Damage to sting for a long time in hard-hit Refugio County.
As Tropical Storm Harvey continues to ravage the Houston area, rural communities hit hard by the storm as it roared through South Texas last weekend are beginning the arduous road to recovery.
In Refugio County — home to about 7,000 people — winds crumpled a Shell gas station into a pile of yellow and white metal. They flipped mobile homes upside down, tore holes through roofs and living room walls and toppled trees, exposing their tentacle-like roots.
On Monday, most of the 800-square-mile county on the Coastal Bend was without power, water or phone service and county officials said it could take up to two or three weeks for utilities to be restored.
“We didn’t have a loss of life so I’ll save using the word devastating, but it was close to it,” said Refugio County Judge Robert Blaschke, who also serves as the county’s emergency director. “Especially for property owners, it will sting for a long time.”
The Category 4 hurricane made landfall Friday night at San Jose Island near Port Aransas, 35 miles from the city of Refugio. Wind speeds were 130 mph when it crashed ashore.
Refugio County is working to set up a shelter in the next day or two for residents who remained despite the mandatory evacuation. In the meantime, a small shelter operates out of Joy Ministries on the east side of the city of Refugio.
Many of those seeking shelter at Joy Ministries live in the apartment complex across the street where shingles have been wiped clean off of roofs and windows blown in.
Manny Govella, 65, lent his recently purchased food trailer to the church, serving as many as 300 free meals every morning for area residents. The trailer and his white pickup truck are among the few possessions Govella has left. His house was destroyed along with a prized collection of antiques he’s been cultivating since he was 19.
“The whole roof blew off,” Govella said above the din of the generator that runs his food trailer. “After that, I went to my travel trailer and a tree fell down inside and hit the air conditioning unit. I lost everything. “
Like many of his neighbors, Govella doesn’t have catastrophic insurance coverage on his home.
In other parts of the city, residents over the last few days have been busy drying out soaked floors and drywall, sawing through downed trees and making trips to nearby cities for food, water and gas.
“I wouldn’t put my family through it again,” Larry Solansky, who like others remaining said he didn’t think the storm would be that bad.
He is sheltering about a dozen people in his home, including friend DannyMc Lei ster,w hose family escaped a nearby hotel Friday night as pieces of the building started to blow off in the storm.
A couple houses down, Todd Lott, a subcontractor, and his wife, Sheila Tilley, who works jobs at a Subway restaurant and a convenience store, lamented the thousands of dollars in damaged tools and electronics that was being stored in a garage that flooded. The ceiling in their bedroom, which sustained water damage, is crumbling.
Almost every structure in the city appears to have sustained some damage, but it’s unclear how much the total cost will be, according to county officials.
The county isn’t completely out of the woods yet; three major rivers that run through could crest in the coming days.
Almost every structure in the city appears to have sustained some damage, but it’s unclear how much the total cost will be, according to county officials.