THE AMAZING 2001 FLOOD!
written by Rick Archer

On Friday night, June 8, 2001, the Heavens opened up and poured down heavy rains upon Houston for nearly 10 straight hours. Thanks to Tropical Storm Allison, most of Houston was completely flooded. More than 20 people lost their lives and the water caused over three billion dollars worth of damage. 

SSQQ served as Noah's Ark for 20 people who were stranded at SSQQ all night long. It was quite a night!

Many SSQQ students sent in stories from this amazing evening. In particular, read about Steve Bahnsen's narrow escape from a flooding vehicle whose doors couldn't be opened!  

Another amazing story is Dan Green's fascinating minute-by-minute account of being trapped in the Truck Graveyard at TC Jester and the Katy Bayou... oops, Katy Freeway.  His very funny story complete with excellent advice as well:  Don't ever curse people out in a storm ...because you just might end up spending the night with them at a gas station!    

For further Stories about the flood, click Water World Stories 2  For Pictures, Flood Pictures

SSQQ BECOMES NOAH'S ARK FOR A NIGHT!

Tue 06/12/2001 12:01 PM
Rick Archer

As I drove to the studio for classes that fateful Friday night at 6:30 pm, little did I suspect what was in store for us later that night. There was some warning, but not much.  At this time, it was raining lightly. However the skies were ominously dark. I recalled with a frown the huge rains of the previous Tuesday that had devastated our classes and figured the same thing would happen again tonight if the current downpour picked it up at all.  Fortunately, um, change that to 'unfortunately', at this point the rain wasn't heavy enough to scare anyone away so attendance at the dance classes was pretty good.  I say 'unfortunately' because many of these people would end up trapped for the night.

Soon after I got to the studio, people started showing up with their clothes soaked. Apparently the rains had begun to pick up. 'Oh great', I thought. 'Just what we need - more rain!!'

It rained steadily through the 7-9 classes. Some people - the lucky ones - made their move to leave at 9 pm, but many others stayed for Friday Practice Night assuming the rains would eventually ease up. It was my night to leave early, but I hung around anyway. Like everyone else I was reluctant to drive home in this pouring rain. Many people later told me they were thinking the same thing - stay and wait for the rain to abate. Silly me. Silly us. 

It kept raining and raining. All night long people would dance a while, then go outside and check the rain only to come back in shaking their heads in shock and amazement.  It was pouring out there!  The word 'deluge' comes to mind.

About 11:30 we had a new development. Martha Gerdes had left the studio 15 minutes earlier, but now she was come back to the studio soaking wet. Martha reported to everyone she couldn't get out of the Bellaire area. Uh oh.  Martha owned a truck. If she couldn't make it, we were all in trouble. 

After a quick call to her friend Rick Lybarger who had apparently made it home, Martha decided to try a different route and left again at Midnight. Her friend Michelle Crossley who drives a monster truck decided to leave too, but headed in a different direction. As she left, Michelle told me she wasn't worried a bit. Hah!  It turned out both ladies spent the entire night stuck four blocks from the studio. Martha was at a gas station, Michelle was at a convenience store.  Fortunately they had each other - they spent the night calling each other on their cell phones for company.

All night long I had nursed a funny feeling about all this.  In the past when it had rained hard, I could always reach the West Loop and scoot to safety. But not tonight - by 11 pm unless you had a truck no one could reach the West Loop. I had never seen this happen before. Bellaire floods in places, but not SSQQ. At least not till tonight.

Things were much different than they ever had been before. At Midnight I took off my shoes and waded out of the studio to explore. My fears were confirmed - Bissonnet was completely under deep water all the way to the West Loop and as far as I could see towards Rice Boulevard.  And so was First Street, the side street where many students park their cars.  As I returned to the studio, I worried about my car getting flooded. I got in my car and drove it up onto the shopping center walkway. Then I grabbed a couple blankets from the car.

I wasn't going anywhere and I knew it.  In fact, I had known since 10:30 pm that unless it stopped raining, I would be spending the night.  Since I live in the Heights - named for its elevation - I assumed I could still get home at this point via the Loop.  However I also knew that even if I could get home - and there was no guarantee that I could - many others couldn't.  Like any good captain I felt an obligation to stay with the ship and be at the studio to help the others who had no way to get home.  In retrospect I probably saved myself from all kinds of problems.  They say no good deed goes unpunished, but in this case I benefited from my willingness to stick around and help.

