All language subtitles for Texas Storm Squad 2020 WEB DL AAC2 0 x264 BOOP_track3_eng

(phone ringing).

Operator (over phone): Hello.
911. Where is your emergency?

Woman (over phone):
We're like on a hill.

We're over here off of
waldenbut, I mean, inside
our house is flooded.

Woman (over phone):
The water is in my car.

Operator (over phone): You
get out and go somewhere safe

And then I'll call
your cell phone.

Operator (over phone):
Can I help you?

Man (over phone): I'm
trying to get to my house,
'cause it's flooded.

Woman (over phone):
My mama house is flooding.

The water is
rising inside here.

Operator (over phone): Okay.

Woman (over phone): She
got kids in the house.

What, what is she
supposed to do?

Man (over phone): I literally
have water up to the top of
the floorboards in my home.

Operator (over phone): Okay.

Man (over phone):
I'm flooded out I'm guessing,
I'm stuck on the walden.

Operator (over phone):
Get out.

Man (over phone): This
water is up to my knees.

Woman (over phone):
I know, (inaudible) again,
I gotta get outta the car.

Woman (over phone): Water's
at the door right now.

Water's coming through
the flues in my house.

Operator (over phone):
Okay. We've got your
call and we're gonna get

Someone to you as
soon as we can.

(theme music plays).

(phone ringing).

Danny: I will never forget it.

A phone rang and they turned
the lights on, and they said,

"everyone up. We have to
go, and we have to go now."

David: We were told
that we had five minutes to

Get ready, load everything up,
and go to, towards beaumont.

Danny: If a phone rings in
a environment like that,
something has gone wrong.

John: When the bottom
dropped out, it was big.

Narrator: Just after
midnight on September 19th,

A team of elite rescue
specialists from

Texas a&m task force
1 are scrambling.

Danny: It's 10 after 12
and we got the wake-up call to

Go to beaumont, texas
as quickly as possible.

I mean, something's up.

Something's up in east texas.

Narrator:
A tropical storm, imelda,

Has made landfall
on the gulf coast,

But it's doing something
no one expected.

Forecasts said it would move
quickly north and dissipate.

Instead, it's staying
put over east texas,

Inundating it with record
breaking levels of rain.

Danny watkins and his
team are one of six units
being deployed to the

Disaster hot zone.

Danny: Beaumont it's in a
flood prone area, and they're
requesting as many resources

As they can get right now.

David: We have no
clue what's going on.

All we know is that
it's raining and it was
just coming down hard,

And we had to get there.

Danny: Not quite sure
what, what we're gonna
see when we get there.

Narrator: With low lying
land, and a coast lying
on the gulf of mexico,

Where hurricanes
build throughout the
humid summer months,

Texas is particularly at
risk of catastrophic flooding.

Reporter (over tv): After
pounding south texas
Wednesday afternoon,

Hurricane dolly has lost some...

Reporter (over tv):
We have 160 mph wind.

Reporter (over tv): Underlined
the warnings of the approach
of hurricane carla.

Reporter (over tv): Hurricane
humberto slammed into southeast
texas early Thursday.

Reporter (over tv): Ike
leaves no doubt this was
a powerful hurricane.

Jim: In texas we're very good
about respecting hurricanes.

People will go,
"I need to evacuate."

Tropical rains, not so much.

You just don't know
how bad it's gonna be.

It could be that it
drops 10 inches of rain,
and it's not a problem.

Or, it could be it drops 44
inches of rain in 24 hours,

Which is a
significant problem.

Narrator: Tropical storm
imelda's rapid rainfall has
caught everyone unawares,

And in the beaumont area,
85 miles east of houston,
that rain has nowhere to go.

The soil around beaumont is
full of clay, which means it
can't absorb water easily.

Instead of soaking into the
ground, heavy rainfall runs
off into local waterways, or

Collects on the surface,
causing flash flooding.

Jim: So, when they said
beaumont was flooding, we
immediately took all the

Resources that we had and
we moved 'em into the area.

