The Daily - Lost in the Storm, Part 1

Episode Date: September 13, 2018

One year ago, Houston thought it was prepared for Hurricane Harvey. As another major hurricane approaches the U.S., we look at how flooding overwhelmed Houston’s emergency systems, and how one family found out that they were on their own. Guests: Annie Brown, a producer for The Daily, speaks with Wayne Dailey, who sought urgent medical care for his wife during Hurricane Harvey, and Sheri Fink, who reported this story for The New York Times Magazine. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today. One year ago, Houston thought it was prepared for Hurricane Harvey. Now, as another major hurricane approaches the U.S. coast, the story of how Harvey's floodwaters overwhelmed Houston's emergency systems and how one family found out they were on their own. It's Thursday, September 13th.

It's Thursday, September 13th. I've always been fascinated with weather ever since I was a kid. Me and my uncle, we used to go chase tornadoes. I remember this one time, I don't remember, I don't even know how old I was, like eight or nine, something like that. We were down in the ditch and we were watching these tornadoes. There were just three of them just like in a line, just moving across the sky. It was amazing. You know, I like watching the thunderheads and the supercells form and the clouds

and when the air masses mix and then just watching how the clouds just change colors and change shape and forms. And then the winds picks up and it gets cool, and you can just feel the pressure change in the air and the smell. You know, it's just fresh. It's a fresh smell. It's a fresh, clean smell. It's like it's alive, but it's not alive.

It doesn't have a heartbeat in the soul, but it's like it does, you know? It's like a living, breathing thing that just forms and has all this power, you know it's like a living breathing thing that just forms and has all this power you know it's like looking at an exotic animal like a lion or a tiger or something you know it's majestic and powerful but you don't want to cross it because he's going to tear you up you know you can ooh and all that but don't go try to pet it It is August 23rd, 2017, and Wayne Daly is sitting in the waiting area at Memorial Hermann Hospital, which is right in Houston. Sherry Fink reported this story for The Times Magazine. The waiting room was pretty full. You know, it was busy.

People are coming in and out. Doctors are calling people out to give them updates. Wayne is there with his sister, and they look up at the television as a distraction. Absolutely. Well, we've got some severe weather to talk about. Also, possibly... On the TV, they had the news on.

Tropical weather. We're watching Harvey flooding, very possible. And in fact... Of course, everybody's watching Hurricane Harvey. And Michelle and I both look at each other and say, well, it's going to hit us. You know, we both knew it was coming. Look at this.

We've got rainfall amounts of up to 10 inches. So we're going to be watching this very, very carefully. And were you nervous about the storm? No, actually, the storm was the least of my worries. I wasn't worried about Harvey one bit. Daily producer Annie Brown spoke with Wayne and Sherry about this story. At this moment, the main thing I'm worried about is Casey. The main thing I'm worried about is Casey. He was worried about his wife.

She was in surgery. She's only 38 years old. It was this moment of, oh, my God, is the surgeon as skilled as he said he is? Is the surgery going to do what he said it would do? My main worry was her crashing on the operating table. And so that's what was going through my head the whole entire time was that. I wonder if you could tell me about meeting your wife for the first time. Well, to be honest with you, I don't really remember meeting her the first time. Because the first time I met her was in high school.

Because we had an English and we had a math class together at Seeking High School. I sat right next to her. And at that point in time, I was the new kid. I was the annoying kid who was just making problems with everybody else. But the first time I really actually saw Casey for the very first time, think I was 17 that's 18 and I was sitting out on the front porch smoking a cigarette and I seen this little blue cavalier pull up and see this woman get this girl get out woman I guess you can call her woman she was 18 she has some of this beautiful hair and it's long curly wavy and it's like one of those moments you see, like, on TV

where the hot chick gets out of the car and kind of swings her hair back and the wind catches it, you know? It kind of slows down? Yeah, yeah, it was one of those things. I was starstruck, you know? And I was just like, who is that? And I looked at her and I said, I want to marry that woman one day.

The way he phrases it is, I could not not look at her. She just electrified him. So they do marry, and they end up moving into the trailer where she grew up, on the street called Enchanted Path Drive. They start raising their kids together, and they have a lot of romance. I knew what time she always got home, and I cleaned the entire house, did the dishes, did the floors, I had dinner cooked. I went out and bought her a bunch of CDs.

He describes how sometimes she'd come home from work and he'd have candles lit. And she walked in the door, she was just like, just breath took, you know. And they would slow dance. It would be in the living room area on the rug or carpet. To their song, Pearl Jam's Just Breathe. She would have her arms underneath my arms wrapped around me and I'd have my arms around basically her whole entire head with her pulled into my chest.

Just hold her close, and she would nuzzle her head into my chest, and I'd lean my head on top of hers, and we would just slow dance around in circles until the song was over, until we felt like we were done. until the song was over, until we felt like we were done. She was about the only woman I really ever danced with. She brought that out of me. She made me not afraid to do anything.

