Airboat pilot battled Hurricane Harvey to save residents
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An airboat was piloted to the front doors of flooded homes in Willow Meadows on Aug. 27 as volunteers rescued residents and their pets.
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An airboat pilot worked with neighborhood volunteers to rescue more than 100 residents in Willow Meadows as Hurricane Harvey brought widespread flooding and devastation to the neighborhood near United Orthodox Synagogues.
Ken Barrow showed up on his 18-foot-long airboat Sunday, Aug. 27, at around noon after Holly Davies, who is helping to lead an emergency response team in the neighborhood, reached out to Barrow’s brother, a Houston Police officer who has served the Willow Meadows community.
Soon after the category 4 hurricane made landfall on Friday night, Aug. 25, local authorities, overwhelmed by the volume of emergency calls, urged citizens with small water craft to aid in rescue operations.
Barrow followed GPS coordinates to Davies’ home, where she provided him with a list of residents who were in desperate need of rescue after floodwaters tore through their homes.
“We went block by block, just trying to help as many people as we could,” Barrow told the JHV the next day.
“Everywhere we went, there were residents in single-story houses, especially, that had dire need to get out,” he said. “Many elderly, many with pets.”
Able to carry up to a dozen passengers at a time, Barrow’s airboat managed to ferry more than 100 people to safety. Most were taken to Willow Meadows Baptist church, and others were dropped off at multi-story neighborhood houses.
The boat worked on the water as Coast Guard helicopters flew overhead, performing single-person rescue operations. Rain in the area continued to fall throughout the afternoon and early evening.
The airboat measures 15-feet-high, so Barrow had to carefully avoid power lines and tree branches as he navigated the flooded streets.
Holly Davies’ son, Morgan, and other volunteers assisted Barrow in the boat rescues.
“Those guys jumped in the water and guided the airboat right up to the houses in order to get to the people who needed it,” Barrow said.
Barrow belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and said he learned to love volunteer work through LDS. He said he’s been involved in hurricane-relief efforts since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but this was the first time he deployed his airboat for a rescue operation.
“Conditions in Willow Meadows were such that other boats couldn’t get in, because on one end, the waters where too shallow for other boats to get through, and on the other end, waters were too deep,” Barrow said. “The airboat was perfect, because it could carry a lot of people, plus it has a 500-horsepower motor on the back that propels it. There’s nothing touching the bottom, so it can glide over the water without worrying about running over sunken debris. It goes over everything.”
Barrow said neighbors helped him help them.
“They said: ‘Let me help you. I have to go to this person’s home – let’s check her house to see if we can pick her up,’ ” Barrow said. “The neighbors did a lot. All I did was operate the boat.
“The key to the operation was to have Holly [Davies] and knowledgeable neighbors that cared enough about each other to want to risk going back into the floodwaters to make sure their neighbors were OK,” he said. “G-d was watching over us that day.”
Rescues involving homeowners and their pets were particularly emotional, the airboat pilot noted.
One involved residents who refused to abandon their cat, which was going crazy as conditions in their one-story flooded home worsened. The family also had a dog that was equally scared.
Morgan Davies volunteered to take care of the cat and secure it in a kennel for transport. In the process, he suffered bites and scratches to his arms and face.
“Finally, Morgan got the cat into the kennel and that was all the family needed to finally agree to go,” Barrow said. “But, I had to leave Morgan and Jerry [another volunteer], because we had too many people in the boat then. They had to stay in the flooded house until I was able to come back and get them.”
After Barrow made it back to pick them up, they proceeded to the next block to rescue more neighbors, who had posted signs in windows that read: “Help Airboat!”
“It happened that the father in that family is a doctor, who saw Morgan and gave him antibiotics to treat the cat bites,” Barrow said. “All of that turned out perfect – to be able to save this family and Morgan was able to get treatment from this skilled physician in the neighborhood.”
Barrow, a local attorney, was back home in First Colony on Monday evening, concerned about the Brazos River cresting sometime tomorrow.
“There’s water about 30 feet from our house right now,” he said. “We’re watching that carefully.
“I have my boat ready,” he said.
