple who owned a home directly across from the Baptist camp I worked at as a teenager.

Too many to recall here.

The Houston area was drying out & I was told that I needed to get back to my real job. I took a week of vacation instead, so I could keep doing the job God was calling me to do.

The folks at The Harbor, the church I was working with, made me a team leader & eventually a site evaluator.

Within approximately 12 days our teams had mucked out 200 homes in the local area. I worked on maybe 10 of those with dozens of amazing people.

Towards the end of the last week of work, I was told by some of the elders & a couple of pastors that I wasn’t allowed to come back until I took a day off.

I am sure I looked like a zombie & most definitely smelled like one at the end of most days. Begrudgingly, I took the following day off & joked that I would see if the local Kingdom Hall needed volunteers.

We had church the Sunday before I went back to work & I felt so close to God & my neighbors.

I am thankful beyond words that God put me in the middle of that storm. I would do that kind of work every day if I had the opportunity.

God saw us through one of the costliest natural disasters in modern history.

He spared me & my family for which I am eternally grateful. Most of all I am thankful that for the 2 weeks in which He gave me an incredible sense of purpose.

I still struggle to fit into this world in which I live.

Some days are harder than others.

I am certain that God knows my purpose, all I must do is listen, trust & act.

What’s your purpose?

Mark 12:30-31 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

³⁰ and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ ³¹ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Addendum by VT Clark three years ago:

At the time during Harvey, I was taking classes via Liberty University online, working on my degree in Christian Ministry with a minor in Biblical Studies. In the process, I became a part of the Ratio Christi-Liberty chapter. Ratio Christi is a student campus apologetics alliance and the Liberty chapter is close to my heart and that of my family for their response and prayers.

C.W. and I have supported, prayed for and made friends who have become like family through Ratio Christi.

So I wanted to post a “shout out” to them and to the Liberty University professors and fellow classmates for their prayers and support for the Texas Gulf Coast area.

One year later and there’s still work to be done in the Rockport, Houston and surrounding areas, but the people here are #TexasStrong.

Thoughts on Harvey was originally posted on the blog shared by C.W.Clark and his wife, VT Clark. The experience impacted their hearts regarding missions, sharing the Gospel, living the Gospel and the roles the body of Christ has in response not only to natural disasters but serving in their communities. They both hold to the belief we are missionaries not only globally, but locally in the neighborhood, the community and in the city/town. 

About the author:
C.W. Clark is a follower of Christ, husband, father, son, and brother. A former Marine, one time railroad man , now a manager in the oil & gas industry. More Peter than Paul. Far from perfect and saved only by the grace of God.