MATAGORDA – For retiree David Price, it was time to leave the two-story home they had built on the banks of the Colorado River four ears ago.
MATAGORDA – For retiree David Price, it was time to leave the two-story home they had built on the banks of the Colorado River four years ago.
Wind and rain whipped his face Friday morning as he hooked up his 24-foot power boat as his wife, Carolyn, steered the truck down the driveway for the trip to Lake Conroe.
Like thousands of coastal residents, they were anxious to beat an evacuation order as Hurricane Harvey bore down. Their aqua blue, $360,000 weekend home was a mere 4 miles from the Gulf of Mexico.
“We’re just praying it doesn’t tear it down. If everything goes fine it will meet the codes, and withstand 140 mile winds, ” Price said.”It’s the tidal surge I’m worried about. They were saying 6-foot, but at 12 foot it would be up to here.”
Price gestured to midway up the massive beams holding the house, meaning the storage room they recently built, a tool shed, water well would all be washed away.
“I’m hoping it goes to Corpus and stays there, ” said Carolyn, a retired banker. “People have to prepare, and you have to have insurance.”
Matagorda Constable Frank Craft was stationed at the entrance to a small beachfront community as the last remaining residents left.
“Most people have evacuated. I don’t think we have anybody who’s staying, ” Craft said, noting the road back to town becomes impassable during storms.
Craft, a third-generation Matagorda resident, was honest about what the area is facing.
“My fear is the 12-foot tidal surge and strong winds leaving us with destruction, ” he said. “All of us have our homes here and we hate to have that kind of damage.”
