HOUSTON--When Daryl Cornett, pastor of Hazard’s First Baptist Church, and his wife, Cindy, traveled to Houston on Aug. 21 for a doctor’s appointment and outpatient surgery later that week, they never imagined that they would spend about two weeks trapped by Hurricane Harvey.

The Cornetts missed three flights, so far, with hopes of catching one on Sept. 1 and reuniting with their son, a student at University of Kentucky, and their middle school-aged daughter, who they have never been away from for quite this long, Cornett said.

Cornett and his wife are safe on the second floor of a west Houston hotel, right across from NRG Stadium. While their street and hotel are not flooded, most of the areas around them are.

“You’re pretty much trapped here. You can’t go anywhere very far,” Cornett said. “The airports are closed. They had flooding there, too,” he added. “It’s just terrible flooding all over the city.”

However, Cindy is recovering well. “Ironically, if you find the best in a situation, she couldn’t be in a better place to be resting,” Cornett said.

“We feel very blessed. You don’t expect something like this to happen, but we have been protected. We have a place to stay, plenty of provisions and the place where we’re staying the staff has been wonderful,” Cornett explained.

Many of the staff have brought their families and are living at the hotel as well. “God has taken care of us,” he added.

Cornett also used this opportunity to emphasize the importance for Send Relief through North American Mission Board and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. “Southern Baptists do disaster relief as well as anybody, maybe the best,” he said, adding, “I’m a little biased, but I believe that’s true.”

He encouraged his congregation and others through social media to go online and give if they want to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey. “Help the people who are already trained and ready to go to get here, and to have everything they need to be onsite as soon as they get the greenlight. It’s the most effective way to help,” he said.

“It’s just been something to watch the local news here and to see what is happening all over this huge city and how many thousands of people are already affected and devastated, and being driven away from their homes,” he continued. “My hearts go out to them. Certainly, they’re in our prayers.

“I guess you sort of feel helpless. There’s just nothing you can do about it. You just sort of have to wait everything out. That’s what we’re doing.”

But Cornett and his wife aren’t ones to complain. “The only thing that’s happened to us is we’ve been inconvenienced and are going to incur a little more cost for our trip than expected. That’s nothing compared to what folks around here are going through,” Cornett concluded. (WR)