We were the lucky ones having a place to come home to. So many others lost everything due to either flood waters or the winds from the storm leveled everything. Those close to the coast seen record breaking tidal surges and many places have still not recovered. Our area has seen several hurricanes in the past and as you walk through our tiny town on the bay, you will see about half of the town boarded up still from storms in the past. Many homes are abandoned and ran down to the point of disrepair.
Mostly everyone here in our town had roof damage and minor property damage. 15 minutes south and west of us was a different story with building and homes completely destroyed. Traveling 30 minutes east and another hour or so to Houston and all of the rain ravaged thousands of homes and business. Hurricane Harvey will go on to be one of the deadliest and costly storms in history. Initially said to make landfall as a tropical storm, Harvey strengthened to a staggering category 4 hurricane before making landfall.
We were under a mandatory evacuation and I'm glad we left a day before the massive exodus of people. We almost went to Houston but decided to move further north instead. Looking back that was the right decision as Houston we wrecked with floods. Our home was just to the right of the Eye of the Storm Wall. It was our first hurricane and people said we were on the dirty side of the storm. I'm glad we left but it was tough to make that decision to leave your home and everything you own behind.
Our house was on an Island for a long time but we did not go under water like this.
We still have 2 more trees like this that the hurricane knocked down but not all of the way. It is easier to remove a tree that is standing upright. These trees are dangerous to remove because they are leaning against other trees. Our shed is leaking bad due to the damage and removing the fallen trees so that they do not fall more and crush the building is important.
The reason I waited so long is I was hoping they would try to straighten up. This is probably silly but sometimes trees that get pushed over with wind will pop back up later. These lost too much roots and continue to fall at a fast rate recently. With the kids playing we were getting scared that they would fall and crush the kids. The building can be replaced and so can the trees. We removed one large tree and stacked up the limbs. We will have to finish up but I became too tired in the heat.
This whole area used to be in the shade. Maybe it will be the new garden spot for next year.
The trees are our neighbor's trees. They even crushed her fence. She is an elderly sweet lady with no help to clean up. The insurance company said they could sue to make her clean it up but that doesn't seem very neighborly. So we decided to not claim this on our insurance and I would take care of it. It is the right thing to do but wow it is super hard work with a few hand tools. No sense in polluting the environment with chainsaws for a few trees. The work out is great also but today I am super tired. Maybe next weekend I will finish the job.
We have several days off work for the American Independence day celebrations so I might take advantage of this time and finish cleaning this all up. I'll keep you updated on the progress.
