Houston bakers trapped by floodwaters spent two days baking for evacuees

Four bakers in Houston, Texas, found themselves trapped inside their bakery as Tropical Storm Harvey hit the city — so they decided to keep baking.

According to the Washington Post, bakers at El Bolillo Bakery in Houston worked overtime last week in preparation for the coming storm, and by Saturday evening, it’s Wayside location had sold all of its bread.

Brian Alvarado, the manager of the Mexican bakery, told The Washington Post, “We were trying to open up late and trying to make enough bread for everybody.”

“We knew we get absolutely slammed busy during these days,” Alvarado said. “We didn’t think it was going to rain for that long and that badly.”

Alvarado said that as the storm hit, most of El Bolillo’s employees were able to leave work and return home, and they announced that their stores were closed on social media.

But four employees found themselves stranded inside the bakery’s Wayside location by rising floodwaters.

“They were desperate to get to their families and they couldn’t,” Alvarado said.

The bakers were safe inside the store. They slept on the ground and they had electricity. But they soon grew restless — so they decided to keep doing their jobs.

For two days, the bakers made hundreds of pieces of bread.

Alvarado said El Bolillo’s owner attempted to rescue his staff on Sunday, but police turned him away from the area near the store. On Monday morning, he was finally able to reach the bakers, and was shocked to find them surrounded by shelves full of bread.

“That’s when we took the image and they had made so much bread,” Alvarado said. “We were not expecting to come in here and see every single display case full of bread.”

The picture quickly gained attention on social media:

“They just couldn’t handle the stress and they needed to do something, so they just made bread,” Alvarado said. “They were just thinking of everybody else, and they just started making bread for the community.”

Alvarado said the bread was delivered to local shelters and police stations. He added that they’ve set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds for their employees whose homes or cars were damaged in the storm.

Kirk Michaelis, owner of El Bolillo Bakery, told CNN, "this isn't about us and anything of promotional purposes at all.”

“It's about reaching out and trying to help the community that has helped us for 21 years to grow where we're at right now," Michaelis said. "We're just trying to be a blessing to other people that have been to us."

Watch below, via People: