When Will Bradley woke up at around 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, his inbox was filled with emails from frightened neighbours who said they were trapped in their homes by rising flood water after Hurricane Harvey hit the Houston-area over the weekend.

鈥淭here was a sense of panic,鈥� Bradley told CNN on Monday.

The local man grabbed his kayak and paddled through his community鈥檚 waterlogged streets to see who he could help.

鈥淲hat I saw was just heartbreaking. The water was well over my head. [It was] probably about eight feet above the sidewalks in front of people鈥檚 homes,鈥� he said.

Bradley spent the next two days rescuing dozens of stranded neighbours alongside other residents in the area.

鈥淚t was really neat to see the neighbourhood come together,鈥� he recalled. 鈥淧eople started bringing rafts, kayaks, blow-up air mattresses, whatever they had, just to help get people out.鈥�

Bradley鈥檚 community wasn鈥檛 the only one to band together to help each other in a time of need.

Witnesses shared inspiring images online showing countless examples of volunteers and Good Samaritans from Houston and beyond working together to save trapped residents and aid flooding victims.

In one instance, helpers in the Champion Forest neighbourhood in north Houston worked together in the pouring rain to evacuate a local nursing home.

Videos uploaded to Twitter on Monday showed rain-soaked volunteers hauling walkers, carrying seniors in wheelchairs over shin-deep water and pulling boats with victims and their personal belongings to safety.

The kind-hearted Good Samaritans even held umbrellas over the nursing home residents as they moved them.

Evacuees fleeing rising waters at an intersection near Interstate 45 in Houston were greeted by dozens of volunteers offering hot coffee and food before they made their way to a nearby shelter, CTV National News鈥� Senior Broadcast Producer Rosa Hwang reported on Tuesday. She spoke with one man who has stood out in the heavy rain for two days in order to direct victims to an area where they could grab food and told them how to reach the evacuation centre.

鈥淚 want to make sure that everybody鈥檚 taken care of,鈥� he said.

The man said the volunteers working at the intersection didn鈥檛 know each other and just came out on their own accord.

鈥淚t鈥檚 the heart of Texas right here. This is what it鈥檚 all about. People are just coming together out of nowhere.鈥�

Passersby stopped their vehicles on the highway to assist rescuers on a street below by freeing motorists trapped in their submerged cars, according to Hwang.

鈥淭hey just saw a need. They brought their skidoos. They brought their boats and they鈥檙e trying to rescue as many people as possible,鈥� she said.

After officials in Texas made a public appeal for anyone with a flat-bottomed boat to help emergency personnel rescue victims stranded in their homes or on their roofs, hundreds of volunteers took up the call to action and set out on the water to do their part.

CTV鈥檚 Melanie Nagy reported from Houston on Tuesday that she saw a steady stream of trucks towing boats behind them on the highways leading into the city as volunteers travelled to the worst-hit areas to help. 鈥淭hese are people coming from surrounding communities in Texas, coming from out of state. I saw a lot of out-of-state license plates,鈥� Nagy said.

The founder of a jewellry company based in Beaumont, Tex., about 140 kilometres east of Houston, and a small rescue crew could be seen rescuing families stuck in their homes in one flooded neighbourhood. The team recorded their journey to the area, which showed a number of pickup trucks towing motorboats to the affected neighbourhoods.

Another boat owner, Austin Seth, a college senior from Texas A&M University, heeded the call to help after reading a Facebook post circulating online. The Lake Jackson resident travelled an hour in his flat-bottomed boat to aid in the relief effort in Dickinson, Tex., nearly an hour鈥檚 drive outside of Houston.

The young man had already saved around a dozen victims in his boat by Sunday afternoon, he told CNN that day. Seth was seen escorting a senior couple from their flood-ravaged home in footage captured by the news station鈥檚 cameras. At one point, the college student was seen hoisting a frail-looking woman with a flotation device around her neck onto the deck of his waiting boat.

Seth said he wasn鈥檛 the only volunteer with a boat in the neighbourhood.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been unreal,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檝e been passed by dozens upon dozens of boats and this is a huge area so God knows how many there are out here.鈥�

 

Boats weren鈥檛 the only means of transportation volunteers used to reach trapped residents.

Workers from a local business called Xtreme Off-Road Park Beach drove a giant monster truck through flooded streets to transport victims to safety. The business shared multiple videos on Instagram of stranded victims piling into the truck鈥檚 bed along with their pets and a few bags.

 

A post shared by @xtremeoffroadpark on

 

A post shared by @xtremeoffroadpark on

High-water rescues weren鈥檛 the only way Good Samaritans showed their compassion. Volunteers at temporary shelters collected donations and assisted victims as they arrived.

The doors of a local furniture store chain were even thrown open to house displaced residents on Sunday. Owner Jim 鈥淢attress Mack鈥� McIngvale opened his Gallery Furniture stores to anyone seeking refuge during the heavy rains. Images posted online showed families with children resting on mattresses and chairs as they waited out the weather.

Many Houston residents living in safer areas on higher ground offered up their homes as shelter to strangers suddenly displaced by the floods, Nagy reported from outside an evacuation centre in the northern part of the city.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 how people are getting by,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hether it鈥檚 strangers helping strangers, that鈥檚 been the positive story coming out of this terrible disaster - just how well people are coming together to keep people safe.鈥