Doris Yudelvich

Alberto Wilson III:
Today is Thursday, March 8, 2018, and we are in the Meyerland community, in the southwest of the city of Houston, with Mrs. Doris Yudelevich. The interview that follows will be part of the Resilient Houston project of the Center for Public History, at the University of Houston, and will relate Mrs. Yudelevich’s experience during the storm, and will touch on some other topics. My name is Alberto Wilson III and as a representative of the University of Houston, we begin the interview.
AW:
So, to begin on the topic of Harvey and the floods, I understand that you were alone during the flood? Or at least your husband was not there.
Doris Yudelevich:
Yes, [but] I was not alone, I was with my daughter and my son-in-law.
AW:
The question is, did this affect the way in which you confronted the situation as you saw it develop in the city, in your community, in your home? Also, how did you live through those days?
DY:
Of course, it had an effect, because my husband, we lived thirty-something years together in the same home. He is the one that has access to all the documents, things related to accounting, the accounts. When my daughter and my son-in-law moved homes a week before Harvey, they were waiting to get their home, so their worry was also that they were complicating their life by moving to my home, the responsibility of having them in their home, //was one of the causes that had me very worried,//1 but I realized I had to take the responsibility because my husband was not there. So, it was a difficult process, difficult. A process between, what should be done? What should not be done? What should be saved? What should not be saved? Why are we living through this situation again? Situations of injustice but one has to face it and has to draw strength and say, “enough”; it is already happening, you have to see how to live through it.
AW:
Could you explain step by step, how did you all live through the storm? How does it begin? What happens? Etc.
DY:
On Saturday, the 26th [of August], I typically work. The news said not to go out, so I didn’t go out because I didn’t know what was going to happen during the day, if I was going to be able to return home or not. So we tried to prepare some food, waiting for a hurricane. One expects wind, no electricity. So we took care of the food, of gathering some of the home’s furniture, putting up the patio furniture so that they don’t break any windows if there is wind; thinking of a normal hurricane. What does one worry about? In the nearby trees that could fall, and we took those precautions: to have water, food and to pick up anything that was on the ground. But when the day progressed, around 8 or 9 at night, we saw that the hurricane was moving from Houston toward Corpus Christi, and we relaxed a bit, but we began to take precautions outside with the pool. [Making sure] that the water was at a normal level and to cover with sandbags what we had in the entrance. At 11 or 12 at night we noticed that there was water outside in the streets. The water was rising but at 12 at night I said, “I’m going to go rest for a bit.” I was a bit worried, but I tried to sleep. My daughter and son-in-law covered the house with towels, with sheets they covered the entrance, the doors, and the windows. They didn’t sleep and woke me up at 3 or 4 in the morning [because] water was starting to enter. There we realized that the hurricane was here and the water was coming.
We called the firefighters and they told us to shut the electricity [because] it was dangerous to have electricity. [Later] we didn’t know how to move around, where to go. We called a neighbor to know how they were, and they said, “we are also flooded.” They have a second floor and they didn’t invite us to go over. //That reaction was a bit frustrating, they’re not people who we have a social life with or something like that, they’re people that live on the block.//2 At 5 in the morning we said, “we have to get out, where do we go?” That part was, let’s say, //paused//, very chilling because one sees that the water is rising.
My next-door neighbor has a house with construction on top of the garage. They’re fixing the house, remodeling, because it’s up for sale. No furniture [because] no one is living in it. The house was empty except for the stage furniture. We communicated with her around 5 in the morning, an elderly lady, she says, “I don’t have the keys.” I said, “well someone must have them; how can we enter your home? The only way [option] that we have is to stay in your garage. We need something dry.” The poor thing communicated with the real estate, and her son, finally called us around 6 in the morning and gave us the code to be able to enter. Water was already a little bit above our knees.
AW:
Inside your home?
