STORIES
VIDEO STORIES
Hurricane Harvey Recovery B-roll Footage [VIDEO]
This video is generic footage (4:21) without audio of hurricane Harvey devastation and recovery. It can be downloaded from Vimeo and edited for non-commercial use in events and church services. This footage is not to be used for any online application such as social media. DOWNLOAD
Better For It: Where God Has Brought Us One Year After Harvey [VIDEO]
Milton Smith is a life long Kashmere Gardens resident and now Bayou City Relief Contractor, whose home flooded during Hurricane Harvey. Khara Bong, is a Cypress, TX resident and Bayou City Relief Community Organizer. Two paths that would never have crossed. Upon entering Kashmere Gardens, Khara expected that she would be working hard to help rebuild homes and minister to a devastated community. Neither Khara or Milton expected the blessing that they would be to one another or the deep friendship born from this catastrophe. LINK
In the Center of God's Will [VIDEO]
Robert and Nancy Graves live in the Bear Creek Village neighborhood of Houston’s northwest side. Bear Creek Village backs up to Addicks Reservoir which flooded all but a hand full of thousands of nearby homes. Many of Robert and Nancy’s neighbors plan to move, overwhelmed by the destruction. But the Graves feel a strong conviction that this is where the Lord has called them to be and so they plan to stay. The wreckage of Hurricane Harvey opened up a door for the Graves to their neighbors that they didn’t have before. God has used them in incredible ways right where He’s planted them. LINK
Overwhelming Grace - Recovering from Hurricane Harvey [VIDEO]
Jason and Aimee Norris were one of thousands of families across the Texas Gulf Coast that lost their belongings and the safety of their home to Hurricane Harvey. This is their story of hope beyond devastation. "Sometimes the good that’s going to come out of a situation is seeing Christ’s love move through a community. Our hope is that people can see that even in hard times we have a God that we can lean on and we can trust…not that life would be perfect or that our stuff would be ok but that we would be ok and we would recover because He is working that in us.”…LINK
Shifted Focus [VIDEO]
When Jeff Willis, a contractor from Canada, heard about the devastation in Houston caused by Hurricane Harvey he heard God calling him to come down and help. In Jeff’s time here he grew close with families through working along side them to rebuild their homes as well as restoring joy to their lives. LINK
WRITTEN STORIES
My Life in a Pile [WRITTEN + SHORT VIDEO]
Wendy Starnes surveyed her front yard. Only a week after Hurricane Harvey had dumped six feet of water into her new home, she sat on the driveway, surrounded by the ruined possessions that lay all around her. “I’m a quilter. I lost everything… there’s a quilt over there that I made for my husband before he died, and I can’t fix it. It’s stuff, but it means a lot. It’s memories that you can’t ever get back.” After losing his battle with cancer in 2016, Wendy’s husband died just before she moved into her house in Dickinson. “Didn’t have to have flood insurance they said, so I didn’t buy any. Everything’s gone.”…LINK
U of H Volleyball Serves 72-Year-Old Retired Teacher [WRITTEN + SHORT VIDEO]
Nearly a week had passed since Hurricane Harvey hit when 72-year-old Joy Mitchell was first able to return to her one-story home in the Meadows subdivision in League City. The retired teacher was greeted by the pungent fumes of mold and mildew that the flood waters left behind, hovering like a ghost around the carpets, walls, and wooden furniture legs. Having lost her husband to Alzheimer’s three years ago, and now living alone, Ms. Mitchell’s granddaughter stepped in that first day to help her begin to make decisions about her…LINK
New Kid on the Block [WRITTEN]
Amy Claeys, her husband Camiel, and their two daughters moved from St. Louis to the Houston area in 2015. Amy took a job as a volunteer coordinator for a hospice company in Texas City, while Camiel found work in sales at a nearby plant. So when the forecast began to warn Galveston County residents of the impending hurricane nearing the end of August in 2017, Amy started to feel silly when Camiel told her they needed to leave town. “Being from the north, tornadoes were my expertise,” Amy said. “This was my first hurricane...LINK