After Martha's dramatic announcement that she was going to make a last ditch effort (now I know where that phrase comes from - last person out ends up in a ditch!), several people decided it was now or never. They had begun to realize that something really bizarre was going on and that the rains weren't going to stop. Gary Richardson for one made a dash with his wife Betty and daughter Cyndi.  15 minutes later, Gary and his family were back at the studio. The escape had failed. In fact, Gary said he had to drive on the wrong side of Bellaire Avenue just to make it back to the studio. He said he was fortunate that many people were braver (is that really the word for it?) than he was. In several places, Gary watched and waited as other vehicles attempted to cross flooded areas only to fail miserably. After he saw their cars get permanently stuck, Gary concluded the best place for him was back at the studio.  So he began a harrowing trip back that ultimately forced him to drive on the wrong side of Bellaire Boulevard.  Normally Bellaire has three lanes in two directions. But tonight only the south side was still open. As a result, there was two-way traffic in those three lanes. However there wasn't much danger of collision - the cars did little better than crawl past each other.

Gary wasn't alone in this decision. Many SSQQ students tried to leave only to return 15 or 20 minutes later shaking their heads in frustration. All the time I just sat on the couch in the TV room watching Channel 2.  Brian White and Ann Bush, SSQQ instructors, made their move at midnight only to return soon after. They said Chimney Rock was hopeless just as Gary Richardson had reported earlier. Brian and Ann were the first to size up the situation for what it was - upon their return they quickly seized control of the largest couch in Room One and snuggled in for the night.  Smart move.  They guarded that couch carefully - when one got up, the other stayed on the couch to make sure no poachers stole it from them!  Just kidding.  Sort of.

I am sorry I didn't get everyone's name who stayed the night, but I wasn't in much of a "reporting mood". There was a lady named Lorraine whose son Michael called her to report he had totaled his car driving into a "bottomless pit". There was a gentleman named Arthur. There was another gentleman - name withheld deliberately - who apparently was seven sheets to the wind.  

Janis Howard and her friend Erik were two of the people who tried to leave, but were gone less than 10 minutes. Their report on the hopelessness of trying to escape marked probably the final effort to leave. There were several other people who stayed as well, but I do not remember their names. 

I estimate close to 20 people were stranded for the night at the SSQQ Ark.  I might add in twenty-two years of business at our location, nothing like this had ever happened before. This was the first sleepover in studio history. A year earlier I had anticipated something like this might happen to us on New Year's Eve due to the Y2K bug, but that of course had turned out to be total nonsense. This however was a modern day flood of tremendous proportions.  Now that I realize more about what happened, I believe Tropical Storm Allison created an 'Event of a Lifetime' that all of us who live in Houston will remember forever.

Jim Colby was one of the stars of the evening. He drove a huge pickup truck. He was unable to get Marlane Kayfes safely to her nearby home, but on the way back to the studio they decided to stop for hamburgers. Jim and Marlane returned with a dozen boxes of hamburgers and French fries, which they generously shared with a much-appreciative group. 

Throughout the wee hours of the morning, I continued to just lay on the couch watching in horror as the stories developed on TV. I could not believe the TV coverage continued throughout the night.  I assumed that the power would be knocked out, but amazingly we kept our electricity all night long.  I had given up hope of leaving long ago and now I just wanted everyone (including myself) to be comfortable. I opened up the drink room and told everyone to help themselves. Then I scrounged around for some extra blankets and pillows to hand to people. I also watched with amusement as the ladies raided the Ladies Room 'Lost and Found' for jackets and shirts. SSQQ Instructor Gloria Sanchez and Sharon Blifford were soon sporting warm pullovers. 

SSQQ instructor Linda Cook also seemed to size things up quickly. She too claimed a couch and pulled out a book. How she read in the darkness of Room 2 is beyond me, but she quickly made herself as comfortable as she could. I don't remember seeing her move from that spot all night.

