When Hurricane Harvey hit, Ramit Plushnick-Masti and her husband Rafi told their three sons to pack a small bag of their most important possessions. Their teenage son first grabbed his tefillin. In the midst of the chaos and tragedy, they knew they had passed down an important value.
In her Associated Press article, Ramit describes their escape from the hurricane: “We sat on the kitchen counters. The water hit the top panel of the dishwasher. It was 12:30 p.m. It was clear we needed to do something other than just wait. I posted on Facebook that we needed someone with a boat in Meyerland to get us out. The two older boys and my husband got on the roof to try to flag down boats going down what had once been Wigton Drive, but was now a roaring river. People shared the post, and quickly we got on an evacuation list put together by a neighborhood rabbi who had organized some people with motorboats to evacuate residents. At 2PM, a boat arranged by the rabbi arrived. The water in our house was waist high. We needed to get out from the laundry room. The washing machine had turned on its side in the water, and so had the stand-up freezer. We climbed over it and out into the driveway.”
They lost everything, including their cars. After the hurricane, they discovered that their insurance on the contents of the house had not been transferred. The cost topped $50,000.
Ramit and Rafi reached out to Hebrew Free Loan. An interest-free loan enabled them to rebuild their home. The family is hopeful for what the future holds, and incredibly grateful for the support they received from the community.
