GRANGERLAND, Texas - Under the pines and the sweet gums, surrounded by goats and dogs and cats, Stephen Hause and his family scratched out an idyllic if hardscrabble country life on a meatcutter's salary.
But now, the floods ravaging southeast Texas have swept the Hause family's life away.
Hause's home - and that of his wife's mother, a double-wide trailer next door - is wrecked. The goats, many of the cats, and a good many belongings are gone, swept away by a raging creek.
The furniture is tumbled over and soaked, the floor heaving up where water drenched it, the plumbing torn away and the windows smashed: "It's gone," says a tearful Hause. "Washed away."
From Grangerland to Houston and south to the Gulf of Mexico, thousands of people spent Wednesday recovering from the flooding that some residents say hasn't been equalled since 1939.
After three days of storms that dumped as much as 30 inches of rain, the sun finally came out over the Houston area Wednesday. And most city schools will reopen today.
But 10 people were confirmed dead, five are missing and presumed drowned, and forecasters predict more rain .
"My whole life savings, everything, is gone," says Greg Lundahl, 39, standing where a road in Humble, just north of Houston, ends in the water. "I lost my dog, two cars, everything. I saw when my car was stacked up against the front door. Now I hear the car went through the whole house."
The flooding Wednesday was heaviest in east and northeast Houston, even as the downtown recovered a semblance of normality.
Twenty-three public school systems were closed along with uncounted businesses.
Boat, truck and helicopter rescues continued.
Some officials worried that continuing rains would cause the disaster to reach record proportions: "When Mother Nature throws us a curve like this, there's only so much we can do," says Art Story, executive director of the Harris County Flood Control District.
About 45 miles east of Houston in flood-prone Liberty County, authorities are watching the Trinity River, fearing it could challenge the 100-year flood that hit the area in 1991.
One classic-car collector lost 200 cars - cars he said amounted to $1.5 million in uninsured property.
But perhaps it was people like the Hauses who hurt most.
"Both of these houses are paid for - everything's paid for," says Hause, 49. "We just paid off the washer and dryer on Saturday. Us not being able to afford insurance, I don't know what we're going to do. It's a nightmare."
For 15 years, Hause and his wife, Pat, have struggled on his salary and her work at an answering service in Conroe. They planted trees, gardened, and made their house a home to a score of animals - animals that perhaps caused the worst pain of all for the Hauses.
"I'm not going to have any more animals after this," says Pat, her eyes red-rimmed from a day of weeping.
"Well," says Pat's elderly mother, Anna Wade, who lived in the double-wide, "I've lived most of my life. I've had quite a bit, and I've had nothing.
"So I guess it's just drop down to nothing again. It's easier to laugh than cry."
Bush Sharpe's father lost 10 rental houses, in Humble, to the rampaging waters.
But Sharpe did save his children's photos - by chopping through a second floor wall from a boat, then climbing into the attic.
Back in Grangerland, at the hotel where the Hause family is staying, Anna Wade sighed as her family got ready for bed.
"Oh my," she said, passing a hand over her forehead slowly. Then she went in for the night.
Contributing: Paul Hoversten
Southeastern Texas hit hard
Harris County, where Houston is located, reported 28.9 inches of rain from Sunday through Tuesday. Rainfall amounts reported in some of the other hard-hit cities of southeastern Texas for the same three days:
