Ana Vazao

Interviewee: Ana Vazao
Interview Date:
Interview Location:
Interviewer: Alexandra Arguijo

AA: So what’s your name?
AV: My name is Ana Vazao.
AA: Okay, and where were you born?
AV: I was actually born in [Unclear, 0:00:09], Portugal. And I came when I was five years old. And I grew up in New York.
AA: Nice. And how long have you lived in Houston?
AV: About 26 years.
AA: Oh, wow. What do you do for a living?
AV: I’m an educator. I first taught in elementary school for — as a reading specialist. Now, I’m a school counselor.
AA: Okay.
AV: And I have about 26 years of experience.
AA: Oh, wow. Since living in Houston, had you had any troubles with flooding, hurricanes?
AV: This past Harvey experience was the first personal experiences. I dealt with Harvey with the hurricane and the trauma of Harvey. There wasn’t actually — I didn’t actually flood because of Harvey. I flooded, because behind my backyard is a park. And it sits [0:01:00] — backs into the reservoir. And so when they released the levees — that’s why I flooded. So this was my first experience.
AA: Okay. How long have you been living in your current home?
AV: About 14 years, so it’s pretty permanent.
AA: Since living in this current home, you hadn’t had any flooding?
AV: I hadn’t had any flood experiences — just lots of rain and hail but nothing with flooding.
AA: The days leading up to Hurricane Harvey, what was going through your mind? Were you expecting it to be as –?
AV: I wasn’t at all expecting it. Even like the day before the hurricane began, my maid came to the home. She was cleaning my house. Everything was normal, but then one of my friends was listening to the news. And she said, “Concord Bridge.” I’m like, “Concord Bridge? That’s my subdivision [0:02:00].” They’re expecting a lot of water, so the panic and the unsureness started. Those feelings of uncertainty started to happen.
AA: Yeah. So you said that you got the flooding from the reservoirs?
AV: Yes, exactly.
AA: So it was after Hurricane Harvey that everything –?
AV: After Hurricane Harvey. And again, I live behind a park. And luckily, these fences here kind of blocked some of the water, because if you — I have some pictures here, and you can see them later. This was like — this whole park – and I’ll show you later – was basically a lake. It was just filled up. And everyone along my little area here on this side of the — my road, we got 8 to 10 inches. On the homes adjacent to me, they probably got close to a foot. So this whole park here kind of saved us [0:03:00] for a little bit. But it doesn’t matter. One, two inches, you still have to gut out your home. You’re still going through the trauma. You’re still going through the rebuild.
AA: So your house did flood?
AV: Oh, absolutely, it flooded. And I remember the day it happened and what I was feeling. It was a Monday night. We knew the city decided to release the levees at 1:00 A.M. So that must have been Monday — the evening. Tuesday morning, I woke up. I was still in the home. When I woke up, I looked outside. And like I said, it was just a huge lake. You couldn’t see anything. My backyard was — the windows were covered — half-full. It was — maybe we had two or three — two centimeters of water. And I’m like, “I need to go. I just need to go.” So I packed a tiny little suitcase — just thinking I’m going to be gone [0:04:00] two days. It’s not going to — it’s — you know what? Nothing’s happening it’s not going to happen. So I walked out my front door in my little water boots with a tiny little bag. And I had to trench through about three feet of water outside with my tiny little suitcase. And I walked about six blocks out, because no one can come in. Because the water was so high. So I was like, “Okay, what do I pack? What do I need? How long am I going to be gone?” All these questions came up, and you wasn’t sure. But I will never forget walking through those waters — those six blocks. And I had to hop onto a truck just to get out.
AA: Wow. After you escaped your home, where did you end up?
AV: I stayed with — I stayed in two places. I don’t have any family here. It’s just me, so I stayed with a dear friend that let me stay with her. I stayed there about six days. Those six days were probably the hardest six days [0:05:00], because all — anytime you turned on the news or the radio or the TV, all you heard was hurricane talk, hurricane talk, hurricane. And here you go. I was like, “I want to go back home. What’s my home look like? Do I have two feet, three feet?” You’re questioning yourself. The uncertainty kills you. But those four days, my friends that I stayed with, they live close. And I picked the closest to people to here, but I stayed in a tiny little room. And it was their like spare room. And there was just wall to wall boxes. They had a mattress for me. And I couldn’t sleep all night — the whole day, you just couldn’t sleep. I had to go to the doctor’s, because I had got a panic attack. And they had to give me some panic medicine — anxiety medicine and some codeine to help me sleep, because I just wasn’t sleeping because the unknown.
AA: Yeah [0:06:00]. Did you have flood insurance?
