As anyone who reads this on a regular basis knows I lived in Houston for 22 years. Today Hurricane Claudette is hitting Texas, the Gulf Coast.
I never went through a Hurricane in those 22 years however I went through many Tropical storms. They can be equally devastating.
Ocrober 17th,1994 @ approximately 8:30 in the morning Tropical storm Rosa hit my family hard. We had 33 inches of rain in 3 days and cosequently we flooded.
We lost almost everything we owned.What was salvaged was inconsequential. If it was up high it wasn't something used for daily living.
We had 5 ft of water in out house for 4 days and what the water didn't get the moisture did.
I had one lady tell me she had gone through a fire and now flood and she would much rathe go through fire. With fire, everything is gone. With flood you have to go back in and muck all your stuff to the street and then tear out the walls and cabinets and insulation and ceilings, etc.
It took us 2 and 1/2 days to muck the house working from sunup to sundown.
The flood happened on a Monday morning and I had stocked up my deep freeze as well as my inside freezer on Saturday. All that food rotted. I wasin the process of doing laundry so all the clothes and the washer / dryer were ruined.
I can say from my experience Tupperware and my Rexair Rainbow sweeper made it through the flood.
We went from no water to 5 feet in 30 minutes. It was frightening. The water came from two sources.

A part of me has never recovered from that day and it altered my life immensely. We thought we were covered for flood with the insurance company. We found out unless you have " rising water " insurance you aren't covered. $ 50,000 at least in contents and FEMA gave us $2500.00. Also, they don't cover antiques or jewelry.
You are compensated for the minimum of coverage for replacement. One full bed for 2 adults. Just a bedframe and matress and boxspring.A basic table and chairs. No TV or other equipment.
So, for those whom this info could apply get your flood insurance. And it has to be in effect for 30 days prior to a claim.

My heart goes out to anyone going through a disaster. They are always in my prayers.
I will try to touch base with family and friends tomorrow to see how they literally weathered the storm.