Vera Jenkins lives alone in her apartment at Arthur Square Apartments.

It’s a modest place, a standard two-bedroom setup, but it’s been home for 14 years.

As floodwater from Tropical Storm Harvey rose across the city, it flooded homes and forced residents to seek higher ground. Some folks went to the Civic Center and some, later, to the Carl Parker Center.

But a handful of people went to Jenkins’ apartment and, for a few days in late August and early September, her little apartment was home for eight.

“Two of my neighbors had lost their stuff and my son and his girlfriend and the two kids they lost their stuff and their car and they just needed a place. That’s just what I do. I was upstairs, and so it was the right thing for me to do being a woman of God as I am. My grandmother was like that, she opened her doors to people,” Jenkins explained.

Her second-flood apartment provided refuge but while there was shelter there was still worry. The streets below the second floor unit were submerged. Jenkins’ car was underwater.

Nobody was getting in or out and for four days, eight people had to stay put.

“Everything was tight,” she said of life in the apartment. “We had covers and blankets on the floors and we made do with what we had. We just prayed and thanked God we made it through. It isn’t about the materialistic things we lost. You can regain what you lost.”

The little group was more fortunate than others. They had a dry space and their power didn’t go out during the storm.

Nevertheless, as the rain kept pelting the city and as the water rose higher, everyone was tense.
“Nobody could get out and go nowhere, nobody could do anything. I was scared because we didn’t know how high the water was going to get,” she said. “We didn’t know what we were gonna do. (The water) was there for days.”

She watched water destroy everything.

“My vehicles got flooded out. All my stuff in my storage got flooded out. But I just thank God for life itself,” she said. “You can’t replace life.”

When finally the floodwater began to recede, Jenkins said she ventured out and found help at her church.

“We went to my church first,” she said. “We got some supplies Christian Faith M.B. Church. The preacher and his wife, Albert and Charlotte Moses, they gave us our supplies, covers and sheets and water and food.”

Finally, her neighbors were able to move out, though her son and his family remains with her. She said the experience brought them all closer.

“Oh yeah, oh yeah, they appreciate it. And they let me know they appreciated it,” she said. “They showed me they appreciated it.”

And, for her part, Jenkins said she, too, is grateful.

“I’m blessed. I praise God, this couldn’t have happened without the grace of God,” she said. “We’re going to continue to pick up our lives and move forward. Thank God we all came out alive.”