HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — In late August 2017, the remnants of tropical storm Harvey were moving into the Caribbean. At the time, we were all unaware that the storm was about to re-strengthen and change the Texas Gulf Coast forever.
Kipp Shannon, a Port Aransas business owner, said he has lived through many close calls on the coast and thought Hurricane Harvey would be another storm that he and his business could weather.
“I bought this place right after Katrina,” Shannon said. “Between that time and Harvey, we had so many close calls. We would be all packed up and ready to go, but then all of a sudden, the storm turns. We thought this would be one of those times … and it wasn’t.”
Forty-five minutes north along the coast in Rockport, volunteer firefighter Emily Guerrero had just made the decision to ride out the storm. Guerrero stayed behind with a crew of 20 firefighters and two EMTs.
The remnants of Harvey quickly strengthened into a category-four hurricane with Guerrero and her crew right in its crosshairs. Harvey first made landfall over San Jose Island. Then near Rockport.
The hurricane had 130-mph winds, heavy rains, and a massive storm surge.
“It sounded like a freight train was coming through this,” Guerrero said. “It came right over top of us and I thought ‘I’m gonna die tonight.'”
They made it through the storm and the following day, they stepped out into a town they no longer recognized.
“We walked outside and everything was completely unrecognizable,” Guerrero said. “Landmarks that were there 12 hours ago were gone. My house was completely destroyed.”
As Coastal Bend residents were taking a first look at the devastation, a weakened Harvey moved to Houston. It remained there for four days and caused two reservoirs to overflow. The highways became waterways.
Between 25 and 30% of Harris County, which includes Houston and the surrounding cities, was flooded. That is an area as large as New York City and Chicago combined.
Days later, Coastal Bend residents were able to return home and assess the damage. Residents reported seeing poles bent and seagrass everywhere.
“All of a sudden we are right back in the stone age,” Shannon said. “We’re running on generator power … The nights were hot and the mosquitos were big. You know, it was a tough thing.”
After the water receded there came another wave — people eager to help, but also some looking to take advantage.
“You see the best, and you see the worst in people after a situation like that,” Liz, a Rockport resident and business owner, said. “You see the worst in people that were trying to loot and do horrible things, then you see the best in people where communities from all over, San Antonio, Austin, local communities — everyone coming down to help”
Guerrero said a lot of people like herself lost everything and we were given clothes and shoes from people looking to help.
In the late summer heat, splintered wood and twisted metal people rolled up their sleeves and got to work.
“There were certain streets I avoided because every time I would go down them I cried because they looked so terrible,” Clare Adams, a Port Aransas resident, said. “Everybody’s bicycles, everybody’s dressers everything was on the side of the roads—everybody’s lives. You just thought, oh wow, we’re never going to recover, but then we did.”
Months went by, and for many people, life returned to normal. But in the wake of the storm valuable lessons were learned.
“I have a whole new outlook on it,” Guerrero said Harvey gave her a new outlook on hurricanes. She said now she starts watching diligently from the time hurricane season starts right up till the end.
“It made us realize the strength of what a hurricane really is,” Shannon said. “It’s a powerful creation, and when it comes, it comes.”
And a word of advice to those who live in the path of hurricanes.
“Take precautions,” Guerrero said. “Really listen to when they’re telling you to evacuate. Take that advice and go.”