36 Months: Navigating Hell and High Water is a gripping memoir by Derrick Freeman, the former mayor of Port Arthur, Texas, who led his city through one of the most devastating natural disasters in American history—Hurricane Harvey. More than a survival story, this book offers a rare and brutally honest behind-the-scenes look at what it truly means to lead in times of crisis.

At the height of the storm, nearly 80% of Port Arthur was underwater, including Freeman’s own home. The city’s 911 system collapsed. National media rolled in. Freeman was forced to make life-or-death decisions in real time, at times chest-deep in water. But the storm was just the beginning. What followed was a relentless political storm fueled by betrayal, misinformation, and systemic failures.

Written on the eve of Harvey’s ten-year anniversary, 36 Months is the only firsthand account from an elected official who led during the disaster—and paid the political price afterward. The book combines raw personal narrative with insight into emergency response, political infighting, racism in local governance, and the psychological cost of public service.

The story begins with a childhood shaped by contradiction: Freeman is a biracial man raised in the South by a white mother with blonde hair and blue eyes, and a Black father from Ville Platte, Louisiana. His life journey—from a kid who once appeared on Wheel of Fortune, to a public school teacher and real estate broker, to becoming the first black man to lead his city—is laced with ambition, sacrifice, and the need to speak truth to power.