My Reflections on Hurricane Harvey 2017

*I would like to preface this post by saying this is my, and my family's experience ONLY.  I know that others in the path of hurricane Harvey, and now Irma, have suffered damage, loss and heartbreak that I cannot begin to fathom.  And devastation that we did not experience.  While I am thankful and grateful to God that we were spared, my heart and prayers and donations are with those that were not.  Survivors, I encourage you to try to believe and remember, although it may not feel like it, God is with you and he sees you.
I mentioned recently that I would post about our hurricane Harvey experience.  I have come to the conclusion that if I don't get it on "paper" in bits and pieces, that the post won't happen, since my heart and mind have, and are still experiencing, different stages of shock, grief, numbness and gratefulness.  Like the roller-coaster that it is, there have been few moments where I felt I could catch my breath long enough to form a complete sentence, let alone a lengthy post. Therefore, this will be a work in progress for a while...

August 25, 2017 the Friday before Harvey, after discussing evacuation vs. staying put with hubby and deciding to stay, I felt the strong urge to make one last trip to the grocery store.  Having lived on the gulf coast for most of my life, I have lived through the aftermath of hurricanes and knew all to well what we might be facing if we were hit hard.  Although there's know way to predict the outcome, we can only use our best judgement and do what we feel is best for our personal situations.  Even though we live merely blocks from a large body of water, and are surrounded by smaller bodies of water and the gulf, we were not under mandatory evacuation orders, and the initial land hit was forecasted to be Corpus Christi (where my brother lives, and due to being a first responder and nurse, cannot evacuate. I was more concerned about HIS and his family's safety than I was ours at the time.) so we felt staying would be prudent, especially since travelling would be excruciating for my husband and his pain level.

After the "last stop shop" on 8/25, I set about battening down the hatches, so to speak.  Working in the yard, I moved and removed any plants, furniture or other items that could take off flying with a good wind (a few years back, we had a wind shear go through our area and ended up with a portion of someone's fence in our backyard😨).  Then I filled some gallon water jugs with tap water that we had saved for such a time as this, and filled the upright freezer with them.  This would serve a couple of purposes in my mind:  help keep the frozen foods in there frozen for as long as possible and, if the electricity went out for long enough that they thawed, we could use them to drink, flush toilets, wash up (dishes or our faces and bodies), etc.  I also took a clean 25 gallon plastic tote and filled it with water from the garden hose.  Trying to think of extreme "what if" possibilities, I brought a nylon rope inside so it would be handy in case we flooded to the point of floating away (not a pleasant thought but it happens).  It would give us something to hold onto to hopefully stay together in rushing currents and not lose each other.  I also washed every last stitch of dirty clothing so we would have clean clothes to wear for a while if we lost power and couldn't wash them.  I baked bread knowing there would probably not be any on store shelves.  That is, if and when, the stores were open after the storm made landfall.  (In fact, even during my pre-storm, last minute shop, food items and store shelves were already showing shortages.  And when overhearing another customer question a store employee about a certain item, the employee warned, "if you see it, get it, because we don't know when we will be getting any more deliveries after today".)

Skipping ahead in the scenario for now since just writing the above has raised my feelings of anxiety & blood pressure...

The Walmart I shop at. (Photo taken from Facebook~unfortunately, I don't know the individual to credit this to)

The extent of our property damage: 

Pear tree in our backyard that split vertically and fell. I noted with astonishment, how the fork fell AROUND my birdfeeder pole, jostling it but not damaging it. The tree had not produced this year, and even when it had, the pears were hard, making processing difficult. We still have some delicious spiced pear sauce in the freezer from when it did produce though! We also had our very own "waterfront property" for a while.

the bread shelves at the grocery store ONE WEEK AFTER the storm.

September 12, 2017 my daughter and I had some errands to run.  After stopping to fuel up her car and noting the gas station was still out of premium fuel, we decided to visit the neighborhood we lived in before moving to our present home (which was virtually unaffected by the storm, which is mind boggling, since the two neighborhoods are only a short drive from each other.) since we had heard it was under water during Harvey's rains.  The heartbreaking scene that awaited us...

Construction debris pickup trucks in hard hit neighborhoods. (9/18/17 photo from our city's government Facebook page)

Just as we were turning into the neighborhood, a huge truck that we assumed was for debris pickup, turned in ahead of us.  What a job lays ahead for them.  Because of scenes like this, trash and recycling schedules in our area are still not back to normal. 

It is the strangest, most indescribable scene to witness and live, let alone comprehend.  Some areas and neighborhoods appear normal, as the city is boasting beautiful weather.  Mail delivery is back on schedule.  But as mentioned above, trash and recycling schedules are not.  Gas shortages still exist here and there as do some food items on grocery store shelves.  There are many words, and yet none, to try and express this aftermath...

I'll be back soon to add to this.

For now, thanks for stopping by!~TJ