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Local Flood Victim Helps Restore Home In Houston

Posted at 9:53 PM, Sep 16, 2017
and last updated 2017-09-16 23:45:34-04

A local flood victim has been in Houston helping restore an elderly couple's home after Hurricane Harvey.

"Hope Force about a week ago saw me crying at the curb side and struggling to drag off the wet furniture and hopefully try to save my parent's belongings," Gina said.

Gina's 87-year-old parents lost almost everything during the record-setting flooding in Houston.

PHOTOS: Local Flood Victim Helps Restore Home In Houston

"I talked to another neighbor who said it was like a science fiction movie, it was so fast," Melissa Thomas said.

Gina said she was staying with her parents during the bad weather and helped them get out safely. 

"So she said they ended up having to get her parents out in a canoe," Thomas said.

They said nearly four feet of water was in their home.

"I realized that I couldn't do it alone. My husband and I couldn't do it as just a team of two," Gina said.

Thomas drove down from La Vergne, Tennessee with a local non-profit to help.

"We're pulling the final bit of dry wall out, taking out the insulation, taking out all the nails and pulling out the floor," Thomas said.

The neighborhood had debris that was rising higher than the homes on the sidewalk.

Thomas said her family's church and school were destroyed during the 2010 flood in Nashville, so she understands what Houston families are going through.

"The church that I go to and the school my family was a part of was Lighthouse Christian in Antioch. We were in the trenches from the moment a building floated down the interstate," Thomas said.

As Thomas gives back as a volunteer through Hope Force, Gina said she will follow in her footsteps. 

"Once we settle my parents into their new home, we will join so that we can help others," Gina said.

Another Hope Force International team has planned to head down next weekend to help a new family.

They're still training volunteers to go on trips in the future.

The flood victim only wanted to be identified by her first name for this story.