Hurricane Harvey

Originally posted on Sept. 9, 2017. Lost but found entry: It's Thursday and I'm already at work. No one knows of Hurricane Harvey. We just know of the tropical storm and its potential, but by 10:00am the countless meetings for the rest of the week have been cancelled. Volunteers are being asked to stay the weekend because our facility is likely to flood due to the severe tropical storm. By 11:00am, the tropical storm has jumped to a category 3 hurricane. Corpus Christi island residents and Port Aransas already had mandatory evacuations. Hurricane Harvey now had the potential to be a Cat 4. Our phones were blowing up with calls/texts from daycares and schools asking us to get our kids within the next 2 hrs so they could evacuate. Schools were already announcing they would be closed the following week. 

Everything happened so quickly, the intensity of the storm, the decision to evacuate or not. On Wednesday night, no one expected the tropical depression, which might turn into a hurricane, to jump to a Cat 3 by Thursday morning. By Friday afternoon, Hurricane Harvey was a solid  Cat 4 and most of the Corpus Christi, Rockport and island areas had evacuated.

We evacuated. It was scary leaving town, realizing how serious the situation had turned, realizing we might come home to nothing. We saw what Hurricanes Katrina & Rita did to New Orleans...

As we all know now, Port Aransas, Rockport, Houston, and the smaller towns in between got the worst of Hurricane Harvey. There was still a lot of damage done in Corpus Christi, a house went up in flames, signs & fences were ripped apart, many people went without electricity for 6 days, etc. Thankfully, we did not suffer the damage we expected to get. However, we all feel awful that our neighbors & loved ones north of us did, especially since that damage was supposed to be us. We were shocked Corpus did not flood. Family and friends that did not evacuate described the hurricane winds as eery, even saying at one point, they couldn't even speak to each other...there was nothing left to say. Again, our hearts and prayers for the cities and areas that were heavily damaged.

As Texas recovers from Hurricane Harvey, please do what you can to help. There are numerous organizations to help through, and every little bit helps. Our country has been so good to us, especially our neighboring states! 

God bless Texas!

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