DY:
Inside and outside. We went out with my daughter and son-in-law with nothing in hand, [only] a wallet, the computer, and we went next door – a couple of water bottles. Once there we went upstairs and shut the electricity for safety because the water was rising. //And we stayed there in a piece of carpet sitting on the floor.//3 Suddenly I remembered and thought about my other neighbor who is just on the other side of her house, and said, “what must be happening with him?” Because they were also in the same situation as us. Then I called and he says, “we are on the kitchen counter,” I told him, “come over.” He says, “will it be fine?” and I tell him, “no one will care whether you come or not.” Without knowing the other neighbor, they came with their dog and cat; I can’t stand cats //laughs// so we left the cat in the closet. [Now it was several of us] and with a dog and a cat, the poor dog was completely wet. Let say, it was also worrying about others. In that sense, up until today, I feel well. That while going through that experience [we managed to] think about what was happening to the other [our neighbor], with everyone else, and [how] we could provide some help.
Well we were [shut-in] all of Sunday, the rain continued and continued, and [we thought] when will the rain stop? And we saw how the water kept rising outside. We weren’t able to see the street until my son-in-law went up to the balcony and jumped to see what was happening in the street. We were //restarts// It was a construction they had made above the garage, added to the house, we only saw the kitchen part. And [that is why] we didn’t know much about what was happening outside – no television, no communication, not even radio, nor telephone. I had [the telephone] charged but it dies often, and I tried not to use it.
My husband was trying to communicate to know what was happening, while [he] was in Chile. We [also] began receiving international calls. My family lives in England and all my cousins started trying [to call]. “Houston underwater,” for them seeing the news they didn’t know if they could help or what was going on. My son lives in New York and also said, “You all have to see what you will do. You have to register. You have to call so they can rescue you.” [But] no one knew if they could come or how that process was going to continue.
On Sunday night we had to rest, and I tried to sleep. I took a pill for back pain because I had a sciatica that weekend and I took the opportunity to take it. But it was exhausting, overwhelming, and exhausting that one begins to think, when is this going to end? Until where? How many things could have been lost or ruined? The truth is that one is materialistic. You don’t think I’m fine and nothing happened to me, [no] you think about your things [because] what you have has cost you. So, there is a //difficult//4 feeling process.
On the other end one says, “what a shame.” Houston [being] such a beautiful and adaptable city [where] one decided to come why must one have to go through this. [You know] I thought – I don’t know if I should say it off the record – but it came to mind [that] this city has worried itself a lot (I mean the governments and the governors) about decorating itself very beautifully. [There’s] very beautiful freeways, very beautiful buildings, many towers, but where is the infrastructural part? If this is happening and the streets and the neighborhoods get flooded it means that there is some failure. [There is] a structural failure [of which] they have not worried about. Then I thought and said, “this is how the new rich who show the most beautiful things on the outside, but on the inside have no values.” In my mind it is a parallel [and] I understand it very clearly.
AW:
In that case it’s a fa�ade, the part that we see is the beautiful part…
DY:
But you don’t know what’s behind all of that. The truth is that there are many problems in this city when it comes to that [and] or they have worried enough [to] take the necessary measures.
AW:
Your story is very horrifying, chilling, and intense. [Something] that I find interesting [is that] millions of people have their Harvey story, and for certain people it was five or six days that they were home, but someone like you had water up to their knees. The story that is told now [here I should have made clear that I was speaking about the media] does it reflect what you lived through?
DY:
I don’t understand the question.
AW:
The story that is told about Harvey reflects what you lived through, or was what you lived through different?
DY:
It reflects what I lived through, in my mind I have minute by minute and there is no way to forget what I lived through. How we left the house, getting to my neighbor’s house, sitting waiting to see what happened, the anxiety, the frustration of not being able to do anything, [and] the worries in my mind.
AW:
For you Harvey begins from Saturday to Sunday night, you have already told me that you all spent Sunday shut-in, Monday…
DY:
Shut-in…completely.
AW:
Something that is widely celebrated about Harvey is the manner in which information flowed [here I should have said spread] and everyone what connected. What do you feel now [when] thinking that, how you have told me, you all were disconnected?
