When Hurricane Harvey slammed into the coast of Texas, the populations of Houston and the surrounding communities evacuated, looking for higher ground, and refuge from the storm. One of those who was caught in the path of the storm was Houston Creighton. Creighton was a pitcher with the Weyburn Beavers, known for his style, and unique sidearm delivery. Now, he is a teacher in Galveston, Texas, and coaches the school’s baseball team. While the storm approached, he and his wife Micah didn’t have the chance to evacuate north. Instead, they found themselves scrambling to reach safety from the floods caused by the storm surge and torrential rains. In Houston, they managed to get to a hotel but were then forced to evacuate from there with floodwaters reaching the roofs of vehicles.

“We actually had to get a boat ride from our hotel to where he was,” Creighton explained, referring to a friend who was able to get them from Houston back to Galveston. The trip was slightly ironic, he said. Generally, when a hurricane approaches the Texas coast, Galveston is the first place people flee from due to its precarious position on an island. This time, because of the path Hurricane Harvey took, it was actually the safer option for when the storm made landfall.

Creighton and his wife, along with their parents on both sides, had a goal of getting out of harm's way, even if it meant they wouldn’t all be together.

“Her family is at my apartment in kind of like the main area of Galveston, and we’re on the west side of Galveston, me and my wife and my parents, but we’re all pretty high up right now.”

With Hurricane Harvey now downgraded to a tropical storm, it is continuing to drop an unprecedented amount of rain in the area. Tuesday morning, it officially set a new mark for the most rain out of a tropical system to ever make landfall in the United States, higher than Hurricane Katrina in 2005. With so much of the area flooded, it has turned into a waiting game for evacuees, and those seeking shelter in higher up places like Creighton.

“You want to watch the news, you want to watch the weather to stay on track, but you also want to kind of do other things to get your mind off it,” Creighton said, talking on his phone from Galveston. The rains were expected to continue in the Galveston area for another day or so, bringing upwards of another foot of precipitation.

“We drove by a bayou, and all the houses were pretty much underwater,” Creighton explained. As everyone from emergency services to the National Guard rushes to get people to safety, many are getting ready for the inevitable cleanup as a result of the flooding.

Creighton himself explained there are the larger organizations like the Red Cross which are organizing relief efforts in the area, as well as smaller groups, such as his local church. With this being considered one of the most damaging hurricanes to have ever hit the United States, it is expected the cleanup will take months, if not years, before some areas of Houston will be inhabitable again. In the meantime, he is thankful to have made it out of the worst part of the storm so far.

“We are very blessed to be in the situation we are in,” Creighton said.