Narrator: Over 100,000
residents are at risk
here, many in small,

Rural communities, with
limited resources to cope
with the freak storm.

Danny: When we got to
beaumont, we parked, got out

And started getting in
dry suits, right away.

We were not there long.

Narrator: Highly trained and
with specialist equipment,
texas a&m task force 1 deploy

To disaster zones
across america.

Stepping in when local
emergency services
become overwhelmed.

On the outskirts of beaumont,
in the small town of fannett
rescue efforts are in the

Hands of volunteer
firefighter ashley kester.

Ashley: The calls at the
very beginning were trickling
in, two to three a minute.

I had time to write it down
and process it to determine

Who and which truck
I could send.

All of that, pretty much,
went out the window.

Before I knew it, we had
six or eight calls holding.

And it was at that point
that my chief said, "I need
you to take this over."

He departed to go and
assist with rescue efforts.

(phone ringing).

The call volume,
however, increased.

Man (over phone): Yes right
now, it's riding up to knees.

Jerome: It was about 8:00
when I noticed the water was

Starting to come up
out of the ditches.

About an hour later,
and the water was about
a foot and a half

Running across under my house.

10:30, 11:00, it started
coming in my house.

Ashley: The water was rising
and they wanted to get out.

Stephen: It was right up to
the edge of our thresholds on
the door, and I knew I had to

Make plans on getting out.

Jerome: I have a
two-year-old daughter.

Her name's paisley.
She is our world.

You know, I wasn't so much
concerned with myself, but I
wanted my daughter and my wife

And my mother
out of the house.

Carolyn: That's the
only grand baby I have, and I
wanna make sure they're safe.

Ashley: Panic started to set
in throughout the community.

(busy signal).

We didn't have what
we needed to be able to
rescue all of these people.

In fact, one of our
pick-up trucks that we
were using flooded out.

My chief was in it.

I was on the phone with
him and he told me that
the truck was floating.

Voice (over phone): Please
hang up and try again.

Woman (over phone): So,
someone is stuck in their car
and they're about to drown.

Ashley: At that
point, it got real.

(thunder).

Narrator: Danny's is one of
two teams immediately sent to

Rescue the residents
of hard-hit fannett.

Ashley: So, the texas
task force arrived in
the early morning hours,

And it was a sense
of relief on my end,

Because we finally had
somebody else who could help.

Greg: And I showed up, I was
like, "hey, texas task force 1.

This is what equipment we have.
This is our capabilities."

You know, "what do you need?"

Danny: She had a
phone on each ear.

Greg: She was frazzled
a little bit, but
she was killing it.

Danny: She had pages and
pages, and pages of peoples'
names, phone numbers and

Addresses, and
all it said beside it was
"rescue, rescue, rescue".

Greg: Yeah, I knew to tell
her, right off the bat,

"don't just give me the
first one on the list.

You know, let's, let's
triage this situation out.

We need to find out if they
just need to be evacuated,

And they have a couple of
feet of water in their house.

Or, is this a true rescue
where, you know, the water's
coming in, and it's come up

Above over a foot in an
hour, who have infants in, or
people who can't take care of

Themselves, or seniors.

Narrator: To reach the huge
number of people needing
rescue, the unit splits into

Two teams, each with
one high profile vehicle,
or hpv, and one rescue boat.

Team leader, greg
qualls rides in one hpv.

Danny watkins is in the other.

Danny: The night we got
deployed, it was myself,
dave and john john.

Very focused, very
team oriented, goal
objective people.

Narrator: Danny once played
for the philadelphia eagles.

He left behind a career in the
nfl to serve as a firefighter,
before joining the task force.

Danny: It's more rewarding
to me to go out and be
able to help people,

And make a direct impact.

Narrator: Danny, dave and
john's first assignment of
the triage 911 calls is lucy,

A grandmother who's stranded
alone in her single story home,

Surrounded by rising floodwater.

David: Two miles down that
route, we encountered water.

