A teacher in Plum Grove, Texas had to make the impossible decision to leave behind most of his animals while escaping Hurricane Harvey.
Lester Morrow was able to get his dogs and family to safety before more than 30 inches of rain flooded his 500-acre farm.
Morrow was sure when he returned home that he would have lost everything, and filmed the moment he arrived.
Morrow’s beloved pig Patty came running through the water when she heard his voice
Three horses survived the drastic flooding, though the center one has a leg injury
‘My animals are my hobby and favorite pastime and because they all have their own unique personalities, I love them like my own children,’ Morrow told DailyMail.com.
‘At the moment that I was forced to evacuate all I could do was move them to the highest ground possible, give a hug and kiss and say a prayer for my beloved animals,’ Morrow said.
In the video, he and his fiancee wade through their flooded driveway, noting that many of the items that had floated there weren’t even his.
Suddenly Morrow bursts into tears.
‘Oh my god, there’s Patty,’ he cries. He zooms the video in on a black pig who comes running at the sound of his voice.
‘Oh my god baby, how did you survive that?’ he asks while still crying.
‘Man up, Lester,’ Morrow tells himself.
Meg the pregnant goat stands proudly in front of the Texas flag after Harvey
Irma Jean the donkey hurt her legs, but Morrow and his fiancee are nursing her back to health
He can’t help but let out another sob when he sees his pet goat Meg in the distance.
Patty finally reaches Morrow and he pets her and says: ‘I know you’re so scared baby. F****** pig has so many lives I swear.’
Morrow keeps pushing through the water and then sees three of his horses. Before he can reach the equines, he breaks down again because he sees several dead goats caught on the fence.
He tells the horses how good they are and notes that one of the horses’ legs is broken.
Morrow then goes to see his goat Meg, but she was too scared to let him approach her.
Ima Jean, his donkey, is laying on the ground with all four legs tucked under her. Morrow is worried that her legs may be broken and that she can’t stand.
Morrow posted a picture of Patty the pig after they were reunited
Patty can swim, which is how Morrow thinks she survived the hurricane and flooding
Before Morrow was forced to evacuate, he carried the smallest animals to the deck around his above ground pool since it was the highest point on his property. He dropped an entire bag of feed stock for them since he didn’t know how long he would be gone for.
When he left, the horses and donkey were freestanding with water up to their knees. As the water increased, his fears for the little animals only grew.
‘Later that evening I got a picture from my neighbor showing the water up to my roof of my home. I knew at that point the little animals were gone. That was a very hard night,’ Morrow told DailyMail.com
About 17 of Morrow’s animals died during Harvey. However, baby goats, a pregnant goat, Ima Jean, several horses, and of course Patty, survived the storm.
‘Returning home two days later I had never expected to see Patty or my goats alive. That’s why the emotional outburst was so raw and intense- I had already mourned them and l, just hoped that they died fast and were together to comfort each other,’ Morrow said.
Morrow proudly shows off Meg, the pregnant goat who survived the storm
Morrow joked that Meg survived the storm because she likes to stand on other animals
Morrow and his fiancee are currently nursing Ima Jean the donkey back to health.
He believes that Patty survived because she can swim and joked that Meg survived because she likes standing on top of other animals.
The family has set up a GoFundMe to help rebuild fences and barns, resupply hay and feeds and get his pets and livestock back to as normal a life as possible.
Morrow lost his home in the flood, but acknowledges that people with less have lost more so he is hesitant to ask for help.
‘For my farm equipment and animal care- feed, hay, barn, etc… I did open the GoFundMe in case those with resources want to financially help,’ he said.
The hardest part of everything, despite losing my home, a few of my beloved pets, and all the other financial pains, having to explain to my 17-year-old son why I left without taking all the animals,’ Morrow said.
‘He is more of an animal lover than even me, which is almost close to impossible, and he was the hardest to accept the harsh reality. Even now there is a distance between us that wasn’t there before. Having your own son question your decisions is difficult. That is the part that may linger the longest from all of this,’ Morrow said.
Morrow found several of his goats dead trapped in a fence