Hurricane Harvey Still Haunts Katoya Brocks

Katoya Brocks is relieved that her daughter was not home the night their house erupted in flames.

“If it wasn’t for our company Christmas party my daughter would have been in that room that night,” Brocks said. Luckily, her daughter was still at the babysitter’s.

That’s what Brocks is most grateful for after a challenging 2017.

The night of her company’s Christmas party, Brocks fell asleep fatigued from chemotherapy. Brocks suffers from lesions on her brain and of stage 2 cancer on her back and began chemotherapy in June. She has seizures and issues with her vision but still maintains a job. The night of the fire, she woke up to her neighbor trying to get her out of the burning home.

“The neighbor was banging— I heard banging, banging and banging. ‘Your house is on fire, you have to get out of there’ and I jumped up,” Brocks said.

Brocks still doesn’t understand how she managed to sleep through the extreme heat and smoke. She remembers walking through the darkness of the smoke.

“I couldn’t breathe. You couldn’t see anything because it was really dark with black smoke and it was hot, extremely hot,” Brocks said.

The Houston Fire Department said the fire was ruled accidental and the electrical system was a contributing factor.

Revisiting the Home

Five weeks after the fire, Brocks visited her home again for the first time. She describes the smell as “a little bit of mixture of something spoiled and something burning all mixed together.” She used her cane to look through her belongings scattered on the floor for anything to salvage.

Starting Over

After spending a couple weeks at a hotel after the fire, Brocks started her search for a new home. And after compiling all of the money from both her checking and savings account she realized it was not enough.

“And everyone was telling me they wanted first month’s rent, last month’s rent and a deposit and I’m like, I can’t afford that,” she said.

Brocks continued her search until she found an ad for a home listed on The Greensheet weekly circular. She called the owner, who was holding the house for someone else and waiting for a deposit. That deal fell through in Brocks’ favor and 30 minutes later she received a call.

Brocks and her daughter now have have a new roof over their heads. She feels grateful to have a new place after the series of trials she faced in 2017 and is now stressing over buying new furniture and appliances she will need.

“It’s still stressful, you know, trying to get everything all over again and you trying to make your daughter’s life as simple and normal as possible,” Brocks said.

She is trying to remain positive but the memory of smoke still lingers in her head.

“I always smell something burning and I just can’t sleep, and Nayla always was a kid to sleep in her own room but I won’t allow her to sleep in her room now. I can’t,” Brocks said.

Brocks said everyone tells her she needs to let her daughter sleep alone but the fire is still so fresh and she can’t find the strength to let her yet.