We had no clue as far as
how much we're dealing with.

All we knew is that that
road was not passable
by a regular vehicle.

Narrator: Lucy's family
can't get to her, and
getting in her own car

Is out of the question.

Driving in a flood
is dangerous.

Nearly two in three
flood deaths in the
us involve vehicles.

Just 6 inches of water
causes most cars to
stall and lose control.

2 feet of water will
carry away even a 7,000
pound pick-up truck.

Jim: You can certainly
drown in your vehicle,
or if you get out,

You can be washed downstream.

Narrator: But, with rapidly
rising water levels,

Staying at home isn't
safe for lucy either.

Jim: You may be in your house
and, now, you have 10 feet of
water, and you're in a single

Story house, you have a
good chance of drowning.

Danny: I can remember driving
to do the first rescue,

Sitting in the back
of the truck thinking,

"man, if it keeps raining,
this will be really bad."

Narrator: In fannett,
the task force team are
on an emergency rescue.

Narrator: At risk lucy is
trapped in her home in some of
the worst flash floods ever to

Hit southeast texas.

The team have a specialist
truck, and hpv, that can drive
through water that would

Sweep away regular vehicles.

Greg: An hpv is a
high profile vehicle.

We're able to ford water
about 30 inches deep with
those, with those vehicles.

Narrator: But if
it strays off the road, the
consequences could be deadly.

John: They're top heavy,
and if I get off just a little
bit and put the passenger side

Tires on dirt and it's
saturated with water already,
that truck's going over.

Man (over radio):
Sorry, what was that?

John: I do not see a center.

Danny: There was so much
water, and it was coming
down so hard and so fast,

Couldn't see anything.

(thunder).

John: Operating in swift water
at night is very dangerous.

Things can go from bad
to worse really quick.

Man (over radio): That's
good I'm hopping out now.

John: It got so bad, we had
to put people walking in front
of the truck to make sure the

Road was still there.

(thunder).

Danny: We're sounding,
feeling where the edge of the
road is and where the ditch is.

John: If y'all find a
center, I'll just follow you.

Danny: Okay.

There's bar ditches on each
side, potentially, the truck
could sink into that and roll

Over with everyone inside,
and those trucks,

There's no real way to
get out of them quickly.

John: If we lose a truck,
people aren't going home.

It was amazing the amount of
wind, there were white caps.

Danny: At that point,
they had started comparing
imelda to harvey,

And I thought that
was very alarming.

Narrator: Just two years
previously, these very same
communities in texas were

Devastated by category
four, hurricane harvey, the
wettest storm in us history.

Reporter: We have been praying
for quite a while now for the
eye to pass over to get some

Kind of a break through
here with these absolutely
unrelenting winds.

Reporter: You can see it for
yourself, we're being hit by

A pretty significant
band from harvey.

Narrator: Over the course of
eight days, harvey dropped
60 inches of rain,

Causing catastrophic
flooding and an estimated

$125 billion worth of damage.

It was the most lethal
hurricane to hit texas
in nearly a century,

Killing 89 people.

John: During harvey, we
lost a truck in a pond.

They were following a road.

It was straight.

The road had a natural curve
to it, went off to the side.

The driver of the
truck continued forward
and there was a pond.

You would've never been
able to see it, the water,

You're just looking out at
flat water everywhere.

Truck went in, and before
the driver knew it,
the cab was underwater.

You have to know
that road's there.

Narrator: As the team battles
to reach lucy, volunteer
firefighter, ashley,

Is inundated with
emergency calls.

Ashley: It's on its way.

As the night went on,
it seemed the whole
area of fannett, texas

Needed to be rescued.

Woman (over phone): Yeah,
someone is stuck in their car
and they're about to drown.

Operator (over phone):
Okay, where are they at?

Man (over phone): I've
got a woman who's hit
some water on the road

And flooded out her vehicle.

Woman (over phone):
The water is in my car,
rising, rising quickly.

Man (over phone): We have a
mama trapped in her house.

