Residents return to see what’s left of homes

HARVEY

CROSBY, Texas — Silvia Casas’ eyes welled with tears on Friday as she surveyed the damage from Harvey to what once was a working class, mostly Hispanic neighborhood near Crosby, Texas.

Large trees with their roots reaching into the air were pulled from the ground by Harvey’s floodwaters. Entire houses were picked up and moved 20 or 30 feet from where they once sat, leaving piles of wood, splintered debris and PVC pipes sticking from the ground.

The Casas’ cinderblock house was one of the few structures that wasn’t thrown by floodwaters, but inside, a pile of furniture and splintered belongings sat in the middle of the floor.

Casas stopped to survey the outdoor kitchen that used to stand on the side of the house. “This is where we gathered as a family ...” she said before choking up. “We’re going to miss this place.”

A week after Hurricane Harvey roared into Texas, the Casas are among thousands of people seeing their devastated homes for the first time. An estimated 156,000 dwellings in Harris County were damaged by flooding, according to the flood control district.

Silvia and Rafael Casas said their family got no evacuation warning when the floodwaters came last Friday. They were told to leave when they lost power, but the lights stayed on. Their home was in the area that was affected by the release of water from two dams that were in danger of overflowing.

“On Friday, someone, maybe with the city, came and told my parents they were going to open the dam, and that’s it. They were supposed to come back and alert people when they opened (the dam) up, but they never did,” Rafael Casas said.

He added that the person said if the power went off, that would be a sign that they should leave. “But they never came back and they never cut the power,” Rafael said.

Luckily, the family decided to leave anyway.