time we weren't sure that would be high enough. The water kept coming and coming and rising.

My brother, his wife and 2 toddlers, his MIL and FIL and his SIL and her husband and child were in his one story house next door.

I had left my dogs in their kennels in my sister's greenhouse. They started to freak out and my BIL and I went out in the storm to check on them. We found them up to their necks in water and quickly grabbed them up and took them to the upstairs bathroom in the house. By that time the water was coming in everywhere. It wasn't seeping it, it was flowing in at the doorways and windows, it was lapping up on the windows. My brother called from next door and asked what was happening, I yelled into the phone that they had to get to us now, no waiting, they had to get out in the storm and out of his house to us so they could take shelter with us upstairs. So we had to go out in the storm to get them, I held the door open because there was no way of guaranteeing that we could open it once we let it close, the waters were swirling all around us by then. The windows had given way to the pressure of the water and it was just pouring in.

My BIL came around the corner with my 4 year old niece and handed her to me to take upstairs. I insisted he get my 2 year old nephew first and then I would take them both if he held the door. The faces of those 2 frightened angels still haunt me. He brought my nephew to me and I carried the both of them through waist high water to my other brother and niece in the stair well who bundled them in blankets and took them upstair. When I returned to the doorway, by BIL had left it, he thought he had blocked it off to keep it open but the waters washed away whatever it was he had used. I fought like hell to open that damned door, god let me open the door. I screamed and I cursed and prayed and I couldn't get the damn thing open. Suddenly it gave way and I stood there as each member of my family made their way inside.

The surge waters carry toxins and insects, snakes and critters. My left arm was covered in fire ants and the were as frightened as I was so they left their hundreds of marks.

We waited it out upstairs, the house swaying the waters rising. Every large piece of furniture and applicance became battering rams, breaking out the walls, weakening the structure. The gas stove was ripped from its brackets and the gas line, so we had a gas leak to deal with.

The water stopped before it came into the 2nd floor - after hours, when the water had dropped to about 3 feet high, my brother used pliars to shut off the gas. When he was down there a water mocassion went past him.

When it was all over, my brothers house was totally gutted as was the entire first floor of my sisters house. 14 cars were submerged, washed away.

My house lost its roof and collapsed in the storm, it blocked my street for days.