Melanie De La Rosa and her two daughters were supposed to move to a new home in Houston this week.



All their possessions were packed and in storage in anticipation of relocating to Beamer Road, a better neighbourhood offering a fresh start. Then Hurricane Harvey hit, pitching the family into a vortex which continued to spin almost a week later.

“We lost so much but we’re still here,” said De La Rosa, 42, clutching Secali, 12, and Gaby, 7, at a downtown shelter. “We can start again.”

The drama started last Saturday, even before the storm hit. De La Rosa’s father, Robert, 64, had a diabetic attack. She accompanied him to Memorial Hermann hospital. By the time his condition stabilised rain was hammering down, with warnings of imminent catastrophe.

Melanie De La Rosa with her daughters Gaby, left, and Secali, at a shelter in Houston. Photograph: Rory Carroll/The Guardian

“It was the most horrible experience,” she said. “I was by my dad’s bedside and I knew how much he needed me but I wanted to be with my babies so much. They needed me too. I wasn’t going to let anything happen to them.”

On Sunday, De La Rosa navigated flooding streets and reached her father’s house where her daughters and nine other relatives were sheltering.

The house was safe from flooding but rising waters had trapped a friend, Amy, in her home nearby. De La Rosa’s brother, Jonathan, drove over in his pickup and got her out. “It was up to her chest, she was completely soaked,” Melanie De La Rosa said.

Hunkered down in front of rolling television news, the family shrieked when a reporter for Fox 26, a local channel, turned up in a boat at the inundated house of a cousin, Lee Garcia. “They pulled him into the boat. We had no words.”

It’s been a long and crazy week and now we’re just going to start our lives all over Melanie De La Rosa

Then their Facebook feeds crackled with news that two other cousins, Steve and Jordan Penilla, both children, had tried to escape their home in Cypress on a Jet Ski but tumbled into the swirling murk, their fate unknown. “I was in shock, not able to say much.”

Rumours and anguish pinged across the family’s social networks until confirmation came that the two boys had survived.

With Amy, there was a total of 13 people in a house which normally held four people. De La Rosa’s stepmother, Joanne, made everyone feel welcome, providing bedding, clothing, food and comfort, never asking for a dime, said De La Rosa, who works in real estate.

The enforced intimacy strengthened rather than frayed relationships. “Our family had been a little bit distant. Everybody works and is always busy. But in the time of need we all came together. Cooking and talking, praying, making the kids laugh, watching movies.”

By Wednesday waters had receded around much of central Houston, allowing De La Rosa to investigate the apartment she and her daughters were preparing to leave and the one they were planning to move into. Both were damaged and uninhabitable.

Evacuees take shelter at the George R Brown Convention Center in Houston. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

Another blow came on Thursday: they learned that Harvey had also drenched the public storage unit with their possessions. Much, if not all, was ruined. They have no flood insurance.

So they came to the George R Brown convention centre, which has been turned into a shelter for thousands of displaced people, to select items from mounds of donated clothing.

There were also grateful for a hot dinner – pasta and meatballs – and the kindness of volunteers. “So kind, so kind,” said De La Rosa, tears welling. “When we can, we’ll come back here to volunteer too.”

The storm killed dozens, shredded infrastructure and damaged an estimated 100,000 homes. Some estimate the cost at up to $100bn.

To ease the burden on her stepmother, De La Rosa and her daughters have moved to a friend’s house while she figures out their next steps.

“It’s been a long and crazy week and now we’re just going to start our lives all over,” she said. “But it’s OK.”

The storm had clarified priorities. “Family needs family. We’re grateful that our family survived. You have to be grateful every day and love one another because you never know what’s going to happen.”