Every year, there are several natural disasters. From tidal waves on the coast, wildfires in the dry woods, earthquakes, torrential storms, and the worst kind of weather, the list goes on. It’s true, Mother Nature can occasionally be very brutal for people. Most of the time, these events are seasonal and can be expected, but sometimes they can take a sudden turn and create unexpected impacts that affect people’s lives. You have probably seen people on TV who suffered from tornadoes or hurricanes, and believe me, it can be rough. I should know; my family and town have been through such an event. Let me tell you the story of what life was like for my family after Hurricane Harvey.
Where we were when Harvey struck
The year was 2017. At that time my parents and I were living between our hometown of Houston, TX, where I was born and raised, and the other home we had built for ourselves in Rockport, TX. For most of my life, Rockport has been our second home. It was where my dad was born and raised. In the late summer of 2017, the news had been tracking the weather phenomenon that would eventually grow into Hurricane Harvey. We weren’t aware of how bad it would be at the time and hoped that, at worst, we would just get some harsh rain. Fortunately, we weren’t going to be in town at the predicted time of the bad weather.
Every late summer, there’s a convention in San Antonio that I like to attend. As a bonus, my folks get a nice trip out of it. Even though we were out of town from Rockport, we still kept an eye on the weather forecasts. On our second night in San Antonio, my parents called me over to their hotel room to watch the news. Harvey had become a Category 4 hurricane and was hitting our town of Rockport hard. The feed was tricky to make out at some points. There were massive winds, heavy rains, and at one point, I remember them showing a metallic sign flying in the wind like it was cardboard. Things weren’t looking good, to say the least.
After the convention had ended, we had to figure out what we were going to do. At the time, roads were blocked, and conditions made us unable to go back to Rockport or Houston. For a couple more days than expected, we stayed in our hotel until we came up with a plan.
Extended Stay
After several phone calls, we had a plan. Luckily, we have some family who live in San Antonio. The parents of one of my cousin’s wives had a house they were willing to let us use until roads were clear enough for us to return to Rockport. Needless to say, we’re grateful to our extended family for helping us out when we needed it. My brother came up from Fort Worth, TX, with a bunch of packing crates for us to use when we would go back to Rockport.
The house we were loaned was small, but it pretty much fit our basic needs. There weren’t that many bedrooms, so I ended up sleeping on a convertible couch in a room across the kitchen. One tricky thing about that neighborhood was that it was in a very hilly area. Taking a walk there usually meant moving along diagonal roads. After a few weeks, our San Antonio trip ended, and we went back to check out the aftermath of the hurricane
Returning to Rockport
In the days after Harvey, we’d seen many pictures of all the damage that had been done to our town. A friend of ours sent us a video of what our pool looked like after the hurricane; it was nasty. My brother and one of our cousins accompanied us back to Rockport to help out with our house. My brother had also brought three chainsaws to donate to the recovery efforts. The results of Harvey were unbelievable. There was water damage and debris everywhere. No place had power, nothing was open, and we were under a curfew. Needless to say, we all felt pretty distraught. We heard the president was in town to show support, but we never got to see him.
Thankfully, our house was still in one piece, but there was still so much to deal with. The power was out, and there was water damage from several areas of the walls and floors. To top things off, the car I had at the time had a gigantic series of cracks in the windshield, a mirror was missing, and there was grass blown into every nook and cranny. Using the crates my brother brought, we pretty much packed up the whole contents of our closets. Without power, there was no A.C., so it was pretty hot, and we had to rehydrate frequently. After several trips, we were able to pack up everything in our house and were ready for the next step: moving into a temporary house.
I’d prayed our house would still be livable after Harvey, but like many others in Rockport, that wasn’t the case. After we’d packed up everything, a moving crew helped us move the big furniture to the new place.
Moving Into The Temp Home
After packing up everything, we were able to move into a house that served as our temporary new residence. The house was on sale, so it was empty, giving us plenty of room to place our furniture. After a few days and a bit of moving things around, we’d finally made the temp home livable for us. Our estimated time in the temp home was about nine months. If somebody had a bun in the oven when we left, it would have been out by the time we went back.
