Rex Dix and his wife arrived at the Vancouver International Airport Sunday evening with just two handbags and a resigned look on their faces. 

The couple flew from Houston, Texas, where they left their home as flood water crept towards it. Tropical Storm Harvey has devastated the city and surrounding area, killing five people.

"When we left this morning, our daughter, her house was becoming flooded," Dix said. "We don't know what's going on over there."

Dix, 63, and his wife are celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary and will spend Sunday night in Vancouver, before boarding a two-week cruise to Alaska. 

Their flight was one of only a handful to leave Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport Sunday.

Dix said they were two of only about 20 people on the United Airlines flight — an official confirmed that roads leading to and from the airport were flooded. 

Passengers aboard the flight waited five hours to take off, Dix said, during which time they had to disembark at one point because of a pending tornado.

Luggage lost

"I was OK until I just found out that they lost all of our luggage. So now we have to go shopping," he said.

"It's OK. We'll figure it out. You do what you have to do."

He and his wife have six children and 16 grandchildren living in and around Houston. When the pair arrived at the Vancouver airport, they had yet to connect with them by phone. 

Dix doesn't know what to expect when he and his wife return home in two weeks.

He said he has been in Houston long enough to live through eight hurricanes.

"We don't know what the weather's doing. It seems like it's becoming more and more unpredictable. So we just simply don't know anymore," he said.

"Where do you move to? Where is safe? That, I haven't found out."