Momentum - Business to Business Online Magazine MOMENTUM October 2017 | Page 12

Labor & Delivery in the Time
of Rising Water
Photos and Story By:
Jenny Deam
The Houston Chronicle
As her sons wait in a truck for a boat to fetch them,
Nacole Myers goes into labor Sunday morning while
water rises in their garage
When the contractions started, water was knee-deep and rising in
the pretty brick house on Saffron Lane.
Awaiting rescue boat
Kevin told Nacole a boat was coming soon. She told him
she was in labor. They woke up their sons, who saw their
dad's wet clothes and thought maybe they could go
swimming in their clothes, too.
Nacole Myers, a nurse, knew she was in labor in those early hours
Sunday. She had two little boys already. But she thought if she
could just relax on the bed next to where they slept, maybe work
on her breathing, she could keep the baby from coming. She
wasn't due for a few more days. Kevin watched his wife's suffering.
The four of them then gathered in the flooding garage to
wait for the next boat. Nacole clung to the side of the
truck, her fingernails digging into metal when a
contraction came. Kevin told Nacole she and the boys
would go in the next boat.
She didn't tell her husband, Kevin, about the pain. At least not
then. He was outside, keeping his own secret. Their street, their
yard, their driveway in the Friendswood subdivision called Forest
Bend had become an angry river. He watched a neighbor's
portable basketball hoop get swallowed whole. "I'm going to stay," he said, assuring her he would catch
up later but needed to secure the house and get Shilo
and other neighborhood pets to someplace higher.
"I'm not leaving you," she shrieked as another contraction
struck.
Earlier, they had talked about evacuation. The emergency alerts
were blasting from their phones every few minutes. They packed
some clothes and medicine, just in case. They grabbed their 3-
year-old's stuffed wolf and the cellphone on which their 6-year-
old played games. When the water began to slosh into the
garage, Kevin loaded a generator, along with their Siberian husky
named Shilo, into the back of the truck he had put up on blocks.
But it was like going through the motions, neither of them quite
believing what was happening. "You don't have a choice," he said.
Then, suddenly, the water was in the house. Kevin switched off
the power as it reached the electric sockets. Nacole timed her
contractions by the clock on her cellphone. By the time the
Friendswood police boats began appearing on their street,
around dawn, they were five minutes apart.
Kevin half-stumbled, half-swam out to flag down a crowded boat
for help. "Go back," the people hollered, trying to keep him safe.
"We'll be back.” "Y'all better hurry," he called into the rain. But
they couldn't hear. In the distance there were others, screaming
for help.
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MOMENTUM / October 2017
The water was up to the top of her thighs.
Another boat came by. It was full, too.
"We'll be back," they called.
Kevin began to panic. Nacole thought her water broke.
She didn't know for sure but felt a sudden warm rush
circling through the water where she was standing.
Kevin called a neighbor who had been evacuated and
was at a shelter. A police officer overheard and promised
to send a boat immediately.
When an aluminum skiff arrived minutes later in the
deepening water outside their home, Nacole teetered
dangerously as she tried to climb onboard. Kevin
steadied the boat against a hard current and then swam
back toward the house, his head a dot in the roiling
torrent.
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