January 22, 2018 (Monday)
Hurricane Harvey came through Rockport five months ago, and debris can still be seen on the sides of some roads. Destroyed businesses and homes are still on display as the wheels of repair grind slowly on. Many of these places are just awaiting demolition because the damage is too severe to repair. Everywhere you look you see crews of roofers atop buildings, applying themselves to new roofs. Blue tarps top the roofs of many buildings, but the weather has been unkind to the tarps and many have deteriorated. Our bypass highway has bcome a dumping and recycling site as the formerly green areas have been transformed into dumpgrounds. Insurance adjustors are still hard at their jobs, assessing situations of many kinds as property owners and insurance companies work out their differences. Some restaurants are still in the same shape they were in the morning after being hit by Harvey; others are slowly getting to the point of re-opening. And on it goes, the coping with situations that present quite a challenge.
We can all be thankful that loss of life has been miraculously small in numbers. Given the billions of dollars in damages, and the overwhelming scenes of disastrous destruction, one cannot help but thank the Lord that the number of deaths has not been large. Looking at TV last week, I saw a documentary about the tsunami in the Indian Ocean and the death toll was 230,000. We were spared such horrendous effects of nature’s warpath.
We are very thankful for all those who have been tirelessly working to restore a more normal community and who have been helping people in need, and there are many. The individuals and organizations are great, and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts.