KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Pastor Eric Belt is commemorating 20 years at St. Stephen Baptist Church and his family and friends came up from Houston to celebrate with him. Thanks to Hurricane Harvey, all 14 of them are stuck here in Kansas City.
"Harvey has come in and has brought in something that's unexpected and I think something that has never happened in Texas before," Belt said. "It's hurtful to see anyone lose and suffer so much and it's heartbreaking because it came all at once."
Now, he and his wife Debra have opened their home to them, to give them home cooked meals and a comfortable place to wait out the storm.
Acie Jefferson is Belt's pastor, from Pentecostal Missionary Baptist Church of Houston. He's assisted in relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.
"I was intimately aware of what it takes to recover from storms like this one but this one is worse than we've ever seen," said Jefferson.
Now, he's just anxious to get home.
"It's just this desire, this innate desire, to be there to see what actually needs to be done and how I can play a role in that," he said.
Everyone is getting updates from family and friends in Houston. Thankfully their loved ones are all safe, but they can only see their homes through pictures.
Houston airports are shut down and access to highways is limited so for now, Belt's family and friends are waiting Harvey out here in Kansas City.
