CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — It was a rude awakening around 6 a.m. Thursday for Dan Zamora.
Inches of water were flowing into his home situated right between Robstown and Calallen.
He used towels and blankets in hopes of sopping up some of the mess.
Zamora's wife even tried a bucket and a mop but to no avail.
“She tried to fight the water so to speak, but it was a losing battle," Zamora said. "It was too much of it was flowing in.”
By the afternoon, most of the water had flowed out of his home, but water still stands in other Coastal Bend homes from round after round of heavy rain.
Businesses are flooded too, and it means a flood of customers for companies that rent pumps for water removal.
“It’s very high demand," United Rentals Corpus Christi Branch Manager Jeff Quimby said. "Anything that’s available to rent is going out the door right now."
Quimby's company mostly serves large businesses, like refineries, and city governments.
So many of them are reaching out for pump rentals right now that he's having to get creative to fulfill their needs like leaning on other United Rentals locations.
“If we run out of pumps we’ll find pumps from somewhere else," Quimby said. "We’ll continue to work with other branches around the nation to truck those things in. Really just anything we can to take care of the customer.”
Zamora won't need a pump, but he will have to pay for a company to vacuum the remaining water out of his house.
Then contractors can begin replacing flooring and drywall among other things.
Insurance money will cover most if not all of the expenses, and that's helping Zamora look at the bright side.
"At least we’re not on the roof waiting for someone to rescue us," he said. "It’s not that bad. These are things. It’s only water. It’s inconvenient, but at least we’re still safe.”