Looking like a fool was cool, you know? They didn't have a lot of money. Wayne spent years working these really dangerous jobs in excavation and on oil rigs. Casey would try to supplement their income. She would scrap junk metal and buy the cheapest things. But they had this generosity. If you looked at it from outside, you wouldn't know how much they struggled. One of their children had a best friend whose parents were going through a rough patch, so they actually took him in so that he wouldn't have to go off to foster care.

There would be strangers sleeping on their living room floor, people who were evicted. There were all sorts of ways that they stood for generosity. When did you first notice that something was not quite right with Casey and her health? That was right after we had our second child, Ronnie, in 2006. Casey started to develop health problems in her 30s. One of the things she experienced was weight gain. And it wasn't like weight from not eating right and taking care of herself. It was showing up like in top of her shoulders and, you know, was showing up in her face and in her neck. And it was seemed like it was something was wrong. She had other symptoms. She was nauseous. She had back pain. Her stomach developed these weird red lines.

Her mood started to get really erratic. And then sometimes it would seem like it wasn't even her. It was somebody else that was inside her coming out, you know? All sorts of symptoms. sorts of symptoms. And it was a diabetic doctor who actually discovered the cortisol levels and the tumor. There's this kind of tumor you can have that grows in your adrenal gland, and hers was producing hormones. And the hormones were the cause of all these various mysterious health problems. She had something called Cushing syndrome, which is rare, but it's curable by removing the adrenal gland that has the tumor in it. They had us in pre-op marking on her with a permanent marker

where the tumor was located, where they were going to make the incisions at. So that's why Casey and Wayne were in the hospital that day. I went out to the waiting room, and they took her back to the operating room. So that's why Casey and Wayne were in the hospital that day. Took like an hour and a half. The surgeon came out, called Wayne, showed him a picture of the tumor on his phone because Wayne was curious. And to Wayne, it looks really big. It's like the size of his two thumbs put together. But to the surgeon, everything looks good,

looks like it's going to be benign. He really feels that this will solve Casey's problems. There must have been a lot of relief that the surgery went well and it was over. It was. You could see it on her face. You know, you could just see it in her, you know, just everything about her. You could see that there was just so much weight

lifted off of her from that. And how was Casey feeling when you got home from the hospital? She was feeling good. I mean, she was sore from the surgery, but, you know, as far as her outlook and just everything, she was real positive, optimistic. She was looking forward to getting healed up. And she was like, all right, you know, it's day one of recovery. And she was real optimistic about it.

Now I'm going to go to Transtar for a news conference featuring the mayor and the Harris County judge. They're going to give an update on the circumstances and the preparations for both the county and the city. You see Harris County Judge Ed Emmett there waiting. So the top official for the county and the mayor of Houston. This is a rainmaker. Some say 15 to 25, some say 20 to 30. So the top official for the county and the mayor of Houston. They warn the public this is really looking like we're going to get a lot of rain. There's going to be flooding. I think that's the best thing. Just stay off the roads. Stay alert. Stay safe. And if you don't mind this coming from the mayor, never hurt to pray for those that are in the hurricane's way and for this city.

We've been through so many of these hurricanes that we don't get worried about them. We just get ready for them. You know, make sure we got plenty of food and fill up the bathtubs and the toilets and the washing machine and five gallon jugs of water. Freeze a bunch of jugs of ice and candles. We have hurricane lamps, flashlights and tons of batteries, lots of blankets and pillows and clothes. And basically it's all you do and just, just wait it out. It's all you do, and just wait it out. The day after Casey gets home, Friday night, the storm hit the coast.

And then Saturday night is when its effects really started being felt in Houston. And Wayne is keeping vigil, and he actually records this. He opens the screen door. The rain is sheeting down. There are these crashes of thunder. Lightning is just shocking the trees into sudden light, you know, even though it's dark in the middle of the night. It's really coming down, man.

Our street has about two and a half foot of water on it. He's watching, he's watching every few hours. What level is the water getting to in the street? Is the street starting to flood? When he gets back to his phone, it says, Flash flood warning. Imminent threat. Severe. phone, it says, flash flood warning, imminent threat, severe. Still got power. Still got phones, food, water, everything we need.

I wonder if you could describe for me how Casey's health changed over that first day. me how Casey's health changed over that first day. Well, after the first day, she was good. You know, like I said, she was sore and tired and drained and everything, but her spirits were high. She was talking on the phone with her mom, you know, and everybody else, and everybody knows she's okay. And the second day, she was good. Here's the latest update. A lot of the neighbors in my neighborhood are trying to get out of here. A little more pain this time because now that the anesthesia is wearing off, you know, totally. But then the third day after surgery, she was in a lot of pain. It is pretty bad, bud.

