As I understand it, the church was also flooded and that’s why folks weren’t allowed in. Maybe, just maybe, they were able to clear the church of water and make it usable by the evacuees.
Was his “church” indeed flooded?
They are several feet above grade there. If they flooded then 59 freeway had to have been underwater too. Dubious.
I used to live across the freeway in the apartments behind Kroger. I lived there during Ike.