What did Harvey look like for me?
Here is the reason why I was scarce during the last week. As most of you know I reside in South Texas and had an encounter with hurricane Harvey. Very interesting and luckily our community only experienced the outer wall of the eye of Harvey. A bit rainy and gloomy but not to bad.
Now that all changed and by Saturday morning at 01:49 Harvey did same heavy knocking on our doors
By 03:10 Harvey decided to pummel us with gusts of 110 mph. ( @sam I do have some brief video clips in MP4 format but seems to have trouble posting those: unknown error)
Now it is one week later and we are of course still dealing with the aftermath. My wife, myself and a few friends worked at a Disaster Relief station today and took a few items with us
and here are some of the things we encountered. There is of course much, much more but it may give you a feeling of what it is like down here. These are taken on the drive to the relief post 35 miles away. Remember that I have only minor roof damage, some broken tree limbs and some debris, but only 30 min away we encounter some of this
Company entrances with torn awnings
Homes with some roof damage
Homes without a roof (why am I belly aching about my few shingles? At least I have a roof!
Amazing how a hurricane can snap telephone posts. These carry of course more than just telephone lines.
Downed power lines
No wonder the power is down, There are no more lines
One week after, no rainfall but still slightly flooded area
Here is the real devastation. These are dwellings that people used to live in, their homes. Until Harvey.....
Even palm trees suffered
This is what a disaster relief station at a small settlement looks like. We always see images from large cities but never from the little places. This is a place that experienced devastating damages and thus far FEMA has not made it there. One week after and still no official help for these residents. This was started by some residents and some church groups. These are our local heroes!
The beauty on this one is that people come together to help their neighbor. It does not matter what color your skin is or what language you speak or what religion (if any) you belong to. Everybody helps and everybody is being helped. Kind of like iFixit :-) So, that is what I did for my Sunday. Time to go to work and answer some questions.
You all have a great weekend!
Is this a good question?
2 Comments
Wow!! Those power lines are incredible! Doesn't look like fun at all. =( We've already donated to the red cross, but if you can think of better organizations to support the littler guys, maybe we can send stuff out there! Very impressed with how hard you're working for your community, and it's awesome that you're all coming together!
by Sam Goldheart
@sam thank you and your team for donating. I think the Red Cross is definitely the organization that uses their resources the best when it comes to all those forgotten small settlements. Always follow the golden rule.... :-)
by oldturkey03