Ashley: I was using three
different radios, my personal
cell phone, multiple other

Cell phones, and
weather radios.

(phone ringing).

People were in fear
for their life.

All of these people
needing help at once was
quite a bit overwhelming.

Woman (over phone):
My car is stuck.

The water is getting higher
the longer I sit here.

Ashley: At one point, we had
over 3,000 calls holding.

Narrator: Outside,
the rising floodwaters are
pushing the hpv to its limit.

John: It got to a point where
we reached the 30 inches
of water on the big truck.

Danny: Stop!

John: We cannot
go any further.

John: Yes.

Danny: I have never
seen electrical activity
like that before, ever.

(thunder).

It was everywhere.

Narrator: A single bolt
of lightning can deliver
300 million volts.

When it hits water, the
electricity conducts
across the surface.

Danny: The last place you
wanna be is standing in water,

While lightning's striking
all around you.

I can remember talking
to john and dave about it,
and it was a real concern.

John: We were in a
very bad situation.

Danny was looking at me and
wanting me to make the call
to get back to dry land

And shelter,
but we were so close to
completing that rescue.

It's a very hard call to make.

Danny: The only option
at that point was just
to keep moving forward.

Narrator: The task force are
braving lightning and fast
moving floodwaters to rescue

Lucy, a grandmother who's
trapped in her house.

The water is now so deep
it's too dangerous for the
specially designed hpv.

The only way danny and
dave can reach lucy is to trek
through waist deep floodwater.

Danny: You're trying to
find storm drains, culverts,
ditches, all underwater

Hazards that you can't see,
and when you get pulled
into those, it's a killer.

There was an incident in
harvey where some water rescue
specialists were actually

Sucked through a
drainage system.

Thankfully, they got spit out
the other side and nothing,
nothing catastrophic happened.

But there's always
that thought in the
back of your mind.

Narrator: Floodwater
can contain many
biological hazards too.

Overflow from septic
tanks, venomous snakes,
even alligators.

Danny: I can remember
stepping up onto her
patio, three foot step,

But I was still up to
my knees in water.

(knocking).

Lucy: No.
Danny: You doing all right?

Lucy: I'm okay.
Danny: What can we do for you?

Danny: Okay.
Hey, I'm danny.

She opens the door and
water just comes gushing in.

Everything is just floating
in her living room.

All her couches, furniture.

You could see
tupperware, magazines.

I mean, there was a tv remote.

David: The water was coming up
pretty fast, so we knew that

We had to take her
out pretty quick.

(laughs).

Danny: It, it's
not first class, but
we'll get you there.

Okay?

Lucy: Okay.

Danny: You feel horrible
for her, because this is
essentially her house

That's been destroyed.

Narrator: Lucy's house is
surrounded by water, already
almost four feet deep.

Narrator: Added to
that, lucy can't swim.

Danny: I know she was quite
concerned, 'cause she had gone
from sitting in her living

Room, watching television, to
having the water come up over
her knees, to us showing up,

Now we're putting
her in a boat and,
essentially, in a storm.

Hop on.
Hop on in.

Lucy: Okay.

Danny: Alright, we got
all kinds of ropes.

We get into the boat.
There's lightning everywhere.

The boat is bumping
into things.

Just so many submerged
obstacles that
you just can't see.

There's a lot of things
that can get you hung up.

David: If you get knocked off
your feet, with moving water

You don't know what
it's gonna do.

I mean, it could
take you under.

It could just take
you down the creek.

It could throw you up
against a tree, and pin you
up against it, and drown you.

Danny: Yeah.

Danny: I can remember kinda
holding her hand and trying to
smile, and it can be very

Stressful on a person.

(thunder).

David: Once we got her on the
truck, they gave us a location
for drop off at the church.

Narrator: On the
outskirts of fannett,
grace community church

Is still above the floodwater.

Mike: I don't know exactly
what time it was when this
truck showed up, but to know

That there was people
coming from outside to help
us, it really meant a lot.