DY:
Gratitude – I have to say – thanks to my daughter and my son-in-law they had the computer [where] they charged the phone and the social relationships – the net – that my daughter has was what saved us. She would communicate with her friends and they would tell her about the rain and what was happening, toward where people were moving, what we could do to be rescued, the helicopters, etc. She was in touch with all her social net and her friends were worried.
If I had not been with them it would have been horrible. I would not have been able to communicate and know what was happening in the world. She was my informant, she kept us updated on information.
AW:
I would like to return for a bit to what you mentioned a few minutes ago which was the criticism that you [offered] toward the government. Something that we have all thought is why does something like this continue to happen? If you allow me, I would like to ask you, I know that Harvey is not the first time you flood.
DY:
Memorial Weekend.
AW:
In comparison, how was Harvey different? And obviously you have told me about what happened [here I should have added: during the storm]. Afterward did it bring about different stresses? Some things that perhaps you didn’t live through the first time that you are now living through.
DY:
What happened Memorial Weekend was heavy rain in a neighborhood. I believe that the rain got stuck in the neighborhood of Meyerland [and] nobody understands what happened that night. But in the morning we woke up with water but it stopped raining. I mean it was eight in the morning and you could start taking action. You were in your home and you didn’t have to leave and I did not leave my home during Memorial Weekend. There was no need to. At 8 in the morning I started to see what we could do. But this [Harvey] was very long. Many days.
AW:
It was a marathon in that aspect.
DY:
It was too many days and it was very long and I was not in my home. Then it was something like, what to do? It’s Monday and it’s still raining. Monday night again no one sleeps and we didn’t have a place to stay nor what to eat. The next day, Tuesday morning if it weren’t for the communication that we had on the inside [here she meant to say on the outside], they told us that it’s going to stop raining between 8 and 9 [in the morning]. The rain is going to diminish a bit we said well it’s time to go out and walk, and go toward a friend that lives 10 or 12 blocks away. She had not flooded [being] in Bellaire. And that is the reaction that good friends had [because] people were worried. That is our community. People were very worried of those who had flooded and how to help.
That day [Tuesday] we walked and we left at about 8:30. Someone informed [my daughter] that the rain was going to stop for a little bit [and] that it was the time to leave. We went to the street and we walked all through Chimney Rock with water that seemed like a river. In Bellaire we go to the house of our friend who was taking us in. There we were able to shower, change clothes, we had breakfast and coffee. It is then that one realized what support is. Without support we would not have been able to… //restarts// I would not be telling this story with such calm. The emotional and economic help one receives [makes] the friendships one has grow. It is something one… //restarts// One is living through misfortune but on the other side is receiving a friendship and a support that one has to… //receive it in an impressive way//5 and it’s like “wow.”
AW:
I believe [that] it’s one of the themes that is spoken of a lot, of the way in which communities gave support without having to know each other, everyone gave each other a hand.
DY:
Our community reacted in a way [that] I don’t believe there is no other community like it. I start to think and say [thought was not finished] When I see people who live outside of Houston [because] one has friends that live in different places in the United States. When one mentions all of this, they say, “you all have a community that doesn’t exist elsewhere.” It doesn’t exist.
Now, is it that the Jewish community is very concentrated? [Because] we are very concentrated in the zone of Bellaire and Meyerland. Now a consequence of Harvey is that people have spread out. Which is the sad part. Because one felt that one had a support, that one lived within something important.
AW:
What you are saying makes an excellent transition to the following questions. You mentioned your house and belongings and hard work, I would like to know a little more about your backstory. I know that you are a native of Chile, if you can tell me a little about your childhood and what brought you here to Houston, in the 80s?
DY:
I was born in Chile and I am the fourth in a family of five. I think I was born in one of the best times this world has had, I was born in 1949. And we grew up very well, Chile is a country [where] people lived normally, we never grew up with the fear that something will happen to us, that they would assault us, or rob us, of bad people. Compared to today [where] children cannot go outside, we were lucky to be able to go on buses and [know] that no one was going to harm us. [Of] playing in the streets and nobody was going to hurt us. We had a very good education, good schools, good teachers. In other words, one’s childhood was a wholesome childhood, in which one says, “no longer exists.” One went out to the street at six or seven and they would send us to the corner to shop in a store. One spoke with the shopkeeper and no one was afraid [of] something happening to us. That helps one’s personality as well, to grow up without fear [and] without fears.
