Skip to content
Resilient Houston: Documenting Hurricane Harvey

Resilient Houston: Documenting Hurricane Harvey

Bringing the stories of real people to light

Search
  • About
  • Map
  • Topics
    • FEMA
    • Community Support
    • Trauma
    • Social Media
    • Recovery
    • Animals
  • Communities
    • Fifth Ward
    • Third Ward
    • Kingwood
    • Meyerland
      • Jewish Community
    • Pearland
    • Kashmere Gardens
  • All Voices From the Storm
    • Harvey Survivors
    • Volunteers
    • First Responders
  • Center for Public History
  • Youtube
  • Photo Gallery
  • Read More
  • Contact Us

Author: Emmanuel Gonzalez

Harvey Survivors

Lillian Hood

Lillian Hood lived in a patio home in Kingwood near Lake Houston when Harvey hit the area. She was not surprised the streets flooded in her neighborhood after hearing the…
Volunteers

John Shepard

John Shepard has lived in Kingwood since the 1980s and has experienced several hurricanes and tropical storms. When Hurricane Harvey began to affect Houston, Shepard and his wife were are…
Volunteers

Toni McElroy

Toni McElroy is a native Houstonian, living and working in the city her whole life. Throughout her time in Houston, she witnessed many tropical storms and hurricane-related disasters. McElroy discusses…
Harvey Survivors

Kenneth Knox

Kenneth Knox lived in Kingwood, Texas at the time of Hurricane Harvey. Before moving to Houston, Knox lived in Louisiana, where he understood the importance of living away from floodplains.…
Volunteers…

Robert Beauregard

Robert Beauregard held the position of Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Deputy in Alexandria, Louisiana, for twenty-eight years at the time of this interview. Beauregard recounts his police training for natural disasters,…
Harvey Survivors

Melissa Flores

Melissa Flores is a biology student at the University of Houston who grew up in Cypress, Texas. Flores recounts her experience with tropical storms and hurricanes throughout her time living…
Volunteers

Fatai Oyejobi

Fatai Oyejobi lives near Lake Houston in Atascocita. Born in Nigeria, he moved to the United States when he was young and moved to Houston in 2009. He lived in…
Volunteers

Johnny Holmes

Johnny Holmes, a native to Austin, Texas, moved to Houston, Texas for college approximately forty years ago. When Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, Holmes lived on the third story of an…
Harvey Survivors

Rabbi Teller

Rabbi Ranon Teller, Congregation Brith Shalom, discusses Hurricane Harvey, repercussions from the hurricane, the Jewish community response, and the impact on the community. Teller begins with sharing the many hats…
Harvey Survivors

John Young Sr.

John Young was born and raised in Houston’s Fifth Ward and has lived there all his life. He recalls that in his youth, the neighborhood was peaceful, with good teachers…
Harvey Survivors

Kathie and Don Witt

Kathie and Don Witt have lived in Kingwood for twenty-five years. The Witts had no storm experience prior to Hurricane Harvey. When they heard the news about Harvey, they had…
Harvey Survivors

Yvette Scales

Yvette Scales recounts almost sixty years of personal experience with tropical storms and hurricanes while living in the Third Ward of Houston, TX. Scales touches on her memories with Hurricanes…
First Responders

HFD Station 8

Houston Fire Department Station 8 is located near downtown Houston and services Montrose, Third Ward, and Fifth Ward. During Hurricane Harvey and previous floods, such as the Memorial Day flood…
Harvey Survivors

Eyal Enav

Eyal Enav discusses his experience with not only Hurricane Harvey but two previous floods in his Meyerland home. Despite difficulties in Harvey, including dealing with a broken wrist resulting from…
Harvey Survivors

David Enav

David Enav discusses his experience with two previous floods and his harrowing experience during Hurricane Harvey. Enav spent most of his life in Meyerland, attending Jewish schools for his education…
Harvey Survivors

Rhonda Davis

Rhonda Davis has lived in La Porte, Texas, for forty-three years. Upon recounting her experience with Hurricane Harvey, Davis revealed that many believed the news to overestimate the potential threat…
Harvey Survivors

Nirayl Cororve

Public History graduate student Saneea Sakhyani interviewed Meyerland resident, Nirayl Cororve, for the "Neighborhood Narratives" component of the "Resilient Houston: Oral History Project." This project is part of the UH…
Harvey Survivors

Brian Cororve

Brian Cororve is an estate attorney who has lived in Meyerland for much of his life with his wife, Nirayl, and their children. Unfortunately, their home flooded during Hurricane Harvey…
Harvey Survivors