Because, we weren't
alone, we weren't having
to do this by ourselves.

Narrator: Across fannett,
residents are abandoning their
homes, and those who can,

Begin to make their way
to the emergency refuge.

Mike: As a church, we function
as the only shelter in our
community, should people need

To seek shelter from storms.

We have cots.

We have air mattresses,
bedding that is stored.

So, I opened the doors and
it just took off from there.

Lucy: No.

Mike: From that point, I knew
that there were more on their
way, and I knew I was,

I was in it for the long haul.

Danny: You're good.

Danny: Okay, so, lucy...

Narrator: Fannett is getting
hit worse than anywhere else,

With over 30 inches of
rain in just 12 hours.

But storm imelda is
now dropping record
breaking levels of rain

Across three counties.

Reporter (over tv): Tropical
depression imelda is unloading
over parts of southeast texas,

With heavy rain
and flash flooding.

Reporter: A lot of
people are probably still
trapped in their homes,

Awaiting for a rescue,

Because I don't think anybody
expected to be able to

Not get out of their homes when
they went to bed last night.

Reporter: A daring rescue
during tropical storm imelda

Was captured on body
camera footage.

Reporter: Yeah, four people,
including two children,

Were saved from their
flooded vehicle.

You can see police officers
forming a chain and, one by
one, they pull both of those

Children to safety.

Jim: Jim yeager,
texas task force 1.

Narrator: Back at the
coordination center, deputy
operations chief, jim yeager

Can see conditions
worsening across the entire
southeast texas area.

Jim: Do my personnel
have enough resources?

Is there anything else
that I can send them?

What do they need
to be supported?

Narrator: He mobilizes
extra resources to the
worst hit communities.

Jim: We brought
on ten more boats.

It gave me a total of 26
boats down in the area, and
the surrounding counties.

The challenge, at that point,
was there was no way to get

Those high profile
vehicles into beaumont.

Narrator: The severe flooding
around fannett means all roads

In and out of the town
are now unpassable.

Nobody can get out, and
backup can't get in.

Greg: I was like, "any chance
of us getting additional
assistance down here,

Where we have a
lot of work to do?"

And, yeah, and I
believe his answer was,
"nope. You're on your own."

Narrator: With resources on the
ground stretched to the limit,

Greg gets a message.

Greg: I got a
text from ashley.

She said, "I need you to
stop everything you're doing.

A young man's been
hit by lightning."

Narrator: As storm imelda
rages over fannett, volunteer
firefighter, ashley kester,

Receives a call for
urgent medical assistance.

Ashley: The call came in
through the sheriff's office,

We have an individual who
was struck by lightning.

The lightning struck the
water and he was electrocuted.

Greg: And his dad found him
below water, you know, pinned
up against a fence, and so,

It's unknown downtime.

John: There was no way to
get an ambulance to us.

We have no medical
supplies with us.

There's no way we can
help that situation.

Greg: We're doing active
rescues right now, I can't
stop here to go travel 15

Minutes away to pick
up, you know, a person
who's deceased already.

John: It was a very hard call.

Go do cpr on an unknown
down, or go rescue people
that we know we can get out,

That are in an emergent
situation already.

It's, it's a hard call.

Greg: That was a
horrible feeling.

John: It's rough. It's rough
talking about it right now.

You try to help everybody.

There's some that you can't.

Ashley: The reality of what
mother nature can actually
do at that point set in.

(thunder).

Narrator: By 5:00 am,
tropical storm imelda has
already claimed lives,

And the floodwater in
fannett is still rising.

But this isn't just the
result of local rainfall,

Fannett lies in a network
of bayous and creeks.

Normally, water flows south
through them and out to sea.

But, imelda has brought
so much rain that the
bayous are overwhelmed,

Excess water is
now funneling down

From the north and pooling in
the low lying area near fannett.

Jerome and brooke reinders, and
their two-year-old daughter,

Are directly in its path.

Jerome: The water come
up three times as fast
as what harvey did.

