A Reporter’s Tale in Houston: When a Story Becomes Your Own Disaster

BELLAIRE, Tex. — I have covered as many as five wars on two continents, but nothing prepared me for when the big story collided with me and my family.

Paola and Clifford Krauss carrying books to the
second floor of their home in Houston on Sunday.

As I write this, the home that I saved my entire career to buy is flooding fast and my wife, Paola, our 12-year-old daughter, Emilie, and I have moved to the second floor with some of our valuables, food, water, and of course our three-year-old cockapoo, Sweetie, who is now barking frantically out of fear. It’s only a matter of time before our piano is ruined. One of our cars looks completely flooded, and the other is blocked in the garage, so it looks like we will be staying put for a while.

There is nowhere to drive anyway.

My daughter just got an alert on her phone telling us to take shelter for a possible tornado. We are ready to go to an interior closet if necessary.

For the moment, I don’t think we are in any danger, and the three of us are keeping calm, gaining strength from the sturdiness of our neighbors.

We are the lucky ones. As I looked out my window this morning, I saw the local fire department arrive to take away pregnant women and others trapped in their homes. My quiet Mildred Street is now a raging river, and the emergency medical workers are using kayaks to transport people to their truck. I can hear honking car horns in the distance, which is adding an eerie staccato backdrop to the driving rain pounding our windows.

Read the story by Clifford Kraus in The New York Times - “A Reporter’s Tale in Houston: When a Story Becomes Your Own Disaster.”