The tragic story of Wilma Jean Ellis - this is on the front page of The New York Times today (Sunday, September 17, 2017) and has been promoted by the NYT in a series of tweets:
"The rescue of Wilma Jean Ellis was one of Hurricane Harvey's heroic tales, until it wasn't."
"How did Wilma Jean Ellis, who was rescued twice from Hurricane Harvey's floodwaters caused, end up in a body bag?"
"Catastrophic storms have their measurable aspects. Then there is the unknowable, like how Wilma Jean Ellis perished."
Twice Saved From Houston Floods but Still, Mysteriously, a Victim
The New York Times, Sunday, September 17, 2017 (front page of print edition)
It was a hard choice, but in the end it was no choice at all. A small rescue boat had come up the driveway, offering help. Carl Ellis was with his frail, 73-year-old mother, Wilma Jean. The boat had room for one.
The water was already up to Mr. Ellis’s knees, so there was no time to wait for rescuers with more room. His mother would have to go alone.
Using the back of a pickup truck as a gangplank, Mr. Ellis helped his mother into the boat, her belongings trussed up in garbage bags. There were no life jackets, but it was a short trip and the rescuers promised to come right back for him.
He never saw them — or his mother — again.
The peak of desperation for northeast Houston residents inundated by Hurricane Harvey came on Monday, Aug. 28. Greens Bayou had swelled to a record 43.4 feet where it crossed Tidwell Road, dislodging cars and ripping apartment walls down to their studs.
In the middle-class, predominantly black neighborhood where Ms. Ellis lived in a one-story brick house, people woke in the wee hours to find the water seeping in. Hundreds — if not thousands — of people escaped in watercraft of every description.
The water turned thick and oily, boiling with angry clusters of fire ants.
Sometime around 7 a.m., three men in a boat motored up the driveway of Ms. Ellis’s house on Drifting Winds Drive.
Ms. Ellis was an energetic woman — a committed Jehovah’s Witness who made boudin sausage from scratch, played video games on a Sega Genesis, drove a gargantuan pickup truck with a grille the size of a portcullis and enjoyed the occasional nip of Windsor Canadian.
But she had recently had surgery, followed by a stroke, family members said.
So Mr. Ellis didn’t stop to ask exactly who the men in the boat were — he just helped his mother aboard. She still wore the hospital bracelet from her recent treatment...
READ FULL ARTICLE: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/16/us/hurricane-harvey-houston-wilma-ellis.html
FYI the JW website posted a 'news' article about Hurricane Harvey a couple of days previous, on Thursday...
Witnesses in the United States Cope With Impact of Hurricane Harvey
JWorg, Thursday, September 14, 2017
Approximately 84,000 Witnesses live in the areas impacted by Harvey. No deaths are reported among our brothers and sisters, although nine were injured and five have been hospitalized.
READ FULL ARTICLE: https://www.jw.org/en/news/releases/by-region/united-states/hurricane-harvey-jehovahs-witnesses-cope/