She had this little round little patch thing on the back of her ear, and it was there to control nausea during surgery and after surgery. I could take it off after 72 hours. So when I took it off of her ear, I mean, it was within a couple of hours. She was just puking. She would puke for 15, 20 minutes, and then an hour would puking. She would puke for 15, 20 minutes and then an hour would go by and she'd puke for 15, 20 minutes. I was thinking that it was just the side effects from that anesthesia and that's normal from taking the patch off. But then probably about midday of her going through the vomiting, she started having some real major pains in her stomach. through the vomiting. She started having some real major pains in her stomach. She looked at me and the look in her eyes and she said, there's something's not right when you get to the

hospital. I need a doctor. That's when it got serious. By Monday morning, the water had risen to their top step. And Wayne, when he went to check on Casey, he couldn't keep her awake. He couldn't rouse her. So he decided to call 911. 911 call. The first of five. Monday, August 28th, 1.29 p.m. This is County 9-1-1. What's the location of your emergency?

Yes, ma'am. I'm at 1-1-1 in Chantin Path Drive. This is for water rescue. It's at Parkway Community. Okay. And is this a... Let's see if we'll ever see much yellow children. Yes. 9-1-1 is the first line of defense in a disaster, making that connection from the person who needs help to police or fire that can do rescues or emergency medical services. My wife recently had surgery last Wednesday.

She had a tumor removed from her left kidney, and she has been very sick. She's been vomiting for the past day and a half constantly, and she's in severe pain, and she needs to be airlifted to a hospital. And normally the call comes in, goes to the sheriff's office. If it's not a police call, it gets transferred to a second 911 center where they're dispatching for fire and medical. Okay, let me get you over.

Let's see, it's Sheldon's Fire Department. Who is EMS? Is South Lake Houston EMS? Yes. Okay, so let me get you transferred over to South Lake Houston EMS. Let them know what's going on, okay? And normally, they're just trying to determine how dire is the situation, how sick is this person, how should we prioritize them.

But what happened Sunday was that the call volume shot up so much. There was such a backup in these 911 calls that the leaders of this call center walked into the call floor and they said, we're going to do something we've never done before. We're going to suspend that whole prioritization system, that whole system of asking the caller questions and figuring out how dire is their situation. And instead... Sorry, what's the address?

County of Transfer, I'm a medical ambulance, water rescue. Okay, what is the address? You're going to just get off the phone as quickly as possible. If it's a call for water rescue, here's the script. You're going to read the script and then try to get off the phone because calls are just stacking up and stacking up. And she's been vomiting for the past day and a half. Okay, how many people are in the house?

I have two boys and me and my wife. Okay, so four people? The call taker, she cut him off, and she started reading the script. Okay, we do have over 1,000 calls for service in this area for assistance with evacuation, and as soon as the fire department is able to make it to this area, then you will be evacuated, okay? Okay, thank you very much. All right. All right, I have my...

And so, as a result, at the end of Wayne's call, Casey is not tagged as an emergency medical case. She's just put into this big queue of many hundreds, thousands of people calling about needing a water rescue. And how did you feel after this 911 call? What did you think was going to happen at that point? Well, at that point in time, I thought, okay, this is cool. You know, this is going to be an easy thing. They're going to be here in 15, 20 minutes, and we're going to be on our way to the hospital. And then they didn't show up.

So hours have gone by, and rescuers haven't shown up. But then there was an airboat I heard outside. What does it sound like? It would just sound like a big giant fan. You know, I've heard it and so I opened the door

and I was waiting for him to come by. He's next to his little son and waving frantically. So I got their attention and I told them that we need to rescue. I asked them if they were

doing rescuing. I've got kids. I've got my wife. She just had surgery. We have to get out of here. They said, yes, we're going to get a family out right now. We'll be back to get you. And so at that time, I was like, okay, they'll be back. So he goes back into the bedroom where Casey is lying there.

She's in a lot of pain, and he says, Casey, we've got an airboat coming, and she kind of nods. All right, as we wait for the airboat to come back for us, I'll just show you all what it looks like. And he starts doing a Facebook Live because he knows the family's really worried about him. Airboats will be here any time now. In fact, I think I hear them now. So I'm going to go ahead and end the video,

and I will keep you all updated on what's going on. All right, here they are. But instead of turning onto Enchanted Path Drive, it keeps going. And he feels this wave of panic. And soon after that, the electricity goes out. On tomorrow's Daily, part two of Wayne and Casey's story. We'll be right back.

Here's what else you need to know today. We know who they are. We found them. On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his government had located the two suspects accused of trying to assassinate a former Russian spy living in England, Sergey Skripal. Putin said the men, whom British authorities have identified as Russian intelligence officers, or civilians, who had done nothing wrong, asked about the suspects during a live event in Russia. Nothing special or criminal, I'm sure. But we'll see what happens. Asked about the suspects during a live event in Russia,

Putin did not deny their role in the attack, but said, quote, there is nothing especially interesting or criminal here. Are they civilians? What? Are they civilians? They are, of course. Гражданские? Гражданские, конечно.