Brooke: We had three steps
that led up to our porch,
it like covered the bottom,

Then it covered the second one,
then it covered the top one.

That was enough for us
to get out, you know,
especially with a baby.

Jerome: Paisley is two years
old, pressing to be three,

And she's already been through
two storms in her life.

You know, and it's
devastated her, and
that's, it's not cool.

I don't like it.

And after harvey come
through, we lost everything.

Narrator: The reinders
sunk all their savings into
rebuilding their house after

Hurricane harvey.

Now, their home
is flooding again.

Jerome: Brooke called my
mother and said, you know,
told her that we had water

Coming in the house, that we
needed to come over there.

Brooke: They live in a mobile
home, and so, they were

On higher ground
than what we were.

Jerome: And my mom
was like, yeah, y'all,
sure, y'all come on.

The water was about three
and a half foot deep.

It was up over my waist, and
I had paisley on my shoulder.

Brooke: We, probably, should
not have gone out, looking
and seeing all the lightning.

Carolyn: It was scary watching
'em come through, lightning is
striking and everything.

And you see your family's
walking through that water,
you don't know if lightning's

Gonna strike at
'em, and you're gonna see
something happen to them.

Jerome: Her house was,
probably, about three and
a half foot off the ground.

As long as we was there, I
knew we were all right, unless
they started taking on water.

Narrator: But with
nowhere to go, the water
keeps rising and, soon,

It's pouring into
carolyn's trailer.

Carolyn: The rain, it
just kept on coming.

We kept on watching the
water come up, and come up,
and before I knew it,

It was coming
through my air vents.

I just said, "come on, let's
go. We gotta get outta here."

Narrator: Carolyn's mobile
home is high off the ground,

But it's vulnerable to the
deep, fast flowing water,
funneling in from the

Surrounding areas.

John: The water was coming
up rapidly, if there's enough
current, it could actually

Take the house off
the foundation.

Those are emergent situations.

We've gotta get
those people out.

Narrator: Trapped in a
mobile home, with a young
child and a grandmother,

The reinders are now the
team's top priority.

But there's a problem.

Danny: When we got to this
rescue, the truck would
not go down the road.

It couldn't.

Where the main road
turned it was over 12 feet
of water at this point.

We can't go forward.
We can't go back.

Narrator: With the truck now
stuck, their only option is
to attempt to a boat rescue.

Danny: The difference between
this rescue and the previous
one was that the water had

Come up so much already that
we could actually drive the
boat up to their front door.

Carolyn: They come up to
my front door, because there
was no steps, they were gone.

The steps floated away.

Danny: The water had gotten
so high, and was moving fast
enough that, essentially, that

House could've floated away.

Who knows what would've
happened at that point?

Carolyn: We were glad
to see that boat.

I was and I don't like boats.

I mean, I'm scared
to death of boats.

But I didn't wanna stay there.

I feel like I
would've drowneded.

I wouldn't have made it.

It's not worth your life.

Brooke: We will all be
eternally grateful for them
in that little rubber raft.

Narrator: The reinders
take refuge in
pastor mike's church.

But, as dawn approaches,
storm imelda is showing
no signs of letting up.

Clayton: I'm here with
chambers county sheriff,
brian hawthorne.

Brian: Most people,
like myself included, did not
realize that this would stall

For as many hours as it has.

Clayton: So, what does the
next 12 hours look like?

Brian: Well, until it
quits raining, it's, it's
gonna be a nightmare.

Danny: As the sun came up,
you were able to really

Take hold of the severity
of the situation.

And we're able to look
around and go like,

"oh, holy smokes!
This is, this is wild!"

Narrator: In daylight, the
extent of storm imelda's
impact becomes clear.

Reporter (over tv): We were
definitely prepared for a storm,
but what we weren't prepared for

Was for a storm to
stall on top of us.

Reporter (over tv): So much
water, the roof of this houston
postal facility collapsed,

Injuring three people.

