paul, i believe we have you somewhere. talk me through what we re looking at. reporter: we ll look at these pictures directly, brooke. we are in west houston. this is where the addicks levee over topped for the first time in its history. this is the both of another one of these volunteers of goodwill, ray driver, and they re helping these people out of this boat right now and you can see they re standing in knee-deep water, more than knee-deep water, and what we re seeing is these people these good samaritans have jumped into the breach and helped out however and wherever they could with whatever they could. this obviously is a boat. we ve seen them literally come through here, brooke, in dump trucks. we ve seen national guard carriers come through here. we ve seen so many different scenarios, and you can hear someone behind me clapping right now. the manjat family also just got
have been helped in the past. so, that s what we re trying to do. reporter: well, i think your name is rather appropriate, it s ray driver. i think that s fitting because he s been driving a lot of these people who were just awash in misery out of their homes, and this is hold up they w they re . we ll call it the houston volunteer navy. it has been doing wonders for people who are stranded. there s just not enough, as you can see, government boats and government vehicles, although we have one to our right, it s these volunteers who are keeping this effort alive, people just like ray driver who have gone out here and have rescued person after person and a as we are talking, brooke, if you can look down here, gabe, yet another kitty rescued and that s also important to so many people that their pets get out of here. they don t want to leave any of them behind and they smartly had a whole batch of pet carriers. i ll throw it back to you, brooke. i can hear a helicopter going overhead.
houston, and again, what was really important was that they get people out of this neighborhood after the addicks levee overtopped for the first time in its history, and something off in the distance is being held by one of these volunteers. perhaps we can t see it clearly. this could be the medicine that they re looking for. okay, paul, let me jump in. can you hear me? reporter: i can, brooke. so, i mean, it s incredible to watch this unfold right before our very eyes. can you ask these the guy so this is a private boat. is that what you re saying? this is a private rescue. that s a gentleman we re looking at and the guy in the green and the water. can you ask them why they wanted to do this. reporter: yes. hang on. ray, real quick question here. you know, we were talking earlier about how you came down here and what was it that what was it about what you saw that inspired you? i flooded before. i know what it s like. it s tough. just trying to help. just trying to h
reporter: you re a hero to a lot of people. you know that. no. it s what we do. it s what we do. reporter: how long have you been at it? oh, just a few hours. we ve been protecting our home, you know, up to this point. so, now that the water s up, it s time to get out and help. reporter: ray, what runs through your mind when you see the cats rescued, the children rescued, these people and the look on their faces when you show up. real happy. very happy. proud to be a texan. reporter: i ve observe add l observed a lot of this selflessness from houstonian. describe that. it s all over the place. there s thousands of people helping people all over the city, all over the region. a lot of this is through church groups right here so everybody just comes together. everybody s been through, you know, different events before. and so, people help others that