The calls became more frequent, and Marion Harris could sense the growing concern in her son's voice.

Days away from Auburn's season opener against Georgia Southern, Kam Martin's heart and mind were 629 miles away in his hometown of Port Arthur, Texas -- located on the Gulf of Mexico and less than two hours east of Houston -- where his family dealt with the devastation of Hurricane Harvey. After the storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane between Port Aransas and Port O'Connor, the effects were felt in the ensuing days in Martin's hometown, which was engulfed by more than 47 inches of rain.

On Tuesday night, Port Arthur mayor Derrick Freeman posted on Facebook that the "whole city is underwater right now."

"Kam kept calling," Harris said Saturday night outside of Martin's dorm. "'Hey, how y'all doing?' He kept calling, 'Hey, how y'all doing?' He calls us, but he was calling real often.... You could just tell in his voice that he really wanted us down here (in Auburn). He loves his city, but you could tell he wanted us down here (with him)."

Martin, Auburn's sophomore running back, felt helpless as he watched his city, his family and his friends suffer from one of the worst storms in American history.

His family's home flooded, causing damage to the floorboards, which "bulked" up from the rising waters, according to Martin's father, Howard Harris. The garage was waterlogged, Howard Harris lost a car in the floods, and Martin's family was without power for days. They survived on stored water, sandwiches and the kindness of a nearby Dairy Queen owner. Several of Martin's relatives throughout the area were evacuated -- some helicoptered to nearby cities like San Antonio, Austin and Dallas -- as their homes also became submerged.

The most damaging loss of all, though, was that of Sarah Henry, Martin's great aunt. Henry, 59, lost her life after flood waters trapped her in her house and prevented her from receiving daily dialysis treatments. Howard Harris, with his lifted 2005 Dodge Ram truck, tried to get to her house to help and check on her, but the flood waters were too high to wade through. When the police were finally able to get to her, it was too late.

"It hurt. It still hurts," Howard Harris said. "We're just taking it one day, one minute at a time, man."

That news was especially difficult for Martin. Henry used to watch him at times when he was younger, and Martin's mother said the two were particularly close. As the reality of the personal toll dealt by the storm set in, all Martin could do was cry.

"It's been tough," Martin said. "I just been praying to God just to keep me on the right track because at one point in time I was just crying."

Martin's family had twice evacuated Port Arthur due to storms -- once in 2005 for Hurricane Rita and again in 2008 with Hurricane Ike. Martin, then a child, was with them both times and remembers it well. This time, however, his family stayed put; there was no mandatory evacuation, and local news projected just tropical storm-force weather for the area.

They were hardly prepared for what was to come.

"It was all difficult," Howard Harris said. "It was just a bad experience just living through that. Me and my wife, actually we were in the house and we just kept going to sleep trying to hope that when we woke up the rain stopped. We just kept in touch with Kam because we knew it was a burden on his shoulders and he had a game coming up and Kam was worried"

While Martin's family was trapped in their home for days, they weren't impacted nearly as bad as some of their fellow Port Arthurans. Floor damage was nothing compared to what his parents saw around them -- what Howard Harris described as "devastating" and a "disaster" -- as families waded through more than three feet of water with their belongings in tow, wrapped in plastic bags.

Howard Harris did what he could to help when he was able to leave the house, using his work truck to help rescue and transport what he estimates to be 80 people from their homes to nearby shelters.

Back in Auburn, Martin became restless. He lay awake at night worrying about his loved ones back in Texas. He kept calling his mom just to make sure everyone else was alright. They were OK, although they were scared and in danger.

"We didn't have no food or anything, no places to go get food, so it was real tough," Martin said. "But I just told them we're going to get through this."

At one point, Marion Harris' phone died and she had to wait for the floodwaters to subside so she could to make it to the car to recharge the battery. The scope of the damage, the uncertainty and the distance made it hard for Martin, and his mom could tell.

The family initially had to cancel their weekend trip to Auburn to see Martin play. They planned to rent a van and make the trip with several other family members. Harvey changed that.

As the concern grew in Martin's voice with each ensuing phone call, Marion Harris turned to her maternal instinct: She told her husband they needed to get away and see their son. Martin's parents and his 13-year-old sister, Harlee Harris, hopped in Howard Harris' truck -- with worn tires and more than 221,000 miles on it -- and headed for Auburn late Thursday night.

Howard Harris, familiar with the back roads in the area thanks to his job as a Cameron employee helping to build energy plants throughout Texas, navigated a route through the flooded streets and arrived in Auburn around 2 a.m. Friday. They were in the stands Saturday night as Martin and No. 12 Auburn throttled Georgia Southern, 41-7.

It became a performance that Martin afterward called "real special."

Following a suspension to Kamryn Pettway and a second-quarter injury to Kerryon Johnson, Martin was given the most prominent role of his career against an FBS opponent. The 5-foot-10, 182-pounder had 14 carries for 136 yards and a touchdown, including a career-long run of 61 yards. It was the second-best performance of Martin's career after he rushed for 176 yards and two scores against FCS Alabama A&M last November.

"Kam's gone through a lot this week, more than a lot of people know," Auburn quarterback and fellow Texas native Jarrett Stidham said. "I can't even fathom really what he's going through, just with Port Arthur and his family. It's pretty heartbreaking stuff, but he stepped up tonight. He was locked in all week regardless of what was happening back home. He stepped up in a big way tonight and I was super happy for him."

The defining moment for Martin came in the third quarter, when he ripped off a 36-yard touchdown run to give Auburn a 24-7 lead with 4:53 to play. As the hole opened up on the right side and Martin saw the end zone, his thoughts immediately drifted toward Port Arthur and all those still displaced by Harvey.

"When he made the touchdown, I just -- I was like, that was for the town," Howard Harris said. "That was for Hurricane Harvey. It felt good.... It lifted a lot of people up. Before the game, they were giving shouts out to him, like 'Go, Kam Martin; do it for the town. We're going through something, lift us up some type of way.' He broke for the touchdown, you know, it felt real good, man."

It was a brief reprieve for Martin -- who donned a t-shirt that read "Texas Tough" after the game -- and his family, as well as those back in Port Arthur keeping tabs on one of their favorite sons. Martin's family will return home Sunday, and reality will once again set in. There's still work to be done: damage to assess, repairs to be made, insurance companies to deal with.

"It's a tragedy, but we're still living, still breathing so it's a triumph," Howard Harris said.

As the waters recede, there will be more pieces to pick up and a life to rebuild.

"We'll take it one day at a time and just rebuild and regroup from there," Marion Harris said. "That's all we can do."