Kimberly Smith also decided not to make a run for it. Instead she grabbed the final remaining spot on the couch Gary Richardson and I shared. This turned out to be only a semi-good move. After Gary moved over to another couch to be with his wife Betty, Kimberly and I stretched out at opposite ends of the couch. Unfortunately my long legs did not fit very well. Once around 6 am I awoke from a doze to find Kimberly struggling to pull my foot out of her face. Oops.  Sorry, Kim.

Larry Leising was smart. He got the other couch in the big room. After I turned out the lights at 12:30 am, he said he quickly fell asleep and didn't wake up until 6:30 am the next day. Now that's the right idea!

On one of my patrols outside, I discovered a thin young lady standing on the sidewalk shivering violently in her rain-soaked clothes. Her name was Yvette. She had pulled into our parking lot after seeing the other cars there. I invited her into the studio. Bless her heart, I think she was a little worried about trusting me. It took me a while to convince to come inside.  Believe me, her face broke into a huge smile when she realized there was an entire community inside.  She had to feel very vulnerable (as I am sure Martha and Michelle did stuck alone in their trucks!).  I gave Yvette one of my blankets and pointed out a large chair. She was so small she was able to curl up into a ball. She quickly fell asleep and rested safely.  That was the last time I saw her. When I checked on her three hours later she was gone.  I never knew what her story was, but I assumed that she parked her car in our parking lot once she realized she couldn't go any further, then left when the water receded.

Fortunately the flooding never came close to threatening the studio. The parking lot got high waters, but thankfully the flood stopped at the very top of the sidewalk curb. The waters never crossed the sidewalk.  Believe me, I checked.

The rains continued without letup. All of us watched the amazing stories on the TV in muted horror. I admired the brave news people who reported on and on throughout the night. Many of them were soaking wet, cold, and stranded just like everyone else, but they gamely kept filing their reports.  Thanks to the TV crews, throughout the night we watched all sorts of rescue operations and tales of woe.  We saw pictures of cars stalled in high waters and people standing on car rooftops begging to be rescued. One story was particularly gripping.  Several motorists had been stranded in the middle of an intersection.  Finally a fire engine was able to make its way fairly close by.  The firemen then got out a boat and took it over to get the motorists. The Fire Department had just finished rescuing some stranded motorists nearby when something bizarre developed.  A man and his wife were trying to put their small children into a plastic child's swimming pool in an attempt to wade across a huge sea of deep water. Everyone at the studio gasped at the sheer folly of this idea. The live camera feed captured the stunned faces of the firemen who watched in horror as this unbelievably stupid couple plopped their three small children - one a baby - into the flimsy swimming pool to see if it would float.

This picture is a perfect example of a man whose stupidity has him moments from winning a coveted "Darwin Award"

Finally the fireman were convinced these idiots were actually going to try it if someone didn't do something, one of the firemen got in the boat and went over to "persuade" the family to stop.  We clapped and cheered.  These guys were our heroes! As I stared in fascination, a truly dark side of me thought about the Darwin Awards.  The 'Darwin Awards' are a sick but fascinating set of true stories about people who died or were seriously hurt due to their own actions. They had done something so unbelievably stupid that some people would say they ACTUALLY DESERVED to die! This rather sick award was named in honor of Sir Charles Darwin. His theories on natural selection included the theory that the fittest survive and the obvious corollary that the stupidest don't!  Darwin said that eliminating the stupidest people or animals from the gene pool was a good thing because it improved the species' chances of survival.  I knew he wrote a lot about gene pools, but now as I watched the story unfold, I tried to remember what he had said about swimming pools.

Throughout the evening people thanked me for letting them stay.  I said they were more than welcome. I didn't deserve much credit.  It was simply the right thing to do.  After all, I knew from 11 pm on it was unlikely that those of us who were still there weren't going home that night.  Indeed I appreciated the sanctuary of the studio just as much as everyone else.  It was no big deal to extend the hospitality. Let me add I wasn't the only one in the room to feel extraordinarily fortunate to be so snug and safe while we watched many others clearly suffer a far worse fate on TV!   With only one exception, everyone was as wonderful that night as any house guest could be. 

The morale was high throughout the ordeal.