Debra Johnson

Debra Johnson moved from San Antonio, where she grew up, to Houston to be closer to her aging mother. After several years living in Houston, Johnson's apartment flooded during Hurricane…
Harvey Survivors

Alvinea Randolph

Army Veteran Alvinea Randolph was born and raised in Houston, Texas, predominantly living in the northeast side. She has experienced many storms affecting Houston, including Alison and Harvey. When heard…
Harvey Survivors

Doris Yudelvich

Doris Yudelvich has lived in Houston for thirty years, and experienced flooding on Memorial Day in 2015 and during Hurricane Harvery. Yudelvich says that she did not go to work…
Volunteers

Linda Vogel

Linda Vogel moved to Kingwood, Texas in 1979 and has lived here since. Vogel briefly touches on her experience with Hurricane Ike and Tropical Storm Allison, admitting that when she…
First Responders

Dr. Lars Thestrup

Lars Thestrup has lived in Houston, Texas for ten years, originally coming from Fairfax, Virginia. Thestrup has been involved with EMT since he was eighteen-years-old and is now the assistant…
Harvey Survivors

Nomi Solomon

Nomi Solomon, a mother of three, discusses the floods, hurricane Harvey, and her commitment to staying in Meyerland for the Jewish community it offers. Starting with the Memorial Day flood…
Harvey Survivors

Tom and Lisa Slagle

Tom and Lisa Slagle are both retired Houston firefighters who live in Kingwood. Tom served for thirty-six years and retired as District Chief. Lisa served the department for twenty years,…
Harvey Survivors

Kathy Scott

Kathy Scott has lived in Houston, Texas since 1981. In the days leading up to Harvey, Scott was unconcerned since her neighborhood was not expecting storm damage. A day before…
First Responders

Dr. Chris Souders & Dr. Kevin Schulz

Dr. Chris Souders, Associate Medical Director for the Houston Fire Department Emergency Medical Services (HFD EMS), and Kevin Schulz, Assistant Medical Director, helped to organize the emergency medical services offered…
Harvey Survivors

Irving Rothman

Irving Rothman, a professor of English at the University of Houston, discusses Hurricane Harvey, the house he and his wife have lived in for over 51 years, which had never…
Volunteers

Gloria Rose

Gloria Rose has lived in Houston since September of 2005. Before that, she lived in New Orleans but left after Hurricane Katrina. Rose recounts some of her experiences during Katrina,…
Volunteers

Mark Renn

Mark Robert Renn was born outside of Boston, Massachusetts, and has since lived all over the country. Kingwood is the fourth Texan city Renn has lived in, with Houston, Austin,…
Volunteers

Pastor Rudy Rasmus

Pastor Rudy Rasmus grew up in West End, one of the oldest black neighborhoods in Houston, Texas. Pastor Rasmus begins his interview detailing the changes throughout Houston during his childhood…
Harvey Survivors

David Lowy

David Lowy was born in Pasadena, Texas and grew up in Meyerland, where he lived until flooding from Hurricane Harvey forced his family to leave their home. Lowy remembers the…
Harvey Survivors

Carolyn Littleton & Shelia Whitfield

Carolyn Littleton and Shelia Whitfield are both native Houstonians who experienced flooding during Hurricane Harvey. Littleton and Whitfield, sisters, recall living through Hurricane Carla as children in 1961. Both women,…
First Responders

Nathan Lilley

Nathan Lilley is a captain at the Houston Fire Department Emergency Medical Services. Lilley was born in Houston, Texas and remained in the city for most of his life. Lilley…
Volunteers

Rabbi Jill Levy

Rabbi Jill Levy moved to Houston when she was two years old and grew up going to the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center in Meyerland. The JCC plays a vital…
Volunteers

Mary Jo Lagoski

Mary Jo Lagoski is a private practice psychotherapist in Kingwood, where she has lived for the past thirty years. Lagoski's home did not suffer damages from Harvey, but she details…
Harvey Survivors

Perla King

Perla Torres King lived in Baytown before moving to Crosby in 2015. King has experience with tropical storms and hurricanes in the areas, her first being Hurricane Ike. Although her…
Volunteers

James Joseph

James Joseph has lived in Houston for most of his life and is a community organizer in Fifth Ward. He remembers previous hurricanes, like Allison and Ike, and their effects…
Volunteers

Stephen James

Stephen James saw the devasting effects of Hurricane Harvey firsthand and documented his experience through photography. James's career as a CBS affiliate at Houston, Channel 11 prepared him to seek…
Volunteers

Brandi Holmes & Secunda Joseph

Brandi Holmes and Secunda Joseph, both native Houstonians, discuss their experience of Hurricane Harvey. Holmes explains that she is no stranger to floods as her family's neighborhood would flood regularly…
First Responders

