Watch Photographer Evacuate Mom and Dogs From Harvey's Devastating Flooding | National Geographic

I'm a photojournalist typically based in Istanbul and from Texas. Right now, I have to be visiting my family in Houston, and this is what we're dealing with. I'm in about a foot of water; it's getting worse by the minute, and I'm about to evacuate my mother to higher ground. Yeah, they're expecting two more feet of water at least, so we'll see. Water has started to come in; water is literally seeping into our house as I make this video. It's at the doorstep coming in, so we're trying to get clocks, furniture, anything that's valuable, jewelry down or up from ground level.

We're thinking about evacuating with her three dogs to a place that is a little bit safer. I'm sorry, mom, if I'm attached so much. Ah, hold on to their bags and push therap; there we go, like that! I'll carry one of them, okay? We're gonna switch rats when you get close to me. Waist-deep right now, trying to get higher; the dogs, there's one down there, and my mom's got her 19-year-old dachshund in a trash bin, going against the current right now. It'll take about 45 minutes we're walking.

Yeah, we can do it! I walked to your house the other day. We're walking to a garage apartment. I'm on Highway 610, one of Houston's major highways that loops around the city. There's people hitchhiking on the side of the road, if you can see them; it looks like they're in trouble. Luckily, I got my mom to safety—she's in a neighbor's house. We were trying to wade over to where I'm staying, which is only about less than a quarter of a mile away, and she couldn't make it. She's got too much stuff and three dogs.

So, I'm going to go try to get my cameras now. After walking about a quarter to half a mile, I finally reached dry land. I got my cameras; now all my stuff is dry. I'm staying on the second story of the house, so luckily this house hasn't been flooded yet. I'm about to go back in the water to go check on my sister; she was about half a mile away, so we'll see, though. I'm literally two houses down from my sister and chest-deep in water. I have to tell you, this is the most nervous I've ever been about dropping a phone. I've got my plastic bag on my tiptoes now.

I think I've been about three miles in the neighborhood. Bel Air, the parameter, I've walked about three miles and this is the worst street where my sister lives. That's her house over there, right behind me, right behind that sign; this is my sister's house. Round two, getting back to dry land.