Shipping error leaves Baytown family without stored belongings after Harvey

HOUSTON – They don’t talk about recovery much at the Mcanall home in Baytown these days.

“It’s sad,” Richard Mcanall said. “I mean you want to do something, but you can’t.”

After Hurricane Harvey flooded their cars and their home, the Mcanalls packed what was left into six large U-Haul boxes, which the company moved to storage facilities.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency paid for the Mcanalls to stay at a hotel for two weeks while the house was cleaned.

The family asked U-Haul to return their boxes, but the company found only two of them. Richard called U-Haul every day for a week until the company found two more.

Still missing were the family’s pots and pans, dishes, extra clothes, medicine, toys and, mostly importantly, beds.

“When I came home, we thought, I’ll have my bed to sleep in,” said Doloris Mcanall, who is 88.

Instead, she sleeps in a chair. Her granddaughter Ava sleeps on a mattress on the floor.

For nearly three weeks, Richard called U-Haul looking for the missing two boxes. Every time, he was told they could not be found.

A few days ago, he learned one of the boxes was found and would be shipped later this week.

“I don’t believe it until I actually see it,” Richard said. “Because that’s the way it is.”

When KPRC called U-Haul, the company was able to locate the final missing box. A company spokesperson said it had been “mis-shipped” to Reno, Nevada, due to a “human error.”

The spokesperson said the missing box will be returned to the family “as soon as possible.”

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