At first, we were pretty discouraged about the whole ordeal, but as we settled in, it became more tolerable. The temp home wasn’t too far from the house we’d left, so we didn’t have to learn the layout of another neighborhood. Of course, there was still a lot of debris around town and a curfew in place when we moved in. One night, something crazy happened. I was on a walk on our block when a police car came up behind me and kindly reminded me of the curfew, which I had forgotten about.
Adjusting to the Temp House
A positive of the temp home was that it was located in the estates of the local country club. Just about every day, we saw deer that lived in the area. Watching the deer made for a nice, peaceful scene in the afternoon. Sometimes, we poured little piles of feed corn in the backyard to attract the deer and watch them eat.
It took several weeks before things started opening again, which was a bit stressful for everyone. As I remember, Whataburger was one of the first places to reopen, providing food to the relief workers. Walmart’s supplies were a bit limited, but some people just gave others what they needed after Harvey. Eventually, after maybe a month or two, most everything reopened and returned to normal operations. This made our situation a lot easier to live with. Sometimes, I would get my steps in and walk all the way to a gas station around the block to buy a pudding parfait and walk back to the house.
Entertaining at the Temp House
Despite all the wreckage around town being cleared, life more or less got back to normal in Rockport. Even though it was a temporary stay, we pretty much were able to adjust to life in the temp house. We even entertained guests from time to time. My mom’s friend and her husband lived close to the temp house, so they frequently visited to check on us. They also helped us look in on the progress at our main house.
Since getting our house back in living order was our main concern, we rarely left town for anything. I think we only went back to Houston once or twice for the holidays. When December rolled in, my brother brought his family over to spend the holidays with us at the temp house. My nephew was five at the time, and my niece was just past a year old. Everyone enjoyed checking out the new scenery and feeding the deer.
Get this, on the big night of the 24th, we actually had a little flurry. It was a white Christmas! Of course, it wasn’t much snow; it all melted by early afternoon the next day.
Going Back
In mid-2018, repairs from Harvey were complete, and it was time to move out of the temp house. Admittedly, it felt a little weird leaving a place you made a life in for nine months, knowing you never planned to return. But it did feel good to finally be going back to the original Rockport house we built for ourselves. Of course, going back meant moving out everything we brought with us from the temp house, but that didn’t seem like it took nearly as long as when we first left.
We were able to move our bare essentials on the first day, but it took several trips back and forth between the two houses and storage units to get everything back the way we had it before Harvey hit us. We made a few changes to where we kept a few things, but we didn’t much care now that we were back. After several days and a lot of unloading, we finally had things pretty much back to normal.
Epilogue
Hurricane Harvey did a real number on Rockport, TX. It’s an event none of us will ever forget. In the years since Harvey hit, some people downtown have thrown parties on the anniversary of the hurricane to prove the saying from that time, “Rockport Strong.” The temp house was bought after we moved out, and we hope its new owners are enjoying their lives there.
For many months after Harvey, most of the debris that was collected was piled close to the highways outside of town to be moved later. It’s all gone now. Sometimes, I can’t believe that the town I live in was one of the places hit by a major hurricane. But then I remember that statistically, something like Harvey is bound to happen here eventually. I’m grateful that my family was among the people able to rebuild their lives in Rockport and I pray that those not as lucky as us have found a way to move on.
Not everything in town is the same as it was before Harvey hit and while that is disappointing, I’m grateful the town is rebuilt and back in order. It’s events like Hurricane Harvey that really make you appreciate the work done by organizations like the Red Cross and FEMA. Harvey was devastating to everyone living in Rockport, and we all hope nothing like it happens again for a really long time if ever.
That pretty much sums up the experience my family had after the impact of Hurricane Harvey. I hope reading this has helped you learn that you can always pick yourself up no matter how hard you’re knocked down.