AV: I have not had flood insurance. And note to self, I will always, always have flood insurance. And my biggest mantra right now or my biggest play is everyone needs to have insurance. And I think two phrases really help me along this whole process. It is what it is, because you can’t — you can only control what you do. And it is okay not to be okay. Because those first two to three weeks, you just — a person literally could not think, because you were inundated with the generosity of others, first of all, which is amazing our Texas community — Houston Strong. But the unknown is what — the killer.
AA: Did you sign up for FEMA?
AV: I absolutely FEMA. And I had a hard time signing up with FEMA, and — because I can’t quote how many people were affected by the [0:07:00] hurricane. But I literally called every 15 or so minutes, because I kept getting hung up on. And I’m like, “Okay, what do I do? What is the process? How do I fill out the application? Did I do this correctly?” All these questions just kept flooding, and it took me about three days to finally get through FEMA and apply. But I applied immediately. Say it was to happen the 28th, the 29th, I applied immediately. But again, it was just very difficult getting to FEMA. And you were onto the FEMA website, and it still had information from the past hurricane. And it wasn’t updated, and that was frustrating to me.
AA: How long did it take you to come back to your home?
AV: To my home? So after that initial week that I stayed with a friend, I lived with one of my friends for about six months. And every single weekend from, let’s say, mid-September to about March, let’s say — every single [0:08:00] weekend, my energy and my power was just taking care of the home, getting contractors, making appointments with contractors. So during the week, I lived with my friend, but during the weekends, I came, and I was a squatter in my own home on the second flood. Because when you see the pictures, this was all gutted out. But I’m very blessed, because I had the first week — those six — first, initial six days, I had an army of friends come and help me. And they gutted out the whole home.
AA: Wow, that’s amazing.
AV: Literally, 40 to 50 people came. And the community was here. Everyone was helping us with food, so yes, you weren’t affected, but a lot of them had that hurricane remorse.
AA: When you came back to your home, what was going on through your mind? Were you expecting it to be as bad?
AV: You’re talking about the initial time?
AA: Yeah, the first time.
AV: I came back — and you couldn’t come back for six days, because we had to wait for the water [0:09:00] to recede. And I’m not going to lie to you. I was physically here, but mentally, I didn’t know. What’s my next step? What do I do? What do I call? How do I go about this? And the stressors of having to pay for this without flood insurance — and who’s going to help me? How do I find reliable contractors? And then people are asking you questions, and I’m like — I got to the point where when my friends did come — because to come and gut out my home, I’m like, “I cannot make decisions. If you feel that we should throw it away, throw out things.” I was here physically, not mentally. Mostly, it was very traumatic. And you know when someone goes through trauma, you’re — first, you’re sort of like — you’re — let me think. You’re grieving your home. And you’re feeling the stressors. So those kind of go hand in hand.
AA: Yeah [0:10:00]. How long did it take you to fully finish your home out?
AV: That’s a great question, because I’ve had a lot — I’ve had a lot of hiccups with contractors. And we probably started mid-September. And I would say this past maybe June — the end of June, everything was done. Because part of the hurricane frustration is finding reliable contractors. Because the first contractor I had, I had to fire. They came into my home, and I worked. So I couldn’t really be supervising their work. They put the initial sheetrock on the perimeter of the home. And I just happened to come home. And they forgot to put insulation on the walls, so I’m like, “No, I’m a New Yorker. I need you to make a hole in these walls to verify that there’s insulation.” Well, three of the walls didn’t have insulation, so they had to redo it.
The mold treatments — and then [0:11:00] I tried to knock down this wall here. And I hired another contractor/framer. And he did not put the proper framing, so after getting this whole wall done, the sheetrock started to crack. So they had to redo this a second time. Then I had these pipes rerouted to break down this hole. And the contractor, the framer, the same one that didn’t put the proper support beams, he cracked a pipe. So all the water came gushing out again. And I’m like, “Oh, my god. I’m going to have mold again.” So that was the third time this wall was done.
AA: Oh, my goodness.
AV: So that kind of delayed the process. But I finally was very blessed, because I got an amazing contractor. He did it, and I just want to say, “Yay, yay, J.J. Watt,” because I applied to that organization, BakerRipley. And I was awarded $26,000. That [0:12:00] money went directly to my contractor, but that’s what allowed me to finish the home. They paid my washer/dryer. And my church was amazing. They gave me $5,000, and they were supportive with food and just — like I said, the whole community came together. So that helped us. It was almost a year.
AA: Wow. Let’s see. Now, looking back on Hurricane Harvey, are there some things you would change, do differently, do a little better?
AV: Oh, absolutely. Reflecting on that experience, I would — I’m here to tell — everyone, listen. You must have flood insurance. It’s four- to five-hundred dollars. Have flood insurance.
Second thing is I know it’s a learning experience. You know what to do — what not. I know who the contractors to hire now. And I know who does good work [0:13:00], and I would know what to do. And if I was flooded on, I’d like — bring it on. I know what to do, but it’s a growing process. And you don’t really understand those things until you have to make mistake. Because you know, we all make mistakes, but we have to learn from them.
