The Howard family was cold and wet when they arrived at the Red Cross shelter, with only one thing on their minds---staying together.

Their wish was fulfilled at Glenn Hills Middle School, where they found cots, warm blankets and caring volunteers to provide shelter.

Just hours before, Nicole Howard and her seven kids had been enjoying the rain. They thought nothing of the few inches that covered the street outside, and a few of the kids even went out to play.

“When it started raining, we didn’t think it would get that bad. But things got worse fast,” Nicole remembers.

As the water rose in the street, so did Nicole’s concern. She called the kids in, and they started watching the water---first in their basement, then in the driveway. They started to measure the water by how high the level was on her sports utility vehicle parked outside.

“We just kept watching and it kept coming up,” she says. “I was so scared, I didn’t know what to do.”

When the water in the basement reached the top step of the basement steps, Nicole called her husband and asked him to come home. However, no matter what road he tried, he was unable to reach their stranded family through the flooded streets. Eventually, his car stalled from the water.

Meanwhile, Nicole and her kids decided to brave the water to find help. They gathered basic necessities and joined their neighbors walking through the waist-high water.

“People were walking with babies on their shoulders,” she recalls. “We were bunched together just trying to get somewhere safe.”

Once they reached the shelter at Glen Hills safely, Nicole’s thoughts shifted to another purpose: keeping everyone together. None of their friends’ homes were large enough to hold their large family, so they opted to stay at the shelter until they could find a home for everyone. They did not want to be split up.

The next day, they returned to their home to find a damaged foundation and a water line that covered their entire first floor. The only thing the family could save was their beds and refrigerator, though they tried to find anything---anything---they could save.

“We opened the bottom of the stove and it was filled with water,” she says sadly. “We lost all the kids’ clothes because I was doing laundry the next day. Everything was in the basement. They lost all their shoes---we couldn’t even save the shoes they wore to the shelter because the smell of sewage never came out.”

For now, the only thing the family has is their makeshift home at the Red Cross shelter. Every morning they leave their cots to go to sports practices, to get things fixed, launder their clothes and look for a new home. Every night they return to their temporary home, full of hope and a busy to do list. One of Nicole’s sons studies for his SATs whenever he can at the shelter, and Nicole is getting herself ready to return to college in a few short weeks. She knows she doesn’t have much right now, but is happy for what she has---a place to stay.

“It’s been so nice, that we’ve been able to stay together. This was the best place for us,” she says with a smile. “Reality is setting in. We lost so much, like our baby pictures in the basement. We’ll never get those back. But the most important thing was that we were able to stay together.”