$43 for a pack of water? Reports of price-gouging spike.
With Harvey threatening, coastal residents near Matagorda heading for higher ground
MATAGORDA — For retiree David Price, it was time to leave the two-story home they built on the banks of the Colorado River four years ago.
Wind and rain whipped his face Friday morning as he hooked up his 24-foot power boat and his wife, Carolyn, steered the truck down the driveway for the trip to Lake Conroe.
Like thousands of coastal residents, they were anxious to beat an evacuation order as Hurricane Harvey bore down. Their aqua blue, $360,000 weekend home stands a mere 4 miles from the Gulf of Mexico.
“We’re just praying it doesn’t tear it down. If everything goes fine, it will meet the codes, and withstand 140-mile winds,” Price said. “It’s the tidal surge I’m worried about. They were saying 6 foot, but at 12 foot it would be up to here.”
Price gestured to midway up the massive beams holding the house, meaning the storage room they recently built, a tool shed, water well would all be washed away.
“I’m hoping it goes to Corpus and stays there, “said Carolyn, a retired banker. “People have to prepare, and you have to have insurance.”
Matagorda Constable Frank Craft was stationed at the entrance to a small beach front community as the last remaining residents left.
“Most people have evacuated. I don’t think we have anybody who’s staying,” Craft said, noting the road back to town becomes impassable during storms.
Craft, a third-generation Matagorda resident, was honest about what the area is facing.
“My fear is the 12-foot tidal surge and strong winds leaving us with destruction,” he said. “All of us have our homes here and we hate to have that kind of damage.”
Over at the Bay City Civic Center, more than 100 evacuees began boarding yellow school buses around noon.
They included elderly couples, whole families, folks in wheelchairs on their way to the Hill Country.
“These are folks who do not have a vehicle to leave in, or the funds to stay in a hotel or family to stay with in Bay City,” Bay City Police Chief Robert Lister said.
The evacuees pushed wheeled
suitcases, carried backpacks or toted garbage bags used to quickly gather up their valuables. Along with an ambulance, they were going to caravan to a junior high school campus in New Braunfels for a four-day stay.
“We heard it was going to be pretty bad, so (we) didn’t want to be caught in anything,” said Bryce Jackson, 16, who was making the trip with his grandmother, aunt, younger brother and older sister. “I really don’t like it, but it’s something we got to (do), I guess.”
Joining the caravan in his truck was Edwin Flippo, 61, from nearby Markham, who worried a predicted storm surge would flood the travel trailer he lives in. He was taking his fiancé, her mother and sister.
“I live in El Dorado Estates, but it floods all through there,” Flippo said. “I’m kinda worried about the storm surge being 12-foot, because it will be 5 feet deep in El Dorado.”
As workers feverishly screwed plywood panels to the front doors of the MS Express Valero convenience store in Bay City, the manager served the last hot meal in this coastal city.
Jagruti Lad, originally from India, had tossed in her last batch of fried chicken and planned to shut the store at noon to avoid the approaching storm.
“They say we’re going to have a lot of wind and rain. I’m not sure where that thing is going, but we’re in the hurricane zone,” said Lad, as she prepared to close the store she has worked at for 16 years.
She started cooking two hours later than usual, not expecting much business, and she was surprised by the demand for her “crispy, crunchy” fried chicken.
“We were selling like crazy today, and I wasn’t expecting it,” said Lad, who sold $984 worth of chicken in six hours to hungry residents.
In Edna, police, firefighters and national guard troops positioned supplies, boats and heavy trucks in two locations in the Jackson County town.
“It’s shaping up to be a first-class rainmaker, “said Jackson County Sheriff Andy Louderback, after a late afternoon briefing. “We just heard we’d be in estimated 58 mph winds, but it seems every report is it’s a storm that’s not moving and will continue to rain.”
The sheriff and 50 officers were spending the night in their headquarters. Across town, guard troops, city police and Texas Department of Public Safety marine units had set up quarters in the Edna High School gym, a sturdy concrete domed structure. Parked outside were double axle military trucks, rescue boats, and Humvees.
Staff Sgt. Timothy Pruitt, public affairs officer for the Texas State Guard, was with about 20 guardsman.
“We’re here to help our local and state law enforcement partners,” Pruitt said, and noted there were more than 1,000 guard personnel deployed for storm duty.