Has anyone heard from Mr Cotton?

[2farnorth]

Saw that the flooding was particularly bad in Friendswood. Has anyone heard from Charles and what his situation is?

[2farnorth]

Just made inquiry on one of the ham radio storm nets and Charles call sign supposedly was heard mobile in Missouri yesterday. Hope that's correct.

[The Annoyed Man]

http://www.texaschlforum.com/viewtopic. ... 4#p1166924

[2farnorth]

Thanks. I don't normally read those threads. I had sent a pm couple days ago about ham nets and got no reply. But that was understandable given the situation down there. Glad they are okay.

[Vol Texan]

Charles is alive and well. I just got off the phone with him. More info to follow.

ETA: they just got power on today. He has only been turning his phone on for minutes at a time each day.

They did get about 15 inches of water in the house, and are in the middle of clean-up operations now. He has a bunch of folks coming over from his church to help remediate.

Liberals across the country can resume their wailing and gnashing of teeth. Texas' premiere champion of the 2nd Amendment will be back on-line soon enough.

He sends prayers and best wishes to all.

[2farnorth]

Guess that guy in Missouri misheard that call sign

[bmwrdr]

Charles is alive and well. I just got off the phone with him. More info to follow.

ETA: they just got power on today. He has only been turning his phone on for minutes at a time each day.

They did get about 15 inches of water in the house, and are in the middle of clean-up operations now. He has a bunch of folks coming over from his church to help remediate.

Liberals across the country can resume their wailing and gnashing of teeth. Texas' premiere champion of the 2nd Amendment will be back on-line soon enough.

He sends prayers and best wishes to all.

Good news, thanks for sharing.

[puma guy]

Charles is alive and well. I just got off the phone with him. More info to follow.

ETA: they just got power on today. He has only been turning his phone on for minutes at a time each day.

They did get about 15 inches of water in the house, and are in the middle of clean-up operations now. He has a bunch of folks coming over from his church to help remediate.

Liberals across the country can resume their wailing and gnashing of teeth. Texas' premiere champion of the 2nd Amendment will be back on-line soon enough.

He sends prayers and best wishes to all.

Thanks for sharing that with us. Prayers for Charles and his wife and for all who have been impacted. BTW I hope you and your family were OK.

[oljames3]

Praying.

[Jusme]

Thanks Vol Texan, glad to here Charles and family, are ok. I know there will be a huge clean up process. Praying for Charles, and everyone effected by this disaster.

[WildBill]

I am praying for the Cotton family and others affected by the hurricane.

[Hot Dawg]

This creek runs by his house, took this 3 days after the water went down on my street. It is heartbreaking driving through neighborhoods around here seeing all contents from houses on the curbs. Prayers to all affected. On the plus side it was nice seeing people helping each other out.

[Charles L. Cotton]

Hi folks! Thanks for the thoughts and prayers, the texts and emails. Sorry to be so slow responding. As Vol Texan posted, we are okay from a safety standpoint, but the entire first floor is was pretty much destroyed. It actually came in three waves (no pun intended). My days have run together and I have to look at my phone to be sure. Everyone I talk too is doing the same thing.

Harvey made landfall on Friday and we didn't come close to having water in the house. Since it never got close during Alicia (2001) or Ike (2008), we weren't worried at all. By Friday evening, the rain had stopped and Martha and I went to dinner at our usual Mexican restaurant. It was full and everyone was talking about how it was "much to do about nothing" in our area.

Then came Saturday morning when we watched the water getting higher than we had ever seen. We got 3" of water in the house that day. The water receded, I swept it out, and we started cleanup. The power had gone out in the early morning hours, but we had water throughout the ordeal. That meant we could shower and flush toilets. Sunday and Monday we cleaned up as much as we could with rain most of those days. We were living on the 2nd floor with plenty of food and water. It was not pleasant, but we were so much better off than many folks. Having minimal communications was rough.

At 3:33AM Tuesday morning, I heard a "deuce and a half" across the street. I got up and saw our neighbors being rescued from their one story home. I knew this was bad because Barry and I talked on Monday and he said he was not leaving! I looked down the stairs with a flashlight and saw what was later measured as 15" of water. The home that had survived Alison and Ike without a drop of water was now flooded and it was a new day.

I don't recall what day the water finally receded from our back door so I could start sweeping water again. I think it was late Tuesday or possibly Wednesday. I started ripping out carpet/padding and found that to be a job for a much younger man! The church crew of 12 came on Thursday and worked about 10 hours. They were God-sent because I could never have gotten all of the drywall out before mold started to grow. They removed all of the drywall and wet insulation from the 4' level and below, moved furniture to the street, and started cleanup. Five of crew were from Dallas (in their 20's) and Joe is a construction superintendent. His knowledge and leadership was invaluable.

There is so much left to do I don't know where to start, literally. I got the priority items done and now I'm at the cleanup, throw out, reorganize and repair stage. This is going to take months.

The insurance adjuster will be here tomorrow and I'll start looking for a contractor who 1) is a Texas contractor; and 2) really is bonded. I'm going to call the bonding company to confirm. If something goes wrong, I want Texas company to sue here in Texas.

Oh yeah, both cars were flooded and are still sitting in the garage waiting for the insurance company to tow them and officially tell us they are a total loss.

In spite of this, we are alive, well, healthy and blessed by God. Through the worst of it, we were safe, dry, well-fed and had beds. So many people lost everything. I saw the best in people - neighbors I didn't even know became comrades offering food, water, shelter and strong backs. (Only about 12 houses in our 350 home neighborhood flooded.) One young girl walked up to me with tears in her eyes and gave me a hug. Total strangers became close friends in an instant. It's hard to say there is anything good about a devastating hurricane like Harvey, but I saw a small part of humanity at its best. TV reports show this was/is the same throughout this great State. God I love Texas and Texans!

I'll still be pretty scarce on the Forum for a while. I'll try to check in in the evenings, but I may be too exhausted to type. I want to express my appreciation to the Moderators for doing what they always do to make the Forum a community.

Thanks for thinking of us folks.
Chas.

[RPBrown]

Charles, so glad you are all safe. I know it had gotten bad from news reports and the reports from my kids down there. Just know our prayers are with you all that are having to go through this.

[ELB]

Jeeper what a mess, but glad you are safe, and still have a house to renovate, instead of rebuild.

Best wishes!