Another nice thing about living in Chile [was] the culture. I come from an international family, my mother was born in England and my father in Argentina, both with Jewish roots. [They raised us] with many values and very similar to the way they grew up and they passed that on to us. What else can I tell you?
In 1980 I married in Chile. [There] we had a very nice community [and] I always look back and say, “how lucky to have lived those years, how lucky to have been born in Chile.” It was [not] a country of many differences between classes, there was not that racial problem that one hears about nowadays. [It was] a middle-class country [where] everyone looked at each other the same [and] one never felt that you belonged or did not belong, [that] did not exist because it never had those questions.
Well we came [because] in Chile the political problem began. First we had the problem of Salvador Allende, a socialist communist problem [and] the military coup took place. With the military coup one did not know what was going to happen, because there was not the usual freedom. Those changes were Chile’s ogre – the drastic changes. The political change has a big effect, and actually the Jewish community when Salvador Allende left half of the community left. Left their home. People that had been in concentration camps and had come from Europe, they did not want to live through that experience [again], and left Chile. There the community shrunk.
AW:
1973, correct?
DY:
That was ’73, yes. Well the election was in ’73 or when was the coup?
AW:
The coup.
DY:
The coup, the election was in ’70. The coup, when Allende left many people left. With the coup many people escaped because they were involved with socialist politics. There was no safety. ’80 came and there was uncertainty in Chile, in the economic side of things. Much uncertainty. My husband had his factory and imports from China began and the economic side of things [began] to falter a bit. Coincidently my dad was sick and had to come to Los Angeles for treatment since the doctor that could give him treatment was there. I was pregnant and traveled to Los Angeles and while I was there I said, “hmm…to return to a country with a dictator [where] one does not know what will happen?” One was a bit more democratic [and] we evaluated the situation of returning or not returning, and we decided to not return.
AW:
For stability?
DY:
For stability. But we did not do well financially because we left many things there. It was not time to sell everything. So we have worked hard to have what we have. So Harvey affected us [because] one is already at an age in which one wants stability. One is no longer 40 years old [to] start again, or 50 years old. No, one is already at an age where one wants peace, wants to enjoy a bit what one worked for. The fruit.
AW:
Something that is fascinating to me personally is seeing where people in certain places [in] Latin America end up in the United States. And I would like to ask you: you mention that your father travels to Los Angeles to see a specialist, do you arrive to Los Angeles or arrive to Houston? And the question is, are there migratory links between Chile and Houston? How did you arrive to Houston?
DY:
How do I arrive to Houston? I arrive to Los Angeles while married and pregnant and my son was born in Los Angeles. My sister…// let’s see, how did she arrive to Houston? //6 my sister’s brother-in-law was in Houston, working for Shell. He came from Chile with a contract with Shell as a chemical engineer. She decided to come to Houston. We were in Los Angeles and to be honest we didn’t have //let’s say//7 we had to get residency. I as a Chilean with the political issues in Chile we decided that we did not want to stay [as] illegals. [So] we would come and go every six months on a visa. My husband didn’t have much desire to stay like this having to come and go.
Someone suggested to him why not go to Israel. So we went to Israel, and we were in Israel a year and a half. I did not get used to it. The truth is that it was very hard for me, and I had problems with my degree. I studied statistics. So in Israel I had to take some classes all over again, and it was difficult for me with the language. I said, “I’m not going to make it here.” I came to visit my sister in Houston and said, “look what a paradise.” So I convinced my husband and we came to Houston to live. We came to Houston because there was family. So we stayed here, and my other daughter was born and we formed a family and began to know the community. We were well received, at first we were very, very well received. [That] gave us such a joy, [and] we never regret coming.
