(CBS) — It is an image that is quickly coming to define Hurricane Harvey.
The picture shows stranded senior citizens — many suffering from dementia — in a Dickinson, Texas, nursing home. They were stuck in flood waters up to their waists.
The owners’ daughter and son-in-law, Kim and Tim McIntosh, went to Twitter and looked online for a lifeline.
“We were desperate, desperate to get someone there and given we couldn’t get through to anybody I felt nobody was listening,” Kim told CBS News.
Their tweet went viral, and within a few hours, the residents were rescued.
Among the most vulnerable during Harvey have been the elderly.
Henrietta Belle, 94, was trapped in her house with her daughter and when the water rose 2 feet above her head.
They waited to be rescued with their neighbors.
“I’m feeling a little tired … I’m glad to be here … I want to go in and sit down put my feet up and get something to eat,” Belle said, laughing.
Other stranded residents took care of a sick 95-year-old neighbor while waiting for help.
“We been out here since 7 o’clock,” Jervasia Onezina said in a video interview. “I haven’t eaten and he hasn’t eaten, he’s a diabetic, so they gave him the last crackers, they gave him the last four. I haven’t eaten all day and I take medication along with him, and I’m sure other people out here have medication problems as well.”
As the rescuers continue their work, folks from the photo that went viral decided to take their own picture showing they are safely riding out the rest of the storm.
Those residents are now safe at a nursing facility in Alvin, Texas.
But their family can’t come and visit them. Airports are closed and many of the roads in the Houston area are flooded.
The nursing home, however, told CBS News that everyone is in good spirits.
