I am in Houston and emotions are high I'm looking for a rational advice about a situation. Was I in the wrong for not helping my friend I feel very guilty about not helping my friend but when I go back and replay the events I'm wondering if my friend was asking too much. This is a situation. My friend lives in a high flood zone the house she bought flooded six times previously but she bought it anyway ,since she has lived there the house flooded last year with just some heavy rain. She and her husband own five dogs two pigs and chickens.Houston was made aware of the storm on Wednesday but the rains did not arrive until Saturday. I spent the next few days preparing my home reinforcing fences, getting gas ,animal food ,aerators for my saltwater tank, preparing our generator, cutting limbs from trees, Etc. My friend seemed in denial and kept saying sentences like" if "their house floods. They did almost no preparation for their animals. Even after the first flood they did not purchase any type of animal trailers to move the animals out of the area . My friend's husband put a tent at the edge of their property because he knew the house was going to be underwater. And yet made no arrangement for his animals. I saw them on Thursday my friend seemed in denial and her husband was acting like the hurricane was a joke. Both my friend and her husband were off of work Monday through Thursday I feel they had plenty of time to prepare. My friend works the weekends at the hospital so she was not going to be home during the hurricane. Saturday comes the hurricane makes landfall south of Houston and it starts raining my husband and I were clearing out our garage to fit our cars in. I get a text from my friend who is up at the hospital working " hey I'm going to need you to go get some of my stuff the water is going to be really high" I get a text from her husband " emergency I only have hours can you come get the dog"( he only cares about one dog I don't know what happened to the rest) their house is half an hour north of mine I have to cross the San Jacinto River and a creek to get to their house the rains had already started so I told them no I was not risking driving from a safe part of town into a flash flood area. At that point the husband became irritated with me and kept telling me the streets are open he just said he went to Walmart and Taco Bell and all the streets are clear. At that point I offered for him to come and stay at our house I even told him he can bring all the animals five dogs and two pigs and he can cage the chickens I didn't care we could keep them in the garage. Even though we already took in another guest , I have my own animals and we just have a Suburban house I still opened my house up to let him stay or even just drop off the animals. He became even more agitated with me and went on and on about how he has so much to do and only hours to do it and didn't have time. I tried to be sympathetic but I explained that I was not driving into an area that flash floods. Once I told my friend and her husband no my friend refused to contact me anymore. After the storm her husband contacted me to inform me that the dog drowned. I was heartbroken as I am an animal lover and I like the dog I have no idea what happened to the rest of the animals I am just heartbroken. It was clear through his text that he blamed me for not going to pick up his dog. I got very angry and sent an angry text about how he was irresponsible and had all week to prepare and if he could go to Taco Bell he could have driven to our house and dropped off the dog. Now again I feel guilty for losing my temper at people whose house flooded and animal died I should have remained more level-headed and realize their emotions were high. No matter who was in the wrong if I had driven through the rain the dog would have been saved that is what is tearing me up. But on the other hand they had plenty of time to prepare and did nothing and waited till the streets were not safe and then ask for help and when I didn't want to risk me or my family they got mad. I guess I am debating whether to try and apologize and have sympathy for my friend and help her through an yet another flood or if I should just turn my back and let them be on their own.
Blogs & Forums
