Hurricane Harvey

Hurricane Harvey

It has been 28 weeks or 197 days, whichever calculation you prefer, since Hurricane Harvey hit Texas and flooded, damaged or destroyed many homes, buildings and even vehicles.  Harvey is tied with Hurricane Katrina for being the most costly storm to hit the Gulf racking up over $125 billion dollars in damage.

Thanks to many of you, our family, friends, and communities, we were able to gather donations for the subdivision where my sister lives in Dayton, Texas.  My friend, Jenny, and I delivered them in October and spent a few days in Texas helping do whatever needed to be done.  The Chevy Traverse was loaded to the ceiling from the floorboards!  Whether it was offering moral support or packing up a pantry to scrubbing bathrooms and sanitizing patios.  Whatever needed to be done, we stepped in and did it.  Dayton received 40 inches of rainfall, one of the hardest hit areas of suburban Houston.  My sister and her husband are very thankful to have had your help as were their neighbors.  Each house in the neighborhood had anywhere from 2 feet to 4 feet of Type 4 flood waters inside their homes...that is the worst type of flooding and involves raw sewage, E.Coli and Coliform amongst other bacteria and waste.

After Jenny and I headed back to Kansas, Susan and John loaded up the supplies that were brought down onto a wagon pulled by the four-wheeler.   They went door-to-door delivering much-needed items around their neighborhood.  Many nights were spent cooking out for the entire neighborhood and gathering at one home's back patio or another's driveway to come together, worship, and have lunch and dinner and try to forget the devastation that each of them were going through.

Where did they live during the flood?  They stayed in a hotel for a couple of weeks and then John and Susan were fortunate enough to borrow an uncle's RV.  The uncle lives in San Antonio, Texas so they had to drive the four hours over and pick it up...with a gas shortage!  They made it there and back and were able to vacate the hotel room they were shacking up in for a couple of weeks...life at the hotel is a whole other story!  FEMA told each homeowner that if they vacated the premises there would be no help from them.  So, everyone that could went and got some sort of trailer to park in their driveway.  Unfortunately, those trailers are still parked outside of each of the homes in their subdivision except for two.  Can you imagine living in an RV for more than a month?  I've stayed in one for a week and that was enough for me!

The drying process of the home took weeks.  Each day, John took a meter and placed it on the exposed wooden two by fours and read the percentage of moisture that was still in the walls.  In humid Texas, it took a couple of months for it to be dry enough to start redoing sheetrock and floors. Walls had to be cut 2 - 5 feet from the floor depending on how high the flood waters receded and seeped up the wall.  Contractors were hard to choose from because not all were honest.  Many were out to make a buck and others that were excellent were already booked to the limit and beyond.  So many people needed contractors and carpenters there wasn't enough to go around.

I talk to my sister almost every morning on our commutes to work.  We talk for about 15-20 minutes of our drive.  I have heard every single trouble and problem that has risen since Harvey hit and cannot believe how awful it must be to feel so helpless.  There are no trailers from FEMA given like during our Joplin tornado.  90% of the homes are without flood insurance because of the way Texas insurance laws decides who needs flood insurance and who doesn't.  She has spent countless hours on the phone with insurance adjusters, agents and Fema representatives.  Needless-to-say, after 197 days, the tile is replaced and the drywall is complete, the painting is done and the cleaning and scrubbing begins.  I feel like such an uncaring sister because I can't just hop in my car and go down to help her clean and move back in.  Dayton is about a 12-hour drive from my house.  I am trying to figure out a plan...Spring Break isn't an option since I had prior plans for Colorado.  I am just so happy that the light is at the end of the tunnel for them.