AW:
So you all came to Houston in the mid-1980s.
DY:
In 1984, the end of ’84.
AW:
Following with this line of investigation, how did you all arrive to Meyerland?
DY:
How did I arrive to Meyerland? Well, we first rented a home on Fondren, in Southwest. A year and a half later my sister decided to buy a home and bought a home in Meyerland. And well two years later, three years of renting we first decided to expand our job options. I also tried to see if I could figure something about valuating my degree and no, it was also costly [because] I had to make up some classes and our economic side of things was not very firm [in those years]. We had to work. My husband and I have tastes and we like to live comfortably, [but] we don’t care sacrificing when we see we can accomplish something.
My family in Chile had a business selling apparel. By that time my brother and [the] whole family left Chile. My brother went to Costa Rica because his wife (is a pharmaceutist) was working in research with a professor in Puerto Rico [Puerto Rico is a mistake, she meant to say Costa Rica]. [There] he opened a boys’ clothing business, and he told me, “hey, why don’t you all open a clothing business. You all are good sellers.” [I said] “ok, why not?” He recommended I go to the Mexican neighborhood in Harrisburg. I loved it. I could speak my language [and] I felt very well. Yes, we opened the business in 1985… [corrects herself], 1986. My daughter was born in ’85 and we opened the business in ’86. And I can tell you that that was my third child [speaking of the business]. My daughter was a year old and I worked from 10 am to 8 pm daily. I was lucky that my mother lived with us. My dad died [and] we were together here in Houston, and my mom came with us and helped me with my children. [And] we were able to dedicate ourselves 100% to working. We moved forward. After a couple of years, what year did we buy the house? 1987, 1988, around ’89.
AW:
So there were four years in which you all were in Houston but had not arrived to Meyerland.
DY:
Actually, in 1992 we arrived to Meyerland. Yes.
AW:
You spoke of your childhood, of a very beautiful [and] wholesome time where your parents instilled in you all very good principles. Tell me more about Meyerland. What did it offer you, your husband, your family? I understand that your business is here? Or one of the branches is here.
DY:
In Meyerland no.
AW:
What did you all find in Meyerland? For you to be able to say that you feel very at home here in the community.
DY:
The Jewish community.
Much of the Jewish community in the block where we are, that neighbor is Jewish, that other one is Jewish. People’s level [is] much line with one’s, my people. One feels like one belongs. Yes? It’s not like you arrive to a neighborhood and you say, “oh I don’t believe I feel it in this neighborhood.” It can happen, right? There are places where you feel [that] people don’t consider you, they look down on you. A very normal neighborhood [speaking of Meyerland], very middle-class. With children similar in age to your children. Easy access to schools, close to the synagogues, close to the JCC, the Jewish Community Center. You are living within your community. With what’s yours. That is the safety that Meyerland gave us. That my children had their friends there, so if we had to take them to someone’s home it was within a distance of a mile, two miles. They could communicate and have a social life. Our social life was there.
AW:
For someone that is learning, I understand that there are many branches within Judaism? Could you explain them to me [here I should have said delineate]
DY:
Yes. There are several types of sects, there’s the Orthodox synagogue who are the most religious [and] follow the strictest norms. The Conservative synagogue [where] you follow as a Jew without them requiring all the norms that Judaism has imposed, [like] the Orthodox, but they accept you without criticism [and] allow you to live your life. If you are kosher or not fully kosher that’s fine, if you drive on the sabbath that’s fine. In other synagogues you can’t drive [and] you have to eat one hundred percent kosher, you can’t dress a certain way they have other rules. [And] there’s the Reform Jews who also have a synagogue in Meyerland. All three synagogues are in Meyerland. The Reform Jews are a bit more advanced [and] put aside what have been the norms of Judaism, but they feel Jewish and live with their Jewish values [which] is important. The Jewish religion is very open. That’s the beauty. It will demand of you according to the path you seek, but at the end they are human values. Who are we humans? We have to care about each other, care about charity, [and] care about being one.
