OUT-OF-TOWNERS HAPPY TO HELP PORT ARANSAS Beach tourist mecca still coming back from Harvey

PORT ARANSAS — Duane Bailey of San Antonio just had to show his pride for both Memorial Day weekend and for one of the many Texas coastal towns still contending with the impact of Hurricane Harvey.

So what better way to do it than with an American flag billowing amidst the many colorful pop-up canopies and tents along a lively stretch of Port Aransas beach by Horace Caldwell Pier?

“I’m a Marine Corps vet,

I’m out here flying the flag, having a good time,” said Bailey, whose quiet Gordon Setter Annie tugged at her dog leash tied to the staked flag, while Bailey’s girlfriend, Susan Heckaman from Austin, soaked in the Saturday morning sun and some ’80s music.

“Texas is bouncing back as far as significance after Harvey,” Bailey said. “You see the people here. I think they’re a testament to the fact that, hey, we’re going to bounce back.”

Bailey and Heckaman were just two of many Texans in Port Aransas for the Memorial Day holiday, doing their duty for fun in the sun and for one of the state’s more popular hot spots that kicks off summer

vacation season for fishing lovers, condominium dwellers and just good ol’ beachcombers from the Alamo City, Austin, Houston and many other Lone Star locales.

Bailey, a site logistics manager for a commercial construction company in San Antonio, stressed that Gulf Coast sites such as Port Aransas and Rockport still need a financial shot in the arm from tourists as well as from state and federal funding, even nine months after Harvey.

And while a stroll down the Port A beach showed plenty of families frolicking in the water and in the sands, two friends from Austin found the Saturday showing significantly smaller than previous Memorial Day weekends.

Tina Reeves sat in a chair under a canopy with her friend Jenny Jones on the Port A beach, a Memorial Day weekend tradition they’ve shared for more than five years. Reeves said previous years would see canopies and tents two to three rows deep, instead of this year’s bigger gaps in between.

“It’s quieter out here. Not so many people,” Reeves said.

Reeves attributed the smaller crowds not to lack of interest but to lack of accommodations. She said she was surprised at how many big hotels were still closed, a statement made in the very shadow of the nearby towering Dunes condominiums building that was boarded up and fenced off.

Not that the shuttered Dunes represented a common sight. A drive down Alister Street, the main retail artery of Port Aran-

Kin Man Hui / San Antonio Express-News Duane Bailey of San Antonio resets a fishing line as girlfriend Susan Heckaman of Austin soaks in the sun on a beach in Port Aransas. Bailey, a Marine veteran, said he made the trip to fish and to support the local economy recover from Harvey.

Windows remain boarded up at the Dunes condominiums in Port Aransas nine months after Hurricane Harvey struck. Port Aransas Mayor Charles R. Bujan said almost all the restaurants in Port Aransas are open again.