“I just kind of held on to them one person at a time and crawled along their arms until the firemen helped me up the ladder onto the truck,” she said. “I was sitting on a fire hose in the back of the truck with a shower curtain over my head and looking at all the floodwater around us thinking, ‘This is so bizarre.’”

The Smiths arrived at Texas Children’s Hospital about 15 minutes later. Annie Smith was quickly given an epidural.

“My labor plan was early epidural, so I was really scared about how I was going to handle the pain or that something would happen to me or the baby,” she said. “We’re both doctors, so we appreciate and rely on medical care so much that having a home birth was never something we considered.”

Adrielle, the couple’s first child, was born nearly 12 hours later, at 1:59 a.m. Monday, weighing in at 7 pounds, 6 ounces.

Mom and baby are doing well, and the family’s apartment remains safe from the floodwaters. Greg Smith’s mother carried all their baby equipment to a neighbor’s second-floor apartment as a precaution.

\"PHOTO:
Greg Smith
PHOTO: Adrielle Smith was born at a Houston hospital on Aug. 28, 2017, as Harvey dropped record rainfall on the city.
>

“All of this was just completely unimaginable,” said Greg Smith, who, like his wife, grew up in the West and had never experienced a hurricane. “When I got to the hospital and we were in the room, it was an incredible amount of emotion, and I also felt just totally exhausted.”

Adrielle, whose name is Hebrew in origin and means “belongs to God,” has already been given nicknames like “Little Harvey” and “the Hurricane” by family members.

\"PHOTO:
Greg Smith
PHOTO: Adrielle Smith was born at a Houston hospital on Aug. 28, 2017, as Harvey dropped record rainfall on the city.
>

The Smiths went to the hospital with just the clothes on their back and a few things that they and their neighbors could throw in garbage bags before the truck whisked them away.

Annie Smith said she remains amazed by and grateful to the neighbors and firemen who helped her, as well as the medical team members who are assisting her as Houston continues to be pounded by rain.

“It was absolutely incredible how many people responded and were out in the rain trying to help us,” she said. “And the staff has been stranded here since Friday, alternating 12-hour shifts and still giving exceptional care.”

ABC News’ Michael Edison Hayden contributed to this report.

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