AW:
I ask because I understand that depending on how one identifies oneself within Judaism it will influence where their children go to school, and what they do on certain days.
DY:
Yes, because if you are not Orthodox, your child can play soccer on Saturday, or can play a sport. But if you are Orthodox on Saturday, which is Shabbat (the holy day), your children cannot play sports. They will go to the synagogue and then you will dedicate yourself to the day of prayer. So of course, there are differences, [and] that is why one looks for the school that suits one’s lifestyle.
AW:
I am very interested in conversations [about] assimilation and incorporation into life here in the United States. They are conversations that take place in my family and it is an important topic within immigrant families. How has this process happened for you and your family?
DY:
Assimilation in what sense?
AW:
How is it that you have incorporated into life in the United States?
DY:
It was difficult at first. At the beginning I had a few years where I did not criticize but saw things from a different point of view //laughs//. I laughed a little [as] I found that the American was very structured in certain things. I can’t say the word //laughs// very gringo-like. My husband and I try to educate them with our Chilean customs, with our Chilean values. The fact [that] they did not grow to be selfish, I find that the American educates their child to be a bit selfish [and] we tried for that not to happen with our children. We were adapting, of course one is adapting, but we made them speak Spanish in our house. We sacrificed the language because it would have been easier to learn the language with them, but they learned the language with us [and] we always kept them in touch with the family in Chile so that they did not lack the family aspect. We [have] a lot of family in Chile, [we are] a big family [and] not here, here we have our friends who are our second family – without a doubt. We never felt we were lacking because we had a close family. But we kept that aspect, in that part perhaps we did not assimilate with American life.
AW:
For you, balancing the Chilean, Jewish, and migratory aspects may be something very easy because it is your life. For me it is something very new. What is the life of a Latino, who is also a Jew, who is also an immigrant? How do you balance these things?
DY:
We are all human. And all…//restarts// if you have and maintain you values, it’s all a common factor. I never thought of it in that way, but I find [that] as human beings we have our life experiences and one uses emotional intelligence. How to educate your children, how one balances those things makes it normal – it comes to be something normal. You want to keep your Jewish values that are important. For me they are very important. Living in a country that allows you to do that one hundred percent is what’s wonderful about this country. That freedom of being able to express yourself, of being able to tell your children, you are Jews and don’t be afraid to say it, or they can attend a Jewish school. That is something fortunate that perhaps many countries do not have. And the Chilean part, well it is because one always comes from one’s country [and] one cannot leave what one is. Like they say [it’s] a small piece of what’s ours – it’s what’s yours. You were born with what you come with. They cannot take it away, it’s born within one.
AW:
To intertwine these two themes that we have that on the one hand is Harvey, the floods [and] the waters, and on the other hand is your backstory, Meyerland, how did the links that exist within the community help with contingency plans that were seen during those days?
DY:
Without the support of the community we could not have been able to overcome the effects of Harvey. First of all, in the commercial aspect, our business was closed for almost two weeks. We had to pay rent [but] we lost the vehicles which were necessary things at the moment. We were left [without] cash and we could [not] afford payments [because] we work with checks by date. We have bills that [have to] be paid, [if] your payment is past due your business does not work [and if] you don’t have the cash flow in the business how does it work? You can lose all the credit in two weeks, in a month to the ground. They close your bank accounts, [and] you get the checks that have been signed to date. We drew upon the community for help, and they responded to a certain measure. And the same thing friends. //I believe that we are indebted with certain friends and family because they supported us unconditionally.//8 If we had not had [that] I believe that I would not be sitting here speaking with you.
AW:
In some way you are telling me that you lived through the flood not only as a private citizen but also as a businesswoman.
DY:
My worries, because my husband was not around, first of all [it was] what must have happened at the business? We didn’t have access to see what was happening over there. Nobody knew for a week, until Thursday, I didn’t know whether it had flooded or not. If there was water or not. What does one do? One feels that the home [and] the business [and] that’s it. You’re on the street. Right? Economically you can end up on the street. Something like that can affect you and who helps you? Nobody. We unexpectedly received very, very good support.
