Friday September 1, 2017-Center RV Park

Man what a week! We arrived here in Center on August 24th and hurricane Harvey hit the Rockport/Port Aransas area on Saturday the 26th. Talk about good timing! Of course, the area of Louisiana where we were was pretty much undamaged, certainly not the damage seen in the Beaumont/Port Arthur area of Texas and NOTHING like the damage in the Houston area.

Our old hometown, Dickinson Tx. was the epicenter of some of the news sources. As it turned out, several news people were in Galveston in preparation for the arrival of the storm but ran into some high water, causing them to have to stop in Dickinson. There was plenty of storm coverage from  there and I'm sure that the entire country is aware of the small town where we lived. And please keep in mind that we only left Dickinson on August 9th but the storm hadn't even been born then. We saw boats in front of the RV park on the highway but I don't know how the park itself came out. I have tried to call to check on them but the phones are out. I can only hope that our friends there didn't have damage.

Remember that we left Dickinson for our friends Bill and Ornell's house in Port Arthur. We stayed with them for several days before going to Breaux Bridge, and knew that they were in a low area, with a levee with a set of floodgates cross the road that is about a mile from their home. HERE is a video that their daughter-in-law posted on Facebook showing damage and a picture of the floodgates. Folks outside the levee were flooded, and remember, it's only about a mile away!

Wow, so many places that we just left that had substantial damage and flooding! Maybe it's time for us to go back to Vegas or at least buy a lottery ticket!

We have been blessed in Center. We had heavy rains, with my rain gauge measuring about 25", but we had no flooding or high winds. Some minor ponding of water here at the park but there was only an inch or so of water there. We did meet some folks that had evacuated from Dickinson for the storm. Ironic...

Aunt Janie donated some water and supplies through her church. I took her to Wal Mart and we delivered them to the drop-off point. Janie learned that a large group of evacuees was housed at the Hampton Inn in Center. She and Stella prepared some food which we brought up to the hotel for them to have some home cooked food to eat.

I am just in AWE of the volunteers, the Cajun Navy, Red Neck Navy and many others that came to Texas at their own expense to help with evacuations. Then football star J J Watt organized a fund drive which has raised over $11 million for hurricane Harvey relief. Unbelievable! 

Seeing people buckling down and going to work to clean up and start the recovery process. I remember the assistance that I got after hurricane Ike when I was still working and how much I appreciated it. This was the first hurricane of my adult life that I didn't have to work during the storm. That's not quite right because we had to evacuate during hurricane Rita in 2005, which was like work to me. I had to drive for 19 hours straight to make it to Spring Tx. where our trailer was and then drive another 8 hours to make it about 25 miles where we rode out the storm. I met Stella and Kim during the evacuation of Dickinson for Tropical Storm Claudette, which dropped over 43" of rain on Alvin Tx. and flooded Dickinson, and my work hasn't stopped since then!

Again, I am so thankful and grateful to God for sparing us from damage or injury.

So long.