AA: You said that you had some trauma towards it.
AV: Right.
AA: Now, because it has been kind of raining some days, are there some days where you’re kind of worried?
AV: Is there a trigger?
AA: Yeah.
AV: Like the rain doesn’t bother me, because you know what? I think back like — I survived Harvey. And if I can survive Harvey, I can do it again. I’m like — it made me stronger. It did change who I was in terms of like — you are capable of doing things. And you have to believe in yourself. And you know what? You’re going to have bad days. And you’re — but you’re also going to have rewards of your accomplishments. And life’s not always easy, and you just — you have to face your fears. And I kept telling myself [0:14:00], “Face my fears.” And again, my mantra is, “It is what it is.”
AA: That’s a good one. You said that you had the J.J. Watt organization —
AV: J.J. Watt, well, it was — J.J. Watt was phenomenal, getting $35 million, I believe. I don’t even know the math. But yes, I applied through one of his — because he dispersed the money into various organizations. And one of them was BakerRipley. And another wonderful thing about this whole hurricane — because you have — I always try to look at the positives. I really bonded with all my neighbors here, because we — we became a family. And we were all helping each other with, “Apply to this. Get some furniture,” and this and that. But she advised me of BakerRipley. There was a long process. I had applied in November, and I finally got awarded my money in May.
AA: Wow.
AV: So it is a process, but I’m forever thankful for them. Because they allowed me to rebuild. And I also [0:15:00] got — I’m sorry. I also got some wonderful donations from churches. Like Chapelwood donated $700, so I could get some dining room table. Rooms To Go gave me $1,500, so I could get this couch. BakerRipley gave me an additional $2,000 for washer/dryer. So again, the whole community came together.
AA: Speaking of community together, when you saw on the news that neighbors were helping neighbors, coming out in their boats, how did you feel? What did that make you feel like for Houston?
AV: You know, that saying, Houston is Strong, it really — those words were not just words. They were put into action, because that — those six days after we were allowed to come. You — and this whole neighborhood was affected. Like when you walked into — drove into my subdivision, maybe the first three blocks weren’t affected, but the rest of us was. You drove around [0:16:00]. There were food stands donating food. People were driving around in their cars offering food to all the helpers and the workers. Churches were going around, “Do you need help with sheetrock? Do you need help getting rid of mold?” They noted cleaning products — the whole community.
Even my own employer — my school — I work for Spring Branch ISD at Memorial Drive Elementary. I’m the counselor there. All the parents got together, and they donated money. We had five different teachers affected by Harvey, including myself. And they gathered a pool of money. We got about $1,700 each. So the whole community came together.
And it’s kind of ironic, because as a counselor — I’m a counselor. You have to be strong. And I was like, “I got affected by Harvey,” but I had to present to my faculty about what you can do for yourself. And so I put up a whole PowerPoint about what can you [0:17:00] do for yourself, what resources you can go. And there was one slide, how do you take care of yourself. And I was like, “I need a break. I need a moment.” I had to walk away, because the whole — Harvey was fresh in my mental — my mental capabilities. And it just — I had to take a break about taking care of yourself. And that’s something really important. You do have to take care of yourself before you can do anything else.
AA: Yeah. The words Houston Strong, what does that mean to you?
AV: Oh, it was — it was — it was — it was so evident by the support of the community. Houston Strong, like I just said, at local supermarkets, local churches, they all — they — social media, Facebook was wonderful. It’s like they would tell you resources. If you need cleaning products, go here. If you need this, go here. So that social media aspect [0:18:00], within community, Texas. The churches around here were amazing supports, not just financially but spiritually. And they donated meals. And like I said, my — all my neighbors, we became a family supporting each other, organizing little different drives to help each other, and, “Have you applied here? Have you applied there?” We all worked together. And just, like I said, I had an army of friends come that first day I was able to come back here. Literally, 40 to 50 people, like throwing trash up, bringing stuff that was salvageable — bringing it upstairs, getting all the hefty — it just — I felt so loved, because at the time, I wasn’t able to make those decisions for myself. And you just — and you know what? You can’t always pick your family, but you can — friends become your family [0:19:00].
AA: Well, those are the questions that I had for you.
AV: Great.
AA: Was there anything else that you wanted to add?
AV: No, I’m just very thankful that I learned from this experience. And I’m very grateful for the community. J.J. Watt, he will forever be my favorite football player. And just know, sometimes life is hard, but you have to understand that you’re not always going to be okay. But you have to keep telling yourself, “Face your fears, because you’ve got this.” It’s going to happen. It’s not easy, but it will happen.
AA: Yes. Well, thank you so much. [0:19:36]

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