AW:
How soon did your husband arrive?
DY:
He arrived on Sunday, a week after Harvey, he wasn’t able to come. There were no flights.
AW:
And in what state does he find you?
DY:
When he arrived we had to prepare him psychologically. We had already taken steps at home, I had already taken steps with handymen to start doing things for me. Living through the previous experience of Memorial Weekend, companies really take advantage of saying, “hey you have to do this, this, and this,” and they charge you, they rob you. Because that happens, the second time around you learn what decisions to make and when to make them. So we had to prepare him psychologically.
AW:
The million-dollar question for us in this project, the conversations that happened between you and your husband and the residents of the community about staying or not staying, and why? And you already said that one of the disappointing things that have happened after Harvey is that certain Jewish residents of Meyerland have decided to leave.
DY:
I don’t blame them. Each one has their reasons, no one can blame [because] people have to //restarts// Cannot live…there are people that are not ready to live through this experience a third time. There are people who this has happened to three times and this could have been the fourth one. So each one has their different economic situation. Each person will see what is convenient and what is not convenient, I can live through this again, I cannot live through this again. I have a sister [and] my brother-in-law live a block away from us and she also flooded. My brother-in-law paralyzed. He paralyzed, he couldn’t think. He saw his home and no one convinced him of bringing a handyman to cut the walls. And my sister decided that she wants to sell her home the way it is and go live at an apartment and rent. She doesn’t want to know anything about that house. And says, “I cannot live through this experience again.”
In those moments nobody [can] blame anyone. I say it’s a shame that the Jewish community becomes spread out, that it expands to other neighborhoods. But thank God we have the Jewish Community Center and the synagogues are in their place, in other words it will always be the center. Now, in our case, we analyzed the possibility of raising our house, so expensive. If we could demolish and build, it would be through our own means. And we said, “ok, we’ll fix it and we’ll return and beg to God that it doesn’t happen again. Each situation is very personal. One cannot criticize, we must accept what each person decides and wish them better luck.
AW:
Almost six or seven months have passed, in the last few months how has the ghost of Harvey followed you? Your family? Your loved ones?
DY:
//Harvey’s ghost has taken your peace of mind.//9 It’s like I said, one does [not] think the same way. One becomes mentally exhausted. One’s life becomes a bit paralyzed, because one is not in one’s //restarts//… First of all, one is not in one’s home. I am comfortable thank God I have my daughter [and] I come here I can sit down, I can eat, a kitchen, a nice house. There are people who don’t. And we have to be grateful in that aspect as well. We were with our friends for some time, we //restarts//… Look during the first Memorial flooding we were living almost six months with some friends, and now they were the first ones who came to rescue me. “You’re coming over here, you are staying with us.” We stayed with them for three months. That does not happen. That does not exist. For people to wholeheartedly offer you their home, that exemplifies our community. One has that in one’s mind [and] heart.
AW:
So in the last two, three years you have been away from home for a long time.
DY:
For a long time. //I was not able to enjoy my home for long//10, I was not able to enjoy it for long. I have my grandchildren in New York who have not been able to come, their things also got wet – the things they leave in the house. One knows that one must get over things, [and] to give it time. I have not gotten over it. I know I have not gotten over it.
But Harvey has affected so many other things. See your synagogue is asking for economic help and one would like to help but can’t because one must help oneself a bit. You see the JCC, the Jewish Community Center, they have not been able to finish it yet. Our community saw itself affected on many sides. Beyond helping people that have problems they have to help themselves as well, right? Where does one move the topic to as much as one does not want to bring it up it’s ongoing. For example the other day someone told me, “well, have you spoke to anyone in Chile through email?” And I don’t have a topic to speak about. My topics were //restarts// I’m kind of stuck on what it is. I don’t want to think But, “oh what has happened with your house? What’s going on with Harvey?” //One does not, does not want to communicate. It’s going to pass, like everything passes.//11
AW:
Something that was seen on the news was that the JCC was a help center for this part of the city, did you participate in that, did they help you?