Reporter (over tv): One man
died when he drove his van
into eight feet of floodwater.

Eye witness: It was a good 20
minutes before they got him
out and it was just beyond.

You know, he was
underwater too long.

Narrator: In fannett,
news comes in that a local
alligator park has flooded,

And some of the reptiles
are now loose in the water.

Gary: Everybody wants to
know what's going on with
the alligator situation,

I can't give you a
report yet, guys.

Look!
I'm in four foot of water.

This, right here, is
my daughter's house.

Stephen: And we're not
talking about just a
few inches of water,

We're talking feet of water.

Narrator: Stephen gregory has
been stranded in his house
with four children all night,

Watching the waters rise.

Stephen: It was just like
a real life horror show.

It wasn't out of the question
that the water couldn't rise
another two or three feet,

And we needed to get
out as soon as we could.

Narrator: Stephen's
is one of over 1,200
evacuations carried out

By the six task force units
operating in beaumont.

Stephen: When we saw
the boat come, I saw
they were official.

There was a sense of
relief just knowing that
we were in good hands.

Narrator: Now, volunteers
start to join the rescue
effort, using their own boats

To collect stranded residents.

The evacuees are dropped off
at the only dry land nearby,

An overpass on the
edge of fannett.

Danny: We called
it the lily pad.

People were getting brought
to the lily pad from
people's personal boats,

Personal water craft.

I saw jet skis.
I saw air boats.

Greg: We set up a collection
point at the edge of the
bridge, and we started running

Our hpvs, making laps
from there to the church.

Danny: And that was kind of
the focus now, was just trying
to get them off this lily pad,

'cause the water is still
coming up at this point,
I mean realistically,

There's nowhere for them to go.

John: It seemed like every
time we went back, we filled
the back of the truck.

Danny: We acquired
a county dump truck.

When the truck was full, we
would take them to the church.

It didn't stop.

Greg: And I think
I put down well over
200 evacs for that day,

And that was just
in our hpv alone.

Mike: We ended up, within
the course of the night,

Over 300 people at the church.

And then, the next big
task was gonna be, how am
I going to feed people?

And so, we knew that that
was gonna be a major issue.

Our neighbors are phenomenal.

They began showing up and
began just grabbing anything
from their freezers and their

Refrigerators, and
just began cooking.

It's more than just a handful
of people who flooded,
this is an entire community.

And I knew, having
already gone through this
with hurricane harvey,

When you see people
showing up with a bag...

(sobs).

With a trash bag of all
that they have left,

It hits you.

(exhales).

Narrator: As the storm begins
to die down, it emerges that
some of those sheltering at

The church need
medical attention.

A man with a heart
condition is unwell.

But all roads in and out of
fannett are still cut off.

Mike: They could
not stay here.

They had to evacuated.

And we weren't gonna be
able to put 'em on a truck.

The only way to get them
out was by helicopter.

Narrator: Helicopter
rescues are taking
place across the state.

The worst of the storm
is over, but casualty
numbers are still rising.

Narrator: After 18 hours of
continuous work rescuing
the residents of fannett,

The team is finally
able to take a break.

Danny: We got to a point
where we were taking
less and less people.

It would be one or
two at a time, until
there were no more.

No one had slept.
No one had eaten.

You're dehydrated.
You're hungry.

You're tired.

I can remember making
that cot, putting dry
clothes on, and...

I don't even think I
finished pulling the
blankets up all the way,

And I was drooling on myself.

(laughs).

Narrator: The following
day, the task force check the
worst affected areas to see if

Anyone still needs help.

Danny: The purpose of the
welfare check is, essentially,

We wanna check on the people
that decided to stay,

See if they had any
needs, see if we needed
to get them out.

And you're trying to explain
to them that they're
putting themselves in,

In grave danger, and, and
that we might not have the
opportunity to get back to them.

During harvey, doing
those welfare checks,

That's when you start to see
the number of fatalities.

And we're checking
on vehicles to make sure
there's no bodies in there.

