ROCKPORT — This coastal Texas community took the hardest initial beating from hurricane Harvey, whose 130 mile-per-hour winds bent steel beams, …
ROCKPORT — This coastal Texas community took the hardest initial beating from Hurricane Harvey, whose 130 mph winds bent steel beams, foundered industrial buildings and destroyed countless homes.
But for all the storm’s fury, rescue workers have confirmed only one death, the details of which have yet to be disclosed.
The National Guard, Texas Task Forces 1 and 2, and rescue workers from across Texas and other states descended on the beach town Sunday as flooded roads that had cut residents off began to clear.
Search and rescue missions are underway and are expected to continue for at least the next two days. A staging area providing food and water has materialized at an old H-E-B parking lot.
It will probably be several weeks before residents regain running water, electricity and a full communication infrastructure, though intermittent cellphone coverage exists.
Rockport residents who heeded emergency officials‘ urging to evacuate should not return, said Bill Terry, a spokesman for the Texas A&M Forest Service Emergency Management task force, which is assisting in rescue efforts.
Until services are restored, people who return will only worsen the strain on services, he said.
„The emphasis right now is search and rescue, “ Terry said, adding that crews are „optimistic that may be the only fatality.“
Separate efforts are underway to rescue trapped or thirsty and starving people across in nearby Aransas Pass, where Terry said there were reports of 10 people trapped in a home.
In the neighborhood, grief and disbelief abound as residents crawl over and under limbs to get into their homes, or return to find the home completely wiped away.
Rick Roman and Elyse Deleon were scrounging for soap and toothpaste for their two children Sunday.
Roman, 34, and his family had tried to weather Harvey from their RV, miles from the coast, but when it began to feel like the roof was about to tear off, the family packed into his Chevy Suburban and rushed to the highway. They waited the storm out from an underpass.
When they returned, it was all gone.
„We lost everything, “ Roman said. „I just don’t know what we’re going to do. I don’t know where to start.“
Such war stories fill the air, as people stop their trucks on the main drag to tally the wreckage.
Of particular interest is the harrowing tale of how Bobby Rowe and Steve Felty, both 53, hunkered down in a 34-foot sailboat in the marina and were nearly swept to sea as Harvey made landfall.
Their boat broke from its ties to the dock and rushed freely into the black void that Friday night was the Gulf of Mexico.
Nothing but a bobble to Harvey’s mighty whim, and with no sight, they resigned themselves to death.
„I turned to Bobby and said, ‚Well, this is it, buddy, ‚“ Felty said. „I’ve got kids back home, and my mama’s still alive, and I’m thinking they’re never gonna see me again, and it will be weeks before they find my body.“
Had the tides pushed them 100 yards to the right, they’d probably be among the dead. Instead, their aqua blue rig slammed into a sea wall. They walked out into the wind, back to the marina, and waited out the storm in a friend’s beaten-down car and lived to tell the tale.
