It's been two months since Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas Gulf Coast.
As Houston and surrounding communities continue to rebuild after catastrophic flooding, North Texas first responders who went there to help reflect on what they saw.
Twenty-three firefighters from Flower Mound made their way to southeast Texas to help out.
"Everything from Houston to Louisiana was essentially a bathtub," recalled Brandon Barth. "I mean, there was just water everywhere."
Capt. Jacob Ventrca helped evacuate nursing homes.
"At one point we moved 160 patients through the airport, through military aircraft," he said. "They were scared. Wet and scared."
Battalion Chief Scott Funderburg led a strike steam that fought house fires.
"We had to wade through three to four feet of water to get down to the house we were actually fighting," he said. "Truly it's hard to describe, because the smells from the water being in these houses was horrible."
They took pictures and recorded videos to document their assignment and said it was the worst natural disaster they've ever seen.
"Sometimes it seems like a war zone, and you're trying to organize that war zone," Ventrca added.
The most difficult part was just getting around.
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"Everything they say on the news not to do, we were doing. But that was the only way to get there," said Battalion Chief Strider Floyd.
Floyd remembers driving late at night on streets covered in water.
"We see an alligator farm, and it's flooded out," he said. "I know they didn't have time to evacuate the alligators, and here we are driving through water and I'm thinking, 'Uh, don't get out of the vehicle!'"
They worked around the clock.
"There was no creature comforts. We were living on peanut butter and bread and MREs," Barth added.
They just wanted to help, and it's a mission they'll never forget.