HFD Station 49

Firefighters at Station 49 of the Houston Fire Department recount their experiences as first responders during Hurricane Harvey. Chief Bob Branch says that no amount of planning could have prepared…
Harvey Survivors

Dr. Max Heimlich

Dr. Max Heimlich is veterinarian at Stuebner Airline Veterinary Hospital in northwest Houston, which flooded during Hurricane Harvey. Heimlich says that growing up in Ohio, he was not prepared for…
Harvey Survivors

Margie Freeman

Margie Freeman, born in 1951 in New Brighton, Pennsylvania, moved to Houston thirty-two years ago for her husband's job. Freeman recalls her first experience with a hurricane in 1972, with…
Volunteers

State Rep. Harold Dutton

Harold Dutton was born in Fifth Ward and attend Texas Southern University for law school. Dutton remembers Hurricane Carla in 1961 and how it impacted his first days of college.…
Volunteers

Keith Downey

Public History graduate students Allison Sáenz and Karla A. Lira interviewed Fifth Ward resident, Keith Downey as part of the "Resilient Houston: Oral History Project." This project is part of…
Volunteers

Deacon Endra Cosby

Deacon Endra Cosby is the facilities manager at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Third Ward. Cosby grew up in Chicago before moving to Minnesota and then Houston, where his brother…
Harvey Survivors

Renee Cohen

I interviewed Renee Cohen on the morning of 2/21/18 at her rental home in Houston, TX, where she and I interviewed Renee Cohen on the morning of February 21, 2018…
Harvey Survivors

Reverend James Caldwell

For the majority of his life, Reverend James Caldwell has lived in Houston, Texas, where he experienced tropical storms and hurricanes. Caldwell mentions Hurricane Harvey did not discriminate when causing…
Harvey Survivors

Jane Wong

Jane Wong lives in Katy, Texas with her parents, siblings, and grandmother. During Hurricane Harvey, every house in her neighborhood flooded. Wong recalls that her mother was nervous about Harvey…
First Responders

James Sheffield

James Sheffield is part of the Emergency Medical Task Force of Texas, which provides medical support for the Texas Task Force. He first responded to floods in Kingwood in 1994,…
First Responders

Ed Llewellyn

Ed Llewellyn is a fire fighter at Station 6 of the Houston Fire Department. Hi family moved to Houston in 1986 and he has lived in Kingwood ever since. During…
Harvey Survivors

Jose Mendez

Jose Manuel Mendez has lived in Houston, TX since his birth in 1980. In 2008, Mendez experienced a power outage for two weeks due to Hurricane Ike, otherwise his experience…
Harvey Survivors

Elgene Muscat

Elgene Muscat is a retired nurse who moved to Kingwood in 1995 and experienced flooding during Hurricane Harvey. She recalls that her husband told her when they moved to Kingwood…
First Responders

Dr. David Persse

Dr. David Persse is the EMS Medical Director for the Houston Fire Department and the Public Health Authority in Houston. In these capacities he helped to coordinate the response to…
Harvey Survivors

Ana Vazao

Ana Vazao describes her experience after her house flooded during Hurricane Harvey. Vazao talks about how she became concerned about flooding after hearing news reports about the expected impacts in…
Harvey Survivors

Eric Dowding

Eric Dowding lives along Brays Bayou and has flooded three times, including during Hurricane Harvey. Dowding moved to Houston after he met his wife. The first flood he experienced was…
Harvey Survivors

Lynne Boone

Lynne Boone, born in Cleveland, Ohio, moved to Houston, Texas in 1984 and has remained here ever since. Living in Kingwood, Boone experienced the significance of Hurricane Harvey firsthand. In…
Harvey Survivors

John Barr

John Barr has lived in Kingwood for more than thirty years and teaches history at Lone Star College - Kingwood. When he first heard about the potential storm forming in…
Volunteers

Candece Beverly

Candece Beverly is a Houston native who lived in Third Ward near Brays Bayou. Before the Memorial Day flood in 2015, Beverly had never experienced a flood. During the interview,…
Volunteers

Amy Zachmeyer

Amy Zachmeyer was the co-chair of the Houston chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America during the recovery efforts after Hurricane Harvey. Zachmeyer describes how before the storm, the DSA…

Pages

  • About
  • All Voices From the Storm
  • Communities
  • Contact Us
  • Gallery
  • Houston History Magazine
  • Map
  • Topics

Categories

  • Harvey Survivors
  • Volunteers
  • First Responders
  • Home
  • About
  • Map
  • Communities
  • Topics
  • All Voices From the Storm
Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: TextBook by WordPress.com.