Those who rode out storm share tales of survival
Homes in ruins, coastal residents’ future is uncertain
Fortyeight hours.
Friday night, the storm named Harvey flexed into a powerful Category 4 hurricane and delivered a devastating haymaker punch to parts of the Coastal Bend — something that hadn’t happened since Hurricane Celia ripped apart Corpus Christi in 1970.
Sunday night, two days after Hurricane Harvey made landfall, clouds swirled above the largely spared city.
To the north, it was a very different scene as search-and-rescue crews looked for those who were injured or killed in Rockport, Port Aransas and Aransas Pass.
As the search for victims continues, questions about the longterm effects of Harvey are emerging: How will the economies of coastal cities, which are so reliant on tourism, recover from this? How long will that take?
When the physical repairs are done, will tears in the fabric of the communities be mended?
Those questions will be answered in the coming weeks, months and possibly several years. What is known now is how people throughout the region responded to Harvey and how years from now, they probably will remember the past two days.
HALF A HURRICANE
Friday night, Deeantre and Nathan Thomas, both 19, planned to ride out Harvey from their Rockport apartment — a block away from the shore.
During the first half of the storm, even as the wind gusts of 155 mph swirled, it wasn’t so bad for the brothers. It was loud, the building had swayed some, but nothing was broken.
When the calm of the eye passed over, emergency personnel told them to get out. The second half would be much worse.
The brothers listened and headed for a shelter.
“They said it was going to get bad, and I’m glad we did leave,” Deeantre Thomas said. “If not, they’d be finding our body up here.”
What’s left of the Saltgrass Landing apartments is a collection of six half-buildings, exposing residents’ furnishings.
The Thomas brothers’ secondfloor apartment was destroyed in the storm, and their belongings were covered in thick, waterlogged insulation.
Nearly all the exterior walls had been stripped away, as had the interior sheetrock.
As Nathan Thomas entered each room, he grew more discouraged and angry.
“It sucks. It just really sucks,” he said. “Imagine coming to your place and finding all your stuff like this.”
HUDDLED IN FEAR
When Happy Newman looked out the door of his family’s hotel room at the Port Aransas Inn on Friday night, he developed a sudden respect for Hurricane Harvey.
“The ocean was at my door,” Newman said.
As the wind roared and shook the structure, Newman, his wife, Tammy, and their three sons retreated to a second-floor room. They questioned the decision to ride out the storm.
“We all just prayed and stayed together and tried to stay away from the windows,” Tammy Newman said.
The Newmans huddled in fear. They braced for the next blast from the wind and driving rain that was ripping their island tour- ist town apart.
“The top of the roof just blew off and landed in the middle of the highway,” Happy Newman said. “It was very scary stuff. Stuff was floating by.”
At daybreak Saturday, the family realized how widespread the destruction was in Port Aransas. They were taken to the Civic Center, where they received emergency help before being sent to a Corpus Christi shelter.
“We’re going to leave anytime they say a hurricane is coming this way,” Happy Newman said. “It destroyed everything. I didn’t think it would be that bad. You can be wrong really quick.”
‘EVERYTHING WE HAVE’
Late Sunday afternoon, Francisco Escobar, 25, clung to a pillow and garbage bag filled with clothes as he waited to board a charter bus outside the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s dome shelter at Tuloso Midway High School.
Though many residents of Corpus Christi found minimal damage when they returned home Sunday, the bus load of 30 passengers was headed north to a long-term shelter.
All had lost their homes when Harvey demolished swaths of Rockport.
“This is everything we have,” Escobar said, lifting his arms to shake the garbage sack and pillow.
Escobar and his roommates decided to try to ride out the hurricane in their trailer.
As storm waters rose, a neighbor’s trailer floated off its foundation, and the wind sent it crashing into their wall.
The impact broke the trailer wide open.
They later were rescued.
As the bus pulled away from the FEMA dome, a yellow school bus carrying about a dozen new evacuees arrived.
REBUILDING
“We’re going to leave anytime they say a hurricane is coming this way. It destroyed everything. I didn’t think it would be that bad. You can be wrong really quick.” Happy Newman
Other wearied area residents who fled Harvey amid dire warnings made the drive back to Port Aransas on Sunday.
The highway was lined with felled electric poles.
Lined up outside a police checkpoint, cars waited, then turned around. It wasn’t yet safe.
A few miles past the checkpoint, boats were flung scattershot, one mooring in a gas station parking lot. Golf carts were thrown aside, one wrapped around a palm tree.
The wall of a store touting souvenirs and last-minute bikini buys was ripped from the structure.
In City Council chambers, cots and air mattresses replaced audience chairs. Several leaders, including the mayor and police chief, brushed off pieces of insulation from around the dais before addressing media.
The damage is significant, but city leaders were optimistic.
“If anyone is going to rebuild this it’s not going to be outside help,” said City Manager David Parsons. “It’s going to be these locals, and we’re going to make it happen.”