Watching the devastation from Hurricane Harvey on the news prompted Texarkana resident Tyron Hinton into action.
"I was watching everything on Monday, and I had so much training in that area that I just felt I needed to go. I basically would have felt guilty if I didn't go," he said.
Hinton is an honorably discharged combat Marine trained in swift water rescue. He does not own a boat, so his wife got on Facebook and asked if anyone had a boat her husband could borrow.
Within hours, he was on his way to Hou-ston with a 10-foot motor boat in hopes of helping flood survivors.
"It was just indescribable. Until you see it, you can't fathom the devastation," Hinton said.
As he drove Interstate 35 south, he saw entire car dealerships submerged under water with only the tops of some vehicles above water.
Roads were blocked off going into Houston, but police directed Hinton to a location where he could meet up with some of the Louisiana "Cajun Navy."
"They said they needed more boats and I should go with them," Hinton said.
He signed in at a fire station in the Houston suburb of Spring. He went on the boat and was later moved to another larger boat.
The rescuers were looking for anything white hung on a door or window. It means the people in that house or apartment needed help.
"We were getting anybody and everybody," Hinton said. "Kids and dogs and older people. We were getting some of them off their roofs."
A scared dog jumped out of the boat at one point and a kid went in after it. Hinton helped get them both back to safety.
"That was 10 minutes of scary," he said.
At one apartment complex Hinton responded to, a family with small children had been waiting for help for two days. They were down to their last bottles of water.
Hinton is originally from Lake Tahoe, Calif. He has been in typhoons while in the Marines but has never helped with hurricane rescue until this one.
Hinton was in Houston Tuesday and part of Wednesday. He returned Wednesday to Texarkana, where he is enrolled in the welding program at Texarkana College.
"My boat was small, and I couldn't go where some of the current was. But hands down, if I could figure out another way to get down there, I would," he said. "There are still too many people hurting."