Houston resident Judy Bluestein-Levin says five years ago, a door knock helped save her life
“My neighbor says, ‘You’ve got 10 minutes to get out,’” she recalled. “He says, ‘They released the water from the dam, and we’re going to flood. You’ve got to get out.’”
She, her husband, son, and three dogs rushed to escape, and after only 10 minutes she says water was up to her chest.
Bluestein-Levin says the next few years were bumpy.
“We bounced from hotel room to hotel room,” she said. “To trailer, to apartment. They moved us all around.”
It especially wore on her husband.
“He was profoundly deaf, legally blind on kidney dialysis, diabetic, in a wheelchair,” she said.
Her husband died in 2019 and she lost her dogs too, all around the same time FEMA told her she’d have to move back into their old home.
“I never believed that we wouldn’t one day put it back together,” Bluestein-Levin said. “I always anticipated that he would be here with me but I think he is.”
She says after years of living without air conditioning, functioning water, and even walls her prayers were answered.
“It was like walking into raw construction home, one that was underway,” Ron Peters said.
Peters is the Executive Director of Katy Responds. The non-profit has been rebuilding damaged homes since Hurricane Harvey.
“It’s very, very emotional to know that your community has made such an incredible impact on one family,” he said.
Though her household is only home to one these days, Judy says her new extended family has repaired more than her home.
“They repaired my soul,” she said.
Katy Responds says they’re in need of donations and volunteers to keep their mission going, to help click here.