Two months ago today, Hurricane Harvey stormed ashore in Port Aransas and Rockport, severely damaging those communities as well as Aransas Pass, Fulton, Bayside, Refugio, and others. We have posted regularly about this on our Facebook page (https:www.facebook.com/nativedavecom), but this is the first mention on our blog. I guess I didn't want to put something so emotionally and physically taxing on this platform. But I think I need to at least share a bit of the details of our life and work these past two months. The pic above was taken a couple of days after Harvey. This
was our nursery. Greenhouse, potting area, hoophouse, and gardens were completely destroyed. I mean, nothing looks the same. Nothing looks salvageable, save a few plants here and there that were miraculously spared falling trees and tornadic blasts. Harvey and his little twister friends did quite a number on our beloved nursery: hurricane-force winds and tornadoes collapsed all the structures and excessive rainfall (approximately 3ft!!!) flooded almost the entire property.
Our home was not spared, sadly. This is our front porch overlooking what should be our yard. Our home was built on 3ft stilts. Look closely at the photo: there is water inside the house. At one point, the water was 2-3ft deep INSIDE THE HOUSE...and flowing. That means that this part of the front yard was around 5ft deep.
The pic on the right shows a front view of our home. You can see the roof is peeled back like a can of sardines. Surprisingly, the walls were intact as were all but one window which is not one that opens and closes, anyway. And it was only cracked not shattered. We plan to simply fill the cracks with a lovely color to "heal" the wounds left by the storm.
A lot has happened in these two months. Each day we make tiny steps toward resuming normalcy. It has been difficult to watch our community collectively grieve. It has been bad, really bad. This will take a long while. However, for the most part, we are working together to build a better future for our community.
