HOUSTON – Gov. Greg Abbott came to the Lone Star Flight Museum at Ellington Field to honor locals in the South Belt/Ellington area for their rescue and recovery efforts during Hurricane Harvey.
First responders, medical professionals, regular citizens -- some whose own homes were flooded -- who answered the call when their community was under siege were honored.
One of the honorees was 17-year-old Reena Benitez who, despite the conditions last year, put herself at risk to volunteer in the recovery. Reena waded through two miles of water to make it to a recovery set up at her high school, Pasadena Dobie.
"I told my mom, 'Mom please let me go somewhere, let me find somewhere to volunteer, somewhere close,'" Reena recalled. "Luckily, my school opened up."
Also honored were several neighborhood associations. They included members of the Highland Meadows area -- one of dozens of neighborhoods inundated with damage and flooding from Harvey and another example of Houstonians helping each other get back on their feet.
But most of the heroes assembled here don't think their actions were heroic.
"It seems odd to be singled out for doing something that you should do," said Stan Bragg from Highland Meadows. "Everybody in our neighborhood just came together. All the people needed to be honored. If everybody that did something for somebody else had to be honored then this meeting would've taken eight hours."