John: And the other team went
past a car, and there was

An individual still
behind the wheel.

Chest deep in water, just
sitting there frozen.

That individual was
just terrified and to the
point they could not move.

So, when we go past
vehicles, we do check 'em.

Danny: Absolutely, it's in
the back of your mind, what am
I gonna see behind this door?

No, it's good.

So, remember I was telling you
about that house when we were
going by, and the television

Was like floating
at the front window?

It's this one right
in front of us.

I remember walking up to this
house, and seeing the high
water mark and,

And realizing, well,
if anyone had decided
to ride this storm out,

They wouldn't have
been able to survive.

All right.
How are you doing?

Man: I'm okay.

Danny: I saw it
the other night.

You doing okay? All right.

This event caught a
lotta people off guard.

'cause, after harvey,
people felt that this
would never happen again.

Were you here when harvey?

Man: Yeah, I was here
when harvey was here.

I didn't stay for harvey.

Danny: Imelda took
everyone by surprise
at the severity of it.

Narrator: Deadly storm imelda
affected communities in

13 counties across
southeast texas.

Emergency shelters were
set up in 18 locations.

Evacuee: Just starting
over with what?

Because we don't
have anything.

Narrator: Volunteers cross
state lines to distribute
fresh water and food.

91 roadways flooded.

Emergency responders rescued,
or evacuated, over 2,000
families and individuals.

Woman: Pray for southeast
texas, we're gonna need it.

This is not gonna
be an easy fix.

We've got a lot of damage.

Narrator: The state of texas
is used to big weather events,

But storm imelda is part of
a new and growing trend in

Tropical cyclones, full
of rain and slow moving.

Studies show that rising
temperatures in the sea and
atmosphere are fueling these

Storms producing
extreme rainfall
rates and slow speeds.

One of these new cyclones,
hurricane dorian, devastated
the bahamas also in 2019.

And just two years earlier,
in southeast texas, harvey
behaved the same way.

The damage these new,
slow moving, storms cause
can be catastrophic.

Mike: Two years ago,
when hurricane harvey
hit, the thought was,

"this was the 1,000 year flood.
It's never gonna happen again.

We're never gonna go
through that again."

Danny: But, the world we live
in, things are changing.

Ashley: Events such as
imelda and harvey seem
to be becoming a norm.

At first we didn't
think it was possible.

There's no way.

But we've had it
happen twice now.

Danny: In fannett, there
was more water dropped in
a shorter window of time

During imelda than
there was harvey.

Jim: The storm actually dumped
a tremendous amount of rain,
up to 44 inches in 24 hours.

It's an exceptional storm.

Brooke: Bathroom,

Water started coming in on this
side first, and it pooled.

Um... We were actually in the
middle of trying to adopt,

So this was a nursery
with brand new

Things in it that we
did not get to use.

That all flooded.

It's hard because with
harvey we rebuilt.

We did it ourselves.

So, yeah, it's hard to see
that much work just molded

And yuck and gonna be torn down.

Mike: I think the impact is
significant, emotionally,

Financially, a
long, long process.

There are some people who've
moved out of the area.

They said they can't
do this anymore.

After you flood two or three
times, financially, they
can't do that, and they,

They put their
homes up for sale.

Or, they just walked away.

Brooke: We are renting another
property, and we're just gonna

Buy in a different location,

So that we're not worried
about flood any more.

Danny: If we hadn't been
able to get to that community,
I don't know what would've

Happened to a lot of people
that we made contact with.

I don't know what their
other options were.

Brooke: But the house and
the cars and all those
things that flooded...

Paisley: Want my headband?

Brooke: They don't mean anything
at the end of the day,

Whenever it comes
to your safety

And your child's safety,
and things like that.

Greg: We definitely
changed a few people's
outcomes that night.

Danny: I think there would've
been a lot more fatalities.

I truly believe that.

Brooke: And we all are
still alive, which we
are so thankful for.

God works in mysterious ways.

Captioned by cotter
captioning services.