One year ago, Southeast Texas was burdened with the Deweyville flood. Many people took up arms to help those in need in every possible way they could and because of this, families began the long road to recovering from the loss of their homes. After one whole year, some of these families have finally recovered and are able to say they feel safe under their new roofs.

For these families, losing their homes was more than just losing a house. After this flood, people lost pictures, clothes, and other items that captured special memories. It was very hard for these families to continue on after losing – what was to them – everything.

“I only had the bag I left the house with,” junior Hannah Sonnenberg said. “We had two days worth of clothes to live off for about three or four days until we waited for the waters to go down enough for us to drive down to our house. I wasn’t able to save any of my stuff, I just had whatever was left over and I got to start throwing things away. You get to pick up all of your shoes, your pictures, anything you left that was on the floor that my parents didn’t think were important enough to save, all of it just trashed.”

It was a time when individuals of all kind saw a time where people needed help. People took to houses, fire departments, and churches to find someone they could help and lighten the burdens of those in need. Some of these people consisted of the school’s own organizations like Key Club and the boys baseball team.

“I felt very moved seeing the people who were struggling,” sophomore Julia Isles said. “The people we had helped started crying because so many things had happened in the history of their home and they were so grateful to us. It was incredibly inspiring to see the impact we can have on people’s lives.”

After a whole year, some families are still trying to rebuild or recover. These families are still drastically impacted by something that was so long ago.

“My house is no longer under construction, but we are still getting our things out of storage units and hanging up pictures and such,” senior Megan Brzezinski.

These families were impacted monumentally from the help and impact of others.

“I am extremely grateful for everyone who helped us during this time,” Brzezinski said. “There is no way to adequately thank them for taking time out of their lives to help us.”