Survivors’ Tales of Hurricane Harvey

By theadmin

As Hurricane Harvey swirled in the Gulf of Mexico, Cody Walker and her husband, Arlen, did not evacuate their Refugio home. “We have always had hurricane parties and watched from the back porch,” she says. They would laugh while watching Texas’ seasonal storms sweep through. “But what we didn’t prepare for was a Cat 4. We lost our home and business overnight.”

Cody operates Blue Sky Boutique in downtown Refugio and insures the store merchandise and her nearby home through Texas Farm Bureau Insurance. Like the Walkers, a Texas Farm Bureau Insurance Agent at the Goliad-Refugio office, who insured their properties, didn’t evacuate. Instead, she weathered Harvey in her Goliad home, anticipating that she’d be needed in the aftermath. Luis Padilla, the agency manager, remembers saying to himself, “I think our members are going to want to see our faces.”

On the Monday following the weekend storm, Padilla and a few loyal Agents and support staffers opened the agency doors and booted up their laptops using generator power. The office became a hub for locals to gather, not just to file claims, but also to share stories of survival, commiserate in their losses, and resolve to rebuild their town and their lives.

Making Landfall

Harvey made landfall near Port Aransas at 130 miles per hour on Friday night, Aug. 25. By Monday, most of Refugio, an 800-square-mile county on the Coastal Bend, would have lost power, water, and phone service. Nearly all of the city of Refugio would be damaged. The county’s 7,000 residents would find themselves among the hardest hit by the hurricane.

Yet Cody says almost everyone she knew stayed put. Her husband, a Refugio native, had never evacuated during a hurricane. The Walkers live on 40 acres with livestock and horses. Arlen worried about the animals’ survival if the couple evacuated and couldn’t return quickly enough to feed and care for them. So the family secured the property, boarded up windows at the boutique, and decided to wait out Harvey — then forecast to make landfall as a Category 2 storm.

As family tradition dictated, the Walkers had a hurricane party on Friday afternoon, but friends cleared out around dinnertime, leaving Arlen and Cody alone with their son Justin, daughter-in-law Celeste, and 6-year-old grandson, Brazos. “I am the most laid-back, non-drama person,” Cody says. But that night, in the midst of Harvey’s wrath, her mindset changed: “I was scared to death. I thought we were going to die.”

Image courtesy of NOAA/NASA

The Wind and the Rain

The rain and wind started around 7 p.m. Then came a zipping sound: shingles tearing away from the roof. As the night progressed, the Walkers’ generator stopped working. Light fixtures and ceilings began leaking rainwater, and soaked sheetrock started falling. The family, huddled first in a bathroom and later in a hallway, felt weakened walls trembling as they held out the wind. “We didn’t know then that the garage was already gone,” Cody remembers. She told her youngest son, James Ray, who had called her with storm track details, that she didn’t know if she would make it through the night.

Around 2 a.m., realizing the house was going to disintegrate around them, the family braved 100-mile-per-hour winds to drive to safer shelter. “I grabbed my purse and my Bible,” Cody says. Arlen drove his truck over fallen oak tree branches and rammed a gate to enter his sister’s property down the road, where they waited out the night in a sturdy house under a metal roof.

A New Reality

For the Walkers and countless others affected by the storm, the morning light revealed a new reality. Cody and Arlen already knew their house would be a total loss. But seeing their downtown boutique in ruins was the next blow. They walked through the void where the boarded-up plate-glass window had been to see the ceiling peeled open like the lid of a tin can and their merchandise — clothing, shoes, and accessories — rain-soaked and scattered.

They began to have an inkling of the extent of the damage: that Texans all across the coast would be out of their homes. That this was one of the worst storms in Texas’ recorded history. That whole communities lost everything. That a year later, they’d still be working to rebuild.

The floodwaters in Texas reached far beyond the outlines of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s mandated flood zones. That meant more than 80 percent of Harvey victims did not have flood insurance, including many Houstonians surprised to see floodwaters in their part of the city, and were left unprotected in the wake of the storm.

Other areas, like Refugio, were battered by winds off the coast. The Walkers were lucky to have a homeowners and a windstorm policy with Texas Farm Bureau Insurance. Soon, they received a much-appreciated check and were able to begin rebuilding their home.

Salvaging the ruined boutique, which they had chosen not to insure, was more difficult. “That’s on us,” Cody admits. To help cover out-of-pocket costs for replacing the store roof and other building repairs, Cody now regularly hosts “Harvey Sales,” selling the damaged boutique goods at a steep discount to bargain hunters.

Picking Up the Pieces

On the hard-hit coast, Texas Farm Bureau Insurance agency managers, such as Padilla in Refugio and Rob Barjenbruch in Port Lavaca, felt driven to help members assess the damage and start the claims process right away. Like the Walkers, Barjenbruch also escaped in the middle of the night to a family member’s more-protected home. After sending his wife and children to safety in New Braunfels before the storm, Barjenbruch stayed behind so he would be available to his clients after it came. Although his own house was left in shambles, he spent his time in the office, driving to visit clients’ properties after Harvey passed, filing claims, helping other families rebuild.

Padilla’s office worked nonstop for weeks to file around 1,000 claims over 30 days. He gets emotional describing the experience. “That’s the spirit of Farm Bureau,” he says. “We’re here to help.” His own house in Goliad was also uninhabitable after the storm, and he had to stay in San Antonio and commute to work from there.

Support and resources sent from Texas Farm Bureau Insurance headquarters in Waco — and the countless Agents and adjustors who traveled from across the state to help — bolstered their efforts. The long days compounded by lack of power and a mosquito infestation made the work as challenging as it was rewarding. But gestures such as the large, generator-operated fan that arrived from the home office eased the burden, keeping the office cool as policyholders came in.

Seeing the donations flood into the region and watching locals support one another gave everyone hope. “We are still dealing with the rebuilding of the community,” Padilla said in February. “It’s going to be a process that’s going to take a year.”

A New Start

Six months after the storm, the Walkers finally moved back into their repaired home, after living with Justin and his family. They’re still working toward rebuilding and reopening the boutique, but they’re grateful for unexpected gifts: enjoying time with their grandson; getting a newly restored home; and seeing Refugio pull together through it all. “We had no fatalities from Hurricane Harvey in our little town,” Cody says. “Such a blessing.”

Barjenbruch says the experience showcased the resolve of the region’s people and the character of the company he works for. “I was proud to be with Texas Farm Bureau Insurance.” He describes how volunteer crews from the company cooked hamburgers for locals, giving people food and giving them a break. “Even though it was horrible, it was a shining moment.”

In Texas, severe weather can happen in the blink of an eye. Use these tips to help prepare you for hurricane season.