Yes, there was one exception.  We had a guy who got drunk out of his mind.  Fortunately he never bothered the rest of us.  In fact I didn't even know about it until my friend Lorraine confided the details a week or so later.  That's when she told me a story that made me grin from ear to ear. I mentioned earlier that I opened up both ends of the cooler and told people to help themselves.  Most people took soft drinks, but if someone wanted to have a beer, he or she was more than welcome.  It wasn't like I was sending any drunk drivers out onto the streets, right? Unbeknownst to me, that night during Allison's rains, we had one man who abused the privilege.  Once I opened the cooler, he started drinking.  Then he kept drinking.  I didn't know about it because he stayed on a couch in Room Six far away from me and did his drinking there. Lorraine was his guardian angel that night.  As she told me later, this guy had run into some bad luck and was feeling pretty low which explained the drinking.  Let me add a few week's later I had to tell him to leave the studio after he failed to listen to my warnings to knock it off. But that's another story. This guy got so drunk that he was out of control. At one point, he almost urinated on the dance studio floor. He had already pulled it out when Lorraine strongly suggested he try the bathroom instead.  He protested until she got up and pushed him in the right direction.  I think that should give you an idea how bad it was.  The guy was blotto.

As she told me the story, Lorraine made it clear to me that she and this guy were nothing more than friends.  Normally he was pretty good company and she enjoyed dancing with him.  Tonight she was worried about him and decided to keep an eye out. 

As the rains continued, it got really cold, especially for the people who had gotten soaked in the futile process of getting to their cars and finding out how hopeless it was.  Our drunk guy was one of these people.  He was soaking wet. 

Lorraine remembered that she had a load of wash in her car.  Realizing tough times call for tough solutions, Lorraine figured what this guy didn't know wouldn't hurt him.  And in his condition he wasn't likely to notice anything either.  So Lorraine went to her car and found a heavy shirt that wasn't in too bad a shape.  She went back in the studio and told her friend to put it on, which he gladly did. 

Later that night, the man mercifully passed out and never stirred again. 

The next morning, Lorraine was already awake. She was coming back into Room Six when she noticed the drunk guy was beginning to stir.  Worried, she went over and sat down beside him.  He opened his eyes and stared at her in a daze.  It was obvious he was barely one notch better than brain dead in this condition.  Slowly he began to sit up.  Then he looked down at Lorraine's shirt.  Now a deeply confused look crossed his face.  The guy looked at Lorraine and pointed to her shirt that he was wearing.  Looking at her in bewilderment, he said, "Uh, Lorraine, did something happen last night?" 


The next morning, there was still water on the streets, but it had subsided.  Gary Richardson and I drove four blocks to a nearby Randalls.  He and I were both astonished to see it was open.  We asked how they had gotten there in these conditions only to be told that many employees had spent the night trapped there.  Gary and I grinned.  Their bad luck was our good luck.  They had been in the same spot as us.

We thanked them for being kind enough to open up.  We bought fruit and sandwich food to bring back for breakfast, a gesture that was much appreciated.

By 11 am that morning, the water around the studio had retreated to the point that everyone felt safe enough to leave.

In retrospect, I know for a fact all of us realized just how lucky we were.  As we watched the misfortunes of others on TV, we were grateful to be high and dry while thousands of others were trapped in dangerous and miserable conditions. Yes, we were stuck at the studio, but as we saw the misery reflected on the faces of the thousands of people whose cars had stalled or who were trapped in one spot by rising water, we counted our blessings. No one complained about his or her fate the entire night. We had food, we had couches, we had TV, and we had each other for company. As slumber parties go, everyone was pretty wonderful. At least for us, life was good. And we were indeed grateful!  Sharon Blifford was especially grateful - the next morning she thanked me for the opportunity to spend the evening with so many attractive men. Actually she phrased it in a much bawdier way, but I will let you guess the exact smart-mouth words she used to describe her sentiments… Although I have heard some imaginative embellishments of the evening from some of the survivors who were in Room 6, I am disappointed to report there wasn't much hanky-panky to speak of. As if anyone even cared…  I will say that one couple did connect that night - I watched them giggle and laugh the night away on a couch across the room from me.  They are still together as of 2007.  So obviously some good came from that crazy night here at SSQQ. Most of all I am just glad that we were able to be safe and relatively comfortable during a very dangerous night.

For further stories about the flood, click Water World Stories 2
And don't forget to see the pictures!  Pictures page 1