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, and she lost everything she owned, including her furniture and two cars. She placed some items in storage before the storm, but the storage company lost her records and never returned her things.
She explains that she never experienced any flooding while living in San Antonio, which she attributes to better drainage systems. After Harvey, Johnson went to stay with a friend in Virginia while she lived for more than a year before returning to Houston. Johnson explains how she believes that God was teaching her a lesson about the value of material possessions after she lost everything in the flood. Johnson tried to apply for federal aid but says that the program had just closed when she returned to Houston. She reached out to Catholic Charities, who proved her with a starter set of furniture. When she heard that Tropical Storm Imelda was coming to Houston and might cause similar flooding to Harvey, Johnson prayed and asked for advice about the storm. She says God told her to stay put and ask for forgiveness. Johnson ends by saying that storms come to teach lessons, and that she has a meeting with the pastor at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church to talk more about her faith.
Interviewee: Debra Johnson
Interview Date: October 4, 2019
Interview Location: WALIPP Senior Center
Interviewer: Ursula Renee McKinnis
INTERVIEWER: Today is October 4, 2019. I’m Ursula Renee, and I’m here with Ms. Debra Johnson at WALIPP Senior Residence to talk about Hurricane Harvey for the University of Houston Center for Public History’s Resilient Houston: Documenting Hurricane Harvey project.
URM: To start, could you please state your name? And tell me a little bit about yourself, such as when and where you were born and where you grew up.
DJ: Okay, my name is Debra Johnson — Debra E. Johnson. I was raised in San Antonio, Texas. I came here like about ’89 to join — well, to — you know, be here for my mom, because she was here at the time. She’s now deceased, but I stayed here for her. Because I knew she was sickly, you know. So I said, “Well, I’m going to move close.” So I moved on southwest side, which is where she stayed — always had [0:01:00]. And so she say, “Well, come stay in the apartment complex where I stay.” I said, “Okay.” You know, okay, no problem. I go over there, and I stayed there like about seven years until she passed away. Once she passed away, I just — I had to leave from over there. I moved further out like Beechnut, Cook, in that area. Okay, and the apartments that I stayed in were flooded.
They — I boarded my windows. My mom came before then. Before she passed away, she came. She say, “The storm is coming, so we going — we’re going to go to San Antonio.” I said, “No, God say stay here. Stay here. You going to be okay.” But anyway, she said, “Well, you want to go?” I look in the backseat. She had her TV on a pillow. But anyway, so I just thought I was [0:02:00] going to stay. I boarded up my apartment. And I actually panicked. Because I took the majority of my stuff, and I put it in — in fact, I took everything and put it in the storage. Well, at the storm, they were telling me, “Well, you know, it’s flooded out there where your stuff is, so what are you going to do? And it’s flooding — it’s coming this way.” So I was like, “Okay, I need to call somebody.”
So I called a girlfriend of mine who lived in Virginia. And so I told — I asked — she asked me to come there and stay and get myself back together. I said, “Girl, I have lost everything. I’ve lost three TVs. I’ve lost washer, dryer, furniture — beautiful furniture, vases, lamps, all kinds of nice stuff that my mom had and given me.” And so — and I had two cars. I had a Lexus [0:03:00], and I had a Nissan Sentra. I lost both of them.
So I’m like, “Okay.” I just — I was devastated, because I’ve never been in nothing like this before. I didn’t have to swim nowhere. I didn’t have to walk through water, because I got away before it got worse. It got worse after I got out of here though. But I came back to get my things, and the U-Haul, I think it was, said that they didn’t — they couldn’t find my records. How you can’t find my records and I’ve paid for it? Well, I never did get it back. I think totally I lost everything. But there’s a lesson in all of this. Even though the storm is heavy, but there’s always a moment that you just have to stop and take time and be calm about some things. I knew I [0:04:00] wanted to just go — I tried to — you know, I was devastated so that my mind — I’m like, “I’ve worked for all this stuff, and now it’s gone just like that.”
But I cried, you know, for a while, because I didn’t have anything. I didn’t have anywhere to go. I had to go out of state to live with someone. And then I came back. And once I came back, I tried to begin — you know, pick up from where I left off. But it’s been a hard and rough road. After you have that kind of devastation in your life, where the water takes over your furniture and your everything, well, it’s not a good, great feeling. It’s just not. And the only thing I could do was actually pray and rely on God, because that’s all I could do. That’s all I could do. I have — I’ve never in my entire life [0:05:00] have lost everything at one time.
URM: You said that you grew up in San Antonio, so you never experienced anything like that in San Antonio?
DJ: Never.
URM: No heavy flooding or tropical storms?
DJ: Never.
URM: Not like here in Houston.