Read more from the JHV on Hurricane Harvey
Ken Barrow showed up on his 18-foot-long airboat Sunday, Aug. 27, at around noon after Holly Davies, who is helping to lead an emergency response team in the neighborhood, reached out to Barrow’s brother, a Houston Police officer who has served the Willow Meadows community.
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Ken Barrow piloted an airboat that rescued more than 100 residents in Willow Meadows on Aug. 27 after Hurricane Harvey cause catastrophic flood damage to the neighborhood. |
Soon after the category 4 hurricane made landfall on Friday night, Aug. 25, local authorities, overwhelmed by the volume of emergency calls, urged citizens with small water craft to aid in rescue operations.
Barrow followed GPS coordinates to Davies’ home, where she provided him with a list of residents who were in desperate need of rescue after floodwaters tore through their homes.
“We went block by block, just trying to help as many people as we could,” Barrow told the JHV the next day.
“Everywhere we went, there were residents in single-story houses, especially, that had dire need to get out,” he said. “Many elderly, many with pets.”
Able to carry up to a dozen passengers at a time, Barrow’s airboat managed to ferry more than 100 people to safety. Most were taken to Willow Meadows Baptist church, and others were dropped off at multi-story neighborhood houses.
The boat worked on the water as Coast Guard helicopters flew overhead, performing single-person rescue operations. Rain in the area continued to fall throughout the afternoon and early evening.
The airboat measures 15-feet-high, so Barrow had to carefully avoid power lines and tree branches as he navigated the flooded streets.
Holly Davies’ son, Morgan, and other volunteers assisted Barrow in the boat rescues.
“Those guys jumped in the water and guided the airboat right up to the houses in order to get to the people who needed it,” Barrow said.
Barrow belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and said he learned to love volunteer work through LDS. He said he’s been involved in hurricane-relief efforts since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but this was the first time he deployed his airboat for a rescue operation.
“Conditions in Willow Meadows were such that other boats couldn’t get in, because on one end, the waters where too shallow for other boats to get through, and on the other end, waters were too deep,” Barrow said. “The airboat was perfect, because it could carry a lot of people, plus it has a 500-horsepower motor on the back that propels it. There’s nothing touching the bottom, so it can glide over the water without worrying about running over sunken debris. It goes over everything.”
Barrow said neighbors helped him help them.
“They said: ‘Let me help you. I have to go to this person’s home – let’s check her house to see if we can pick her up,’ ” Barrow said. “The neighbors did a lot. All I did was operate the boat.
“The key to the operation was to have Holly [Davies] and knowledgeable neighbors that cared enough about each other to want to risk going back into the floodwaters to make sure their neighbors were OK,” he said. “G-d was watching over us that day.”
Rescues involving homeowners and their pets were particularly emotional, the airboat pilot noted.
One involved residents who refused to abandon their cat, which was going crazy as conditions in their one-story flooded home worsened. The family also had a dog that was equally scared.
Morgan Davies volunteered to take care of the cat and secure it in a kennel for transport. In the process, he suffered bites and scratches to his arms and face.
“Finally, Morgan got the cat into the kennel and that was all the family needed to finally agree to go,” Barrow said. “But, I had to leave Morgan and Jerry [another volunteer], because we had too many people in the boat then. They had to stay in the flooded house until I was able to come back and get them.”
After Barrow made it back to pick them up, they proceeded to the next block to rescue more neighbors, who had posted signs in windows that read: “Help Airboat!”
“It happened that the father in that family is a doctor, who saw Morgan and gave him antibiotics to treat the cat bites,” Barrow said. “All of that turned out perfect – to be able to save this family and Morgan was able to get treatment from this skilled physician in the neighborhood.”
Barrow, a local attorney, was back home in First Colony on Monday evening, concerned about the Brazos River cresting sometime tomorrow.
“There’s water about 30 feet from our house right now,” he said. “We’re watching that carefully.
“I have my boat ready,” he said.
Read more from the JHV on Hurricane Harvey
Reader Comments
Trevor • trevor.rowe@aggiemail.usu.eduAUG 29, 2017 • Ken Barrow, one of the most helpful and humble people I know. I haven't seen him since I graduated high school but I wouldn't expect anything less.