Hurricane Harvey Update
Mentions of Hurricane Harvey come up in my posts so I figured it was a good time to update on our progress...
At the end of the first day of demo, we were in shock and kind of just going through the motions. We went to our friends' house to stay for the night.. a couple others who had worked on the demo came over to let off some steam. It was such an emotional experience. I grabbed a bottle of wine that survived the flood. After cleaning the silt off the label, I saw it was one of our favorites from Macchia Winery in Lodi, California... appropriately named “Victorious”. What a perfect name... we made it through day one without completely falling apart so we were feeling a little victorious...
What was once squishy mud is now a powdery film throughout the house. All of the flooring had to be taken up to control the spread of mold. At this point, the framing must fully dry. Some of the contractors who come from other areas, get greedy and want to start the rebuild but that can be very dangerous. Black mold is a problem in flood areas in general, but definitely in humid Houston!
In an effort to make being around the house easier on my granddaughter, I had her pick out flowers to brighten up the place. Adding a little color gave her something happier to focus her attention. It's not easy seeing your home torn up this way. At this point, the cabinets were still up on top. We attempted to salvage them...
To be safe, we decided to take a peek behind the cabinet that held the oven/microwave. As you can see from this photo, mold began to grow quite quickly. This meant the remaining cabinets had to come down. It's not worth taking a chance. If left untreated, mold can spread to the upstairs of the house! So thankful we checked!
Helicopters flew over the house four days in a row. They hovered... when we went to our friends' house, we saw our house in the opening segment of the evening news! There it was! We are the house to the left of the empty lot. By the way, that lot was recently purchased and only broke ground a month before the hurricane. They have a mess to fix before construction can continue!
We soon found out why the helicopter was hovering. They found out a boat floated from somewhere and ended up in our across the street neighbor's pool! We went over to check it out and saw that it brought the ropes and part of the dock along with it.
Another newsworthy event on our street was this little critter! Our neighbor had this eleven foot alligator in his living room when he returned to demo. That would have been it for me!!!
Through the grapevine, word was spreading that our HOA would be providing free meals to all of the flood victims in our area. In such a short time, volunteers put together a feast! None of us had kitchens to prepare meals so this was an amazing gesture! People were in shock, clothes dirty, eyes tired, deep in thought. It was a little difficult to try to make small talk while trying to absorb the enormity of what happened.
From the first day, people drove slowly down our streets trying to rummage through the debris. Imagine... we hadn't even processed what happened to us and they are trying to pick through our things! It may be junk but it's MY junk! Like many of our neighbors, we posted a “warning” sign.
With all of the paperwork involved with filing for FEMA, needing inspections by the insurance company so they could officially deny us coverage and searching for financial help, cleaning supplies, rebuilding materials, we needed to create a pseudo office. Jeremy was able to devise a makeshift desk, get the internet going and install a printer so I could take care of business.
Another item that “survived” is Barry's Dad's WWII bomber jacket. His Dad passed away in April and this jacket has a special meaning. It was the jacket worn when his Dad, Charles, was shot down over Antwerp. He was captured and held as a POW for two and a half years. I'll write about that in a future post. Very interesting story! We still haven't figured out how to restore this jacket. Our friend worked on it almost immediately but it obviously needs a professional...
Oddly, the piles of debris formed a protective barrier around our homes. Looking at the piles brought sadness because of so much we worked for was gone, but it also brought comfort because it was still there... as long as it was sitting in front, we hadn't lost “everything”. In an effort to keep my sense of humor despite my heart breaking, I adopted this song as our theme song. We shared an evening with another couple who flooded. The wife was taking the situation very hard... but for a moment, we broke free and danced to this song because it was perfectly appropriate... "our house, in the middle of our street". We had to laugh at the absurdity... Click below to listen:
Then came the day. It was the day we knew was coming. The day we needed to begin healing but at the same time dreaded because we had grown comfortable with our pile of debris.
Volunteers from San Antonio spent weeks filling up giant dumpsters with the personal items from members of our community. They treated the situation with such respect. Notice how gentle they were picking up and releasing each pile. It was an extremely emotional situation. Having it removed left us feeling bare...
Finally the Red Cross came through with meals. By this time only our immediately family was working on the clean up of the house. We heard the megaphone announcing the meals but it was hard to understand what they were saying. I walked out to the front yard to see what was going but they passed by so quickly, I had to chase them down the street. They actually only came by, maybe four times. They raced through the streets so we actually only received two meals. We just couldn't catch them!
Once our inspection was complete, we asked the FEMA inspector if we could take him out to dinner. We felt bad for him... he'd been away from his wife and children for an extended period of time. Seeing house after destroyed house was taking its toll. The realization that eighty percent of the homeowner's he was meeting with, had no flood insurance (like us). It's difficult to be in a position where you see such devastation and know that you have little to offer. FEMA's role is not to fund rebuilding, it's to provide aid for immediate needs and if you're fortunate (we were) a small sum of money to get the very basics of rebuilding started. We tried to make the best of a very bad situation and let him know that we understood he had a job to do and no matter how big a heart he had, there was only so much he could do.
Kingwood, as a community, handled a devastating tragedy with grace and humor. One of my neighbors put this sign out on the street... I thought it was hilarious and boy, did I need a good laugh!!!
