Coast Guard rescue swimmer Brendan Kiley looked down from his helicopter and saw six people stranded on a roof in the Houston area. He was lowered into the murky water and swam and waded over to them. When he reached them and climbed onto the roof, a woman slid a large Tupperware tub toward him.

“Hey, I can’t take this,’’ he said.

A container that big couldn’t go on the helicopter. She could take one bag of personal items with her, Kiley said, but there wouldn’t be enough room for anything else.

“No, that’s my babies,’’ the woman said.

Kiley wasn’t prepared for what came next.

“I opened it, and there’s a 2-year-old holding an infant inside this tub,’’ Kiley said. “They were just sitting in there, with wide eyes looking at me. Like, not crying or anything.’’

That was just one of many unforgettable rescue missions that Kiley and his colleagues have carried out in flood-ravaged neighborhoods that were hit hardest by Hurricane Harvey in Texas.

Kiley, 29, is normally stationed on Cape Cod. But for the past several days, he’s been riding along with flight mechanic Stephen Nelson in an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter piloted by Lieutenant Commander Simon Greene and Lieutenant Josh Rice.

Coast Guard mechanics Brian McCarron and Kip Hamilton have been working hard to maintain the helicopter when it’s not up in the air. All are Cape Cod-based.

Since he’s arrived in Houston, Kiley has been involved in 112 hoists.

At times, Kiley has had to swim up streets where the water was moving like a fierce river.

“The water typically has been about 4 or 5 feet,’’ he said. “In some places, it’s over my head.’’

He’s gone to houses where the children have had to stand on tables “because if they stood on [the] floor, they’d be underwater,’’ Kiley said.

Kiley recalled one instance where he encountered a man in his 80s standing in the road, waving them down.

“So they put me down and I helped him into the house,’’ he said.

Inside, the man’s house was dark, and filled with murky water.

“It was like dark, dark brown,’’ he said. “The water in this house made the outside water look Caribbean blue.’’

In the back of the house was the man’s bedridden wife, who was also in her 80s. She was on a hospital bed that was positioned at its maximum height. The water in the house was still rising.

To make matters worse, Kiley said, the medical equipment in the house must have been running on a battery because, even though the power was out, he could feel an electric current in the water.

“Something was shocking me,’’ he said. “I felt like my skin was just getting bit over and over.’’

Kiley went outside and signaled for the basket to be lowered down from the helicopter. He took it off the hoist and brought it back in the house.

“As I was outside, a boat passed by,’’ he said. “This guy in a boat . . . he came in with me and we got her out . . . I don’t think he knew those people at all. He just saw that something was going on and came over to help out.’’

Kiley said he had seen that pattern over and over again: people going out of their way to help others.

He’s been impressed by the actions of regular citizens who are doing everything they can to assist other flood victims.

“There’s so many people on the ground helping each other out,’’ Kiley said. “Everyone who has a boat has it in the water. There are people on jet skis, people in kayaks, just pulling as many people out as they can.’’

Kiley said that shouldn’t be overlooked.

“There’s a lot of heroism around here,’’ he said.

Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@ globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @emilysweeney.