One year later, we’re just now finding a new normal one year after Hurricane Harvey. 

You can find the original posts HERE.

Part 7:  Finding a new normal

I’ve weathered a number of serious storms.  Hurricane Belle in New Jersey in 1976 was the first real storm I remember. That was back during elementary school days. Alicia hit Houston in 1983 while I was in high school. I remember treks for dry ice and cooking the contents of the big deep freeze over a propane gas grill.

Allison, in 2001, was only a tropical storm when it dumped  close to 39 inches of rain over 6 days on the Houston area. It was the first tropical storm to have its name retired without ever having reached hurricane strength. Seven years later, in 2008 Hurricane Ike knocked out power for nearly two weeks, and was, at the time the second most costly storm on record.

I remember all of those storms well—probably will never forget them. But none of them have touched me like Harvey has.

So here we are, coming up on the one year anniversary of Hurricane Harvey hitting Houston. With every news media outlet in the city and many in the state making the most of it, it’s hard not to reflect on the permanent mark this storm has left on many of us.

Lesson 15: Sometimes you don’t need outside reminders

Just this week, I announced at dinner I had found the new location for the local Marble Slab ice cream parlor that had disappeared under the flood waters a year ago. The pharmacy next door to the old location that we use had only reopened in late March, but there was no sign of the ice cream parlor until now.

The local library reopened over Memorial Day weekend, nine months after Hurricane Harvey. The  first floor had been inundated, destroying the entire children’s collection. The local YMCA is sort of open, using temporary buildings in the parking lot for many of their programs. Their whole building is still a construction zone.

My son took me for a ‘last summer hurrah’ lunch a few days ago. We went to Torchy’s Tacos. Immediately inside the door is a sort of ruller, with a commemorative plaque at the 7 foot mark: The water was this deep after Hurricane Harvey. Just after they reopened there was a big brouhaha with the local realtors asking (demanding really) them to take down the sign fearing it was ‘bad for business,’ reminding potential home buyers of the flood. As if anyone could forget.

Every morning when I walk my dog, we pass by houses with RV’s still in the driveways where people are still living while repairs are being done. We walk by houses where the owners are still not living there because repairs aren’t sufficiently complete yet. Still others have residents, but are still works in progress. For many, repairs are complete, but the yards still bear the scars of months of debris piles that grew for three or four months after Hurricane Harvey.

This week, we voted on (and approved, no surprise, really) a $2.5 BILLION bond for flood control projects in Houston and the surrounding counties. What a way to celebrate an anniversary that no one is forgetting around here.

Lesson 16:  It’s never all bad

In the midst of all the memories of destruction and dire news, there are also powerful reminders of good that happened out of it all. The enormity of the storm and flooding (over 150,000 homes in Houston alone) meant that our emergency systems were overwhelmed. ‘Regular’ people rose to the occasion and did what they could to help. Some brought out their boats to rescue friends and neighbors from high water. Teams from Louisiana poured in—the Cajun Navy—brought personal boats for volunteer rescues.

A Texas based grocery (HEB) with local outlets deployed disaster relief teams to supply food to rescue efforts. They brought in teams of employees from non-affected areas to man stores in affected areas and even shifted production in their own bakeries and orders from suppliers to focus on the most needed supplies. A local furniture chain opened their doors to act as a shelter to displaced families and rescue workers. Local churches mobilized not just to open shelters and act as supply distribution centers, but also to send out teams to assist with the overwhelming clean-up efforts.  

The devastation the storm brought also brought out some of the best in human nature. I’m not going to lie, I’m crying like a baby writing this. I’ll probably always get teary remembering it all.

Lesson 17: Some things are worth looking back on

All in all, I think those good things make it worth looking back on Harvey and all that happened through it. Thank you to all of you who have been here with me through it all. You’re definitely part of the good that came out of the storm.  

To commemorate all those good things, I’ve put together all the posts I did about that time into an e-book that will be free to download for anyone interested.

Click on the cover or HERE to find it.

I’d like to end this saga with a repost of series of pictures what our neighborhood looked like a year ago, in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

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