It was the first time my dad, Mike Hinson, stepped out of his Katy, Texas home since Friday.
“I went out this morning to survey the situation to see what the road access looked like and there’s a lot of roads that I would try to get out of here on are under water,” Hinson said.
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In the past 72 hours Fort Bend County has been under more than 15 different tornado warning.
“I’ve had to go underneath the stairs in the closet a few times,” he said.
Besides a downed tree, his house has been left untouched. But just four miles away one tornado tore apart a business and another devastated 50 homes in a nearby neighborhood.
“I’ve been very fortunate,” Hinson said. “This is catastrophic what is going on here.”
So far, he has also managed to escape the flooding, but less than a quarter mile away he said homeowners there were not so lucky.
“I’ve been hearing airboats all morning, which tells me there is flooding nearby and if they’re using the airboats there’s probably some rescues going on.”
Also needing rescued was one of his employees.
“I found out two nights ago she was in her attic and the water was up to the second flood and she had to be rescued by boat,” he said. “One of her neighbors was a 90-year-old lady who lives a few doors down and they went to look for her, but very sad, she had drowned. There’s very tragic stuff going on here.”
The threat is far from over as heavy downpours continue, as the Brazos River begins to crest and as the Army Corps of Engineers begins to release water from nearby reservoirs.
“I'm just praying that this thing doesn't gain force again,” said Hinson. “We can't handle it, we are already maxed out.”