DY:
Impressive.
That’s something that gives you goosebumps. The network of the Jewish community was a telephone, “hey this house needs paper, they don’t have paper to pack things,” because you have to take all your things out, right? In half an hour people would come with paper. “Hey I don’t have something to clean, chlorine, this, masks,” things would come. I didn’t leave my home for ten days to have to buy something, boxes and crates of water would arrive. Challah for Shabbat Friday, as Jews we pray Friday night [as] a blessing for wine and bread, and it’s a bread called challah that is a braided bread. I don’t know if you have seen it? (AW: I’ve seen images) Thursday was the day that we were already cleaning things in the house, people would come with bread, challah, to bring you some so you would have it for Friday. So you wouldn’t lose or leave that custom. Candles, one lights the Friday candles, something that stay with you. That stay in your mind. People from the community who you don’t know but were connected [and knew] that you had flooded and were in need. Or someone would come and bring you a check with something in case you needed it. The people who had nothing happen to them organized in spontaneous and instantaneous ways. But they didn’t just help ten, twenty homes, it was thousands. How did they divide themselves? I say, “how did people organize to give and to help to those who needed it?”
AW:
That was strong.
DY:
Jewish Family Service worked 24 hours non-stop, to be able to cooperate and give.
AW:
The story of being able to provide the community for those rituals, the things necessary for their rituals seems incredible to me.
DY:
It’s something that you have in moments of catastrophe.
AW:
Yes. Even to have moments of peace, of serenity during the storm.
DY:
Yes, yes.
AW:
I would like to ask you and you [already] mentioned it at first, in your opinion what was happening in Houston? Why is this happening? And what does the city have to do to prevent this?
DY:
A lot of engineering work, I say that’s why there’s engineers.
[You know] they had worked on the bayou, on Brays Bayou, a few years back. We have lived for twenty something years [here] and had never flooded. They did a gigantic work, how long ago? Some five years ago. When something happened and the Medical Center flooded. In my opinion – I don’t know whether to say it off the record – but there is an engineering problem that something failed. They prevented the Medical Center from flooding again, but I believe there’s a problem [where] the water returns. It refluxes. Because there are some floodgates there. There is something they didn’t do right, or they left something [and] it didn’t close [and] they didn’t take it into consideration.
AW:
Twenty-three years in the community.
DY:
Twenty-three years in the community of Meyerland, yes.
AW:
And the last three years was when all of this began to happen.
DY:
Yes, yes.
AW:
The truth is that we have finished the questions, I don’t know if there are some other things you would like to add. A story? Other comments.
DY:
No, I believe we have mostly covered the topic you needed. What you need for Harvey, recorded. May it now go down into history, how they say //laughs//.

After a few minutes of talking, Doris asked to keep recording and said the following:

AW:
There we go.
DY:
What I would like to comment is [that] in Chile I lived through several catastrophes. [the] earthquakes, at different ages. We helped people when we were in college, we gathered clothes and we had to run here [and] run there. But what I have learned, the help of this country and my community I never felt it in Chile. Like the people here is something that doesn’t exist anywhere else. Having lived similar experiences in Chile when we had several earthquakes in the south and close to Santiago, fragile homes that went down we had to go and help them. But the help one sees here, the spontaneity and the organization of this country in these cases, does not occur [in other places]. I don’t believe [that] it occurs in other places.
AW:
Why is it, do you think?
DY:
People here are taught to give. Neighbors from different places [and] people from church would come to my home with sandwich prepared for the workers. “What do you need?” Tomorrow at lunch time, with cookies with things. One does not see that in Chile, because people are more selfish. Here in time of need people open themselves completely, they give, and unite. It’s an idiosyncrasy of this country [and] of Americans in general. Not just my community, I mean Americans in general.
AW:
That is true [and] you saw it a lot during those days.
DY:
That something that I lived through, and learned from it. I come from a country where it’s not like this. One doesn’t have it so spontaneously, [and] one knows it. One does what one sees, one learns, [and] one comes with one’s own customs.