By Jesse Wright

Jesse.wright@panews.com

 

When Port Arthur Police Sgt. Jeremy L. Houston reported for his shift on Aug. 28 he had no way of knowing what he was in form.

This was the evening of the big flood began, the evening when the flood controls and storm water pumps would fail to save the city.

Already that evening hundreds had sought shelter at the Bob Bowers Civic Center off 9^th Avenue and Highway 73. That was where Houston was headed—one more officer to make sure those evacuees had a peaceful night after days of uncertainty. For those caught up in the storm, that was supposed to be high ground.

Except it wasn’t.

“Around maybe nine or 10 o’clock we started taking water heavily,” Houston said. “It came in real bad. It got up to three feet of water in the building.”

By this time, Houston said there were 537 people lying in cots. All of them needed to be rescued. Houston said he was joined that evening with other officers, firefighters and city Councilman Thomas Kinlaw, who was on hand just to volunteer his time.

“The first thing we did was secure everyone in the stands,” Houston said. He explained that they helped the elderly and those with walking troubles first.

Then they waited.

“We had to just sit there. There was no way to get out and we couldn’t get out until daylight,” he said.

And, it was dark. Houston said once the water started to creep up and get near the outlets, they decided to cut the power.

“We decided that it wasn’t safe,” he said. “So we decided to cut the power to the building.”

When daylight finally broke, Houston said he and Kinlaw made their way outside.

“During the daytime, we started making plans to get these people out,” he said. He didn’t have any plan in place, but he realized the civic center was no longer safe and Houston said he saw rescue boats and helicopters staging on a Highway 73 overpass.

“I decided to, you know, get up there, walk through the water and get to highway 73 and get to the helicopters,” he said.

He was joined by Kinlaw and together the two met set out, unsure of how deep the water would get but determined to get help.

“I was pretty nervous. I didn’t know how deep it would go,” he said. “We figured the water was pretty deep because it was up the roofs of cars in the parking lot.”

Eventually, the men got to the overpass, only to find the once-bustling area empty.

“It seemed like when we got there they all had disappeared,” Houston said of the rescue efforts. “I looked behind me and I saw a yellow rain jacket and it was one of our officers on the other side on the eastbound side of Highway 73. They were rescuing people from that side and we saw that they had boats and that it was officer Sadie Murphy. She looked like an angel to me in that rain jacket.”

Houston recalled that when he saw Murphy, he knew they would be OK.

“I said, ‘You know what? We’re gonna have assistance because that’s one of ours,’” he said.

With the help of boats, Houston and other officers and firefighters were able to begin getting people out of the center, slowly. The rescue operation only got as far as the highway. They would need vehicles to take the displaced further—and the Port Arthur Police Department didn’t have access to those vehicles at the time.

But, Houston explained, the Texas Department of Transportation did have big dump trucks, and they were running at the time.

So, 537 people were taken, via dump trucks, to safety at Woodrow Wilson Middle School.

Houston was nominated for a profile in Harvey’s Heroes because of the way he handled the rescue operation. However, Houston said it was not something he had experience with or that he’d been trained on necessarily. It was all quick thinking.

“I just thought of it on the fly,” he said. “My biggest (fear) was, I didn’t know when they’d be able to get to us. Pretty much it was just a decision that we’re going to survive and I wanted to get these people out of here.”

Of course, as an officer he had a duty to do more than just survive—he had to lead. And, even when everyone was safe at Woodrow Wilson, his duty was not yet over.

“I was assigned there Monday, for the evening shift,” he said. “And we didn’t get out of there until 5:30 pm that Tuesday. I went to Woodrow Wilson and at that point in time whatever task they needed, that’s what I did.”

Houston explained that some police officers were also trapped at home and so they could not patrol or help with the rescue operations. So, as one of the officers who was on the ground at the shelter, Houston had to keep working—for days and without seep.

“We had a job to do and that’s to protect those citizens. That is the mission at the Port Arthur police Department and we’re going to carry out that mission,” he said.

Finally, Houston got off his shift Wednesday at midnight; he said his three-day mission was fueled mostly by adrenaline.

But, even off the clock, he couldn’t rest.

“I got probably about a foot of water in there,” he said of his own home. “But my house didn’t do as bad as a lot of other people. A lot of people lost their homes entirely. My house sustained a foot of water but that’s manageable. I can replace floors and material things. My family was safe.”

Finally, Houston said he was not alone in his service. He said he saw quite a few heroes through those days.

“It was an all out effort from every individual from the fire department to Councilman Kinlaw. It was an excellent job.”