Handing Out Hope [WRITTEN]
Today, Bayou City Relief Crews again entered Houston’s 5th Ward subdivision, Kashmere Gardens. This area of the city contains some of Houston’s most low income citizens and was hard hit during Hurricane Harvey. A large group of volunteers set up tables and tents in the O’Reilly’s parking lot on Lockwood Dr. offering a range of donated personal necessities to the residents of the 5th Ward. The plan was to be set up and operational by 8:30 am but upon arrival to the site there was already a line of people formed, some had been there since 7 am waiting…LINK
Mean Green Serving Machines [WRITTEN]
Head coach of the University of North Texas Mean Green basketball team and prior college roommate to Robbie Seay, Grant McCasland, brought his whole team down to Houston to serve at a donation distribution set up at Bear Creek Elementary this Saturday. Coach McCasland and the players helped residents affected by Hurricane Harvey shop through basic home/personal necessities, loading up a cart for them and then packing everything into their vehicles…LINK
Jesus in the Flesh [WRITTEN]
“In the 5th Ward, unlike Memorial area, the water left right after the rain stopped but there’s been no one coming in until recently so that means [over] two weeks in there’s no one going in and mucking these houses. When I first heard that I was so shocked. [These people] are on the fringes, they’re forgotten. This community is lower income and they’ve been neglected as far as resources are concerned. It’s really cool to see the response now. Better now than never. In Memorial we had to wait for the water to go down before we could do anything but in this area…LINK
Getting on the Ground - Recovering from Hurricane Harvey [WRITTEN]
As the number of houses that need mucking will eventually decline, unwavering servants for Bayou City Relief continue to press in to the relief needs in our city finding gaps and filling them. Bayou City Fellowship has received volunteers from all over the country, coming to support and reinforce our troops. Some perhaps expecting to be busting out drywall and bagging wet insulation while wading through waist deep water but instead find themselves handing out diapers, dog food and feminine products in a historically underserved and unglamorous part of town…LINK
Devastated Homeowner Brings Hope to Volunteers [WRITTEN]
As we pulled up in front of the house where our labor crew was assigned, I was instantly reminded of my grandmother’s home. The decorations out front, the well-trimmed garden, the four white pillars – everything looked just like my grandma’s style. As we walked inside the empty home, our team leader shared that this house had taken on about six inches of water. I looked sadly through the bedrooms filled with antiques, the walls covered with smiling portraits, and the closets full of colorful clothes. If whoever lived here had known my grandmother, they’d have been best friends. It pained my heart to…LINK
Man Finds Help in Unexpected Place [WRITTEN]
The sun was shining in a clear blue sky as Ishfaq Ahmad stood in his driveway in League City chatting with a stranger. By all accounts, Ishfaq and the house behind him looked ordinary. But after a glance at the pile of debris in each neighbors’ yard and a glimpse of the labor crew swarming in and around the house with armloads of soggy sheetrock, it became all too apparent that this house was another in the long line of those affected by Hurricane Harvey. When the rain began, Ishfaq wasn’t at home. They’d had flooding in their home previously, and Ishfaq began to worry about his…LINK
Couple Takes on 100-Plus Dinner Guests in Wake of Harvey Flooding [WRITTEN]
It’s Friday afternoon and Art Almanza, 55, is bustling around the kitchen of his home in west League City. There is food – cans of green beans, jars of Prego spaghetti sauce, big bottles of ketchup, stacks of buns, and packages of hot dogs, among other things – on almost every countertop. A large, empty silver pot sits on one of the burners of the stove, and there’s a warm, sweetness in the air as the oven preheats in preparation for the apple crisp that Art is currently putting together. Art’s wife, Kathi, walks in the side door, and Art provides her an update on what supplies they need as she begins…LINK