A week ago Butler native Brian Ward, a golf pro at a country club in Katy, Texas, just west of Houston, was living a relatively normal life by Hurricane Harvey standards.

Ward, his wife Erin and their 10-year-old son, Andrew, were safe in their home at the Canyon Gate subdivision of Cinco Ranch. It had been raining since Friday, but there seemed to be little reason for concern.

“We felt pretty good about where we were,” Brian Ward said.

Still, with the bayou about 100 yards behind the development rising and the rains not letting up, Ward and his family decided they'd rather be safe than sorry. They would pack up one of the family's two vehicles — a Chevrolet Suburban — and go stay at the Woodlands subdivision, at a home owned by a member of the golf club where Ward works.

They got about two blocks before water swamped the Suburban, making it impossible to leave the development. Even before public officials began to announce voluntary evacuations, the Wards were effectively trapped in their neighborhood.

Still, Ward said, he wasn't overly concerned. They had been to the store and stocked up on food; the house — a rental the family was planning to stay in for a year before buying a home in Katy — still had electricity. And neighbors two houses down, who had lived through tropical storm Allison's devastating landfall in 2001, were confident.

Canyon Gate wasn't going to flood, they told the Wards. A 20-foot retaining wall and a football field's worth of grass separated the bayou from the Wards' home. Allison's wrath hadn't touched the development's 716 houses, and neither would Harvey's.

As the rains continued throughout Saturday and Sunday, the neighbor's confidence seemed well-founded.

Then came Monday.

Ward's street began flooding — the water creeping up the family's driveway, prompting Ward to move the family's vehicles closer to their house. By about 2 p.m. that day, the tide began seeping into their house and the family called for a Coast Guard evacuation.

It wouldn't be until about six hours later, the water sloshing around their knees and the family's two dogs confined to the second floor of a neighbor's home, that a rescue boat would appear. It was the last boat Coast Guard officials had sent out that day.

With a “torrential” downpour soaking the family and their pets to the bone, Brian, Erin and Andrew were taken by a series of boats to a drop-off point. Brian Ward said they had nothing but the clothes on their backs, his wallet, and the family's passports, which were still in a travel bag from a trip to Canada earlier this year. The dogs, their leashes lost to the flood, were being led with extension cords.

Not knowing what to do, the family walked to a nearby gas station, where they called the club member who had offered up his home days earlier and secured a place to stay. But they still faced a problem: no way to get to the home.

That problem was solved, Ward said, by a complete stranger, who offered them a ride, ferried them to the Woodlands, and firmly refused Ward's attempts to pay him for the trouble.

Ward never expected to see the man again, but a day or so later he came calling — this time to return a small bag of items, including the cell phone Erin Ward had forgotten that night. Still blown away by the man's kindness from earlier, Brian Ward said he didn't know what to say other than “thank you.” He still marvels at how selfless volunteers who responded to the crisis have been.

“It kind of renews your faith in humanity,” Ward said.

While friends and neighbors have shown kindness to the Wards, Harvey has not. The last time Ward checked, the family's rental home was under seven feet of water. The vehicles were swamped, and everything they owned has effectively been destroyed. With the academic year upon them, Brian and Erin Ward have been doing what they can to get Andrew outfitted for school.

In the wake of this devastation, Brian Ward's siblings, Adam and Erin, have set up an online crowdfunding page to raise money and help the family get back on its feet. Set up through the organization YouCaring, the page has received plenty of attention — both from Butler residents who remember Ward from his time at Butler High School, where he was a varsity soccer, baseball and basketball player, and from the family's friends in other communities.

By Friday morning, the effort had raised nearly $19,000 from more than 100 donors.

Ward called the outpouring of support, both online and on the ground in Texas “overwhelming.”

“The best thing that I can do is just say thank you,” he said. “I don't know what else to say. It's been amazing. It's a little overwhelming right now, but we'll get through it. It's just stuff, and we're OK. That's the main thing.”

For Ward's parents, who still live in Butler, the disaster in Houston has brought a national crisis close to home.

“You see these things on TV; you look at it and you're very empathetic, but it doesn't hit home until it becomes personal,” said Steve Ward, Brian's father. “You don't imagine until it becomes personal. We're overwhelmed with people — a lot that we know, but a lot that we don't know. It's just incredible what people have been doing.”

Karen, Ward's mother, said monetary donations are the best way to help the family at this point. She tried to use Amazon to order supplies for the family, and was told by the company that what would normally be a two day delivery was expected to take two weeks. She called the response to the family's fundraising efforts a blessing.

“It just makes you feel so blessed to have so many good people in your life,” she said. “Butler's a wonderful community. We're just blessed to be a part of it.”

To find out more about the fundraising effort, or to donate, you can visit the YouCaring page here: https://www.youcaring.com/briananderinwardfamily-918947.