Life Post Harvey

"If you want to touch the past, touch a rock. If you want to touch the present, touch a flower. If you want to touch the future, touch a life." ―Author Unknown

It's been a long, stressful three weeks. We are back in Ithaca, NY for a short time as we get The Pearl ready for winter storage. I thought I would share a few pictures from the past few weeks...some were posted on our Facebook page earlier and some are new. Just a little insight to our life after Hurricane Harvey.

Our first look at Texas Pearl after the storm on Sunday August 27. Look at all that stuff in the water.

Our home is in the country...we live with a septic tank and well, that means when we have no electricity we have no bathroom. This was our post Harvey bathroom. We stayed four nights without power and then moved to Rockport and stayed on the boat. The boat has a 250 gallon water tank, working toilets and a generator. Meaning we could have AC when the temperatures began to warm up...life was a little more normal there.

After two mornings without coffee we figured out a way to get our morning caffeine.

Double filtering made it a pretty good cup of coffee

Getting down to Rockport on Sunday August 27 wasn't easy, but we were determined to see the boat and check on our son's home. Lots of debris, down power lines and water on the roads.

and of course in South Texas we have a lot of cows...so we saw a lot of dead cows along the road too.

The first hot meal we had in over a week was this amazing burger at a small place in Ganado, Texas called KW's Dairy Mart....it was amazing!

Hundreds of power trucks were in town getting things back to normal...Rockport's complete power grid up and running on Friday September 8.

On our second trip down to Rockport on Tuesday night (August 29) we were greeted with this sight. That rainbow is pointing down to Texas Pearl. A true sign that things are improving. 

Some boaters have no idea how to prepare for a storm. This man thought this board would keep his boat from hitting the concert bulkhead during the storm. Hum...I wonder if he thinks that worked for him!

So many wonderful organizations brought in food for all of us without electricity. This group had wonderful meals.  

The amazing thing for me to see were all the individual people who came to Rockport Labor Day weekend just to BBQ for the town. Every corner and parking lot was full of people ready to provide anything people needed...food, hot meals, water, ice, clothes, diapers, formula, pet food, bug spray...and lots of hugs and support. Strangers poured into town to help people clear the debris from their yards and clean up their houses. What an unbelievable show of humanity.

The water lines to the marina were damaged and I'm sure it isn't a priority at the moment to fix them (county marina). It may be months before we have water and power at our marina. So what do you do with all the cases of water people were giving away...put them in the water tank, of course. I put in over 20 gallons...one 16.9 oz bottle at a time. The storm blew away the panel that goes in the opening in this picture. So....

The captain made a temporary panel for our back deck until we can have a new one ordered.