DJ: Uh-huh, their sewer lines are way better. They don’t have the overflooding that — it be floody but not like this here. It’s devastating here. You go under the bridge by U of H and you might go under if you don’t be very careful, which is what happened to some friends of mine. And they had to swim. And some had to walk they way out of the water. But it’s hard. It’s bad here, because we don’t have the proper sewer lines to suck in the water and take it away instead of allowing it to build and build and build and build. And so that’s what I really think they should be working — they working on the highways and everything else all good [0:06:00], but we need sewer lines where the water will not overflow like it does.
Here — now, this is the only side of town that does not really flood. It floods, but not like southwest, northeast, northwest in that area. That really floods.
URM: In the incident where your mom packed her television in the car and wanted to go to San Antonio, but you spoke with a friend in Virginia. What did you all do? Did you decide not to go?
DJ: I decided not to go. She went.
URM: Oh, she went?
DJ: She went.
URM: With her television.
DJ: But they got caught. They ran into a storm. They ran into the storm. She called me. “Do you know we ran –?” I said, “I told you. God said, “Be still. Watch your salvation.” But you didn’t be still. So anyway, they went on [0:07:00] to San Antonio. And when I stayed here — and I just stayed here prayed and prayed and said, “God, what do you want me to do?” Well, even though I left and went to Virginia, it was for the ministry. And so that’s what made it much easier for me, although I didn’t want to leave without my stuff. But then there’s a lesson just like I said. Stuff does not matter. Your life matters.
URM: Often, when people evacuate, the idea is that you’re going to return to your home. So how many of your things were you able to pack with you to take to Virginia, assuming you would come back?
DJ: A few clothes.
URM: Just a few?
DJ: Just a few clothes. I couldn’t take everything with — you know, nothing with me, because I had big heavy valuable stuff in the — you know, and I couldn’t — I wasn’t able to take nothing [0:08:00] but the few clothes that I had. And I went on.
URM: And a few things you were able to put in storage?
DJ: No, those were destroyed — everything.
URM: The storage facility was destroyed. So when you moved to Virginia, how long were you there?
DJ: I stayed there at least a year and a half.
URM: Wow, uh-huh.
DJ: It’s a beautiful country. It’s nice to wake up and look at deer in your front yard with snow, although I said, “Deer meat, oh, yummy.” But it’s a beautiful country, and I loved it. And I took my job from here to there, so I was able to travel with my job. And I worked at Walgreens at the time. And it was pretty fair. I couldn’t find an apartment, so I had to rent me a room there. And [0:09:00] I began to start building up stuff. But once I got — I got kind of homesick. I didn’t look — you know, it wasn’t nothing about the country. It was a beautiful country. And the people were pretty nice. You didn’t have too many — you had a side — like every other town has a side of town you better stay away from. That was one of them — was there. And I got away from that area, and I moved in a very nice area where it was homes. And I lived in a nice house. It was a two-story. I even had my own restroom. But I began to buy things, you know, little by little. But when I got ready to come back, I just left it. I gave it to my — I can say my help. She was helping me like a case worker — to help me. And I gave it to her. I gave a lot of stuff to her [0:10:00], yeah.
URM: That was nice. So you missed home, and you decided to return to Texas. Did you consider moving back to San Antonio? Or you just felt like Houston was home?
DJ: Houston is where I be. I love me some Houston, although I had — really, I had looked at the idea of moving to Fort Worth, because I like little country towns. And they told me, “Oh, no, Fort Worth is not like that no more.” So I just said, “Well, I’ll just stay here.” And you know, I really like Houston. It’s just that when we get, you know, catastrophe, we get catastrophe, you know. But that’s — but I really believe that’s because God is trying us to show us where the wrong areas are in our lives. I don’t — you know, I don’t mean to get into that kind of stuff, but that’s what I believe. That’s truly what I believe.
And God was teaching me [0:11:00] a lesson at the same time about stuff. You don’t worry about stuff, because — like I was able to give it to you then, I’m more than able to give it to you again. So that was my motto, you know, to keep me alive, to keep me from drowning in my own sorrow and my own tears, saying, you know, “Oh, woe is me. I’ve lost everything.” Some people do it. I refuse to give in. I refuse.
URM: Were there any family or friends that could help you get back on your feet or maybe an agency like FEMA or something like the Red Cross? Were they helpful at all?
DJ: No. No, FEMA had just closed down their program when I got back. She said, “I’m so sorry. We just closed it yesterday.” So I’m like, “Oh, my god. Can’t you make an exception.” She say, “No, ma’am. I’m so sorry.” And so [0:12:00], she say, “Try this, that, and the other.” And I tried Catholic charities. They gave me a sofa, loveseat, dining room set, and a bed, which started me off.
URM: Oh, okay, that’s great. In moving back, you lived in southwest Houston. Did you consider moving to a different part of town? How did you determine which part of town you would live in when you returned?
DJ: Well, I listened to people that I knew about that knew — about different areas. And I went into the area over there by Polk and Cullen. In that area, it’s a lot of homes back in — mostly Hispanic people in there. But it’s such a quiet and peaceful area. So I said, “Oh, I want to go over there. I already know this side of town. I already know southwest, so I want to go way north. So I’m not doing that [0:13:00].” So I say, “Okay, I’m just going to go over here.” So I decided to move in a one-bedroom apartment over there off of Telephone and Polk. And that’s where I started off.
URM: We recently experienced Tropical Storm Imelda, which flooded in some areas. What did you think when you first heard that –?
DJ: That it was coming?
URM: That it was on the way, another possible flooding event. What did you think?
DJ: I prayed. I heard it, but I wanted to hear from God. And I said, “God, is this going to kill us? Is this the time that we get — you said, ‘No more flooding.’ You said you’d never do that again, so I know you’re not ending the world. So what is it that you’re teaching us?” And what He said was to me — the Spirit [0:14:00] said to me was that we don’t pray enough. We don’t bring enough of our problems to Him. So I’m like, “Okay, okay, so what do you want me to do?” He said, “Peace. Be still.” I heard that just as clear as you’re talking to me. So I said, “Okay, I’m going to be still just like you said.”
So I just boarded up everything and got still. I got quiet. I start reading more. I start praying and, you know, asking for forgiveness for everyone that had done Him wrong, you know, and didn’t realize what they were doing.” But you know, the storms are to bring us closer to God, because, see, we have to pray for real-real then. Because you don’t know what’s going to happen to you, you know. And all I know, He said, “Be still.” And first, I got still. Then I let my mama come tell me, “We’re leaving. You want to go [0:15:00]?” Nuh-uh. You know, but still, I ended up taking everything and putting it in the storage and leaving.
URM: For Imelda, did you experience any damage or any flooding in your area?
DJ: In that area, yes — in that area.
URM: Imelda? After Harvey? We just experienced Imelda. Did you get some flooding in the area where you live now?
DJ: Now?
URM: Uh-huh.
DJ: Here?
URM: Imelda that we had maybe less than a month ago? The flooding we had, you didn’t experience a lot of flooding?
DJ: Not a lot.
URM: Not a lot?
DJ: Nuh-uh.
URM: Okay, that’s good. That’s good.
DJ: But there aren’t — like I said, there are different areas on the eastside that you cannot — dare not to go and challenge, you know, like I said, over there by the University of Houston, going up under there. And going to the Eastwood Transit Center, it’s low. And when they tell you, “Don’t go,” don’t go. When you’re over there by 610 and 59 [0:16:00], under that bridge, it gets high. So I mean, you know, the only thing people should do is listen, pay attention, and obey. That’s all we can do.
URM: Have you recently lost any power?
DJ: Oh, yeah, we lost power. I had candles — a bunch of candles. And —
URM: How long was the electricity out?
DJ: They were out — it as a long time.
URM: A week or a few days?
DJ: It was like a long — a whole entire night and day.
URM: Okay, uh-huh.
DJ: I think it was a couple of days. And some kind of way, they got some kind of — I forget their big box that they had. And they turned everything — generator. And they turned everything back on [0:17:00]. But it was scary, because when the city gets dark — I don’t know if you ever felt this. But when Harvey came, the city was like a ghost town. It was like a ghost town. And it was an eerie feeling. It was like God had came down and just snatched everybody up. I was like, “Oh, God. Is this how it’s going to feel? Take me first.” But it was — it was not a good feeling having to use candles. I couldn’t cook. I had to eat like Vienna sausages out of the can.
URM: So you prepared like people do? Go get water?
DJ: Water and tuna and stuff like that. It was kind of hard, but I did it. And then, like I said, I called my girlfriend. She said, “Come out of there. Come on. You know, let’s [0:18:00] do this together.”
URM: Oh, that’s great that you had somewhere to go and someone on your side.
DJ: Uh-huh.
URM: Is there anything else that we haven’t discussed that you might want to add?
DJ: No, we just — you know, when these storms come, like I said, they come to teach us something. It’s a story behind every storm. And sometime, it devastates more — one more than the other, because you’re paying too much attention to what you have than paying attention to the person that made to you — not the person, but the being that made you. And if you don’t give time to God, it happens like that. You’ve got to take your mind and place it in a different area, and be above the things that are happening to you. He said — Peter was walking on the water until he looked down and saw the water moving. So he started sinking. Then he asked Jesus [0:19:00] to save him. Well, of course, that’s what we need to do, because we — a lot of us are Peters walking on water.
URM: That’s great. You said you did missionary work? Or you just worked with the church?
DJ: No, I am Wheeler Avenue.
URM: Oh, Wheeler? Okay.
DJ: Uh-huh.
URM: I’m right down the street.
DJ: And I’m getting ready to have a meeting with my pastor, because I have a calling.
URM: Oh, okay. Well, that’s wonderful.
DJ: Thank you.
URM: Alright, Ms. Johnson, thank you so much for speaking with me.
DJ: You’re welcome. God bless you.
URM: Thank you. [0:19:33]
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