Nearly a Year Later, Many Struggle to Recover From Hurricane Harvey
Nearly a Year Later, Many Struggle to Recover From Hurricane Harvey
The 2018
For Samantha and
"It's emotionally exhausting.I think when my kids think back to the past year of our life, especially our oldest, I think he's just going to remember that I cried a lot," said Samantha, who lives in the
They are still rebuilding their home after last year's flood caused by Hurricane Harvey, one of the wettest storm systems in
Hurricane Harvey smashed into
For the past year,Samantha and the kids temporarily moved away, while Justin stayed behind to work on the house. Their youngest child was only a few months old when floodwaters entered their home last August.
"I pretty much missed out on the better half of the first year of his life," Scott said of his youngest child, Kyle. "Missing things like watching him walk for the first time. Watching him do a lot of the stuff that kids do for the first time, I missed."
A few more door frames, doors and baseboards need to be installed.A shower still has no promise of being built.
The Scotts are not alone. Storm damage is also still visible in the neighborhood.
"It just hits you. It's like a slap in the face every single time.It's like it doesn't end, like the hurricane is just continuing," Samantha said.
Throughout
For the families who stayed, rebuilding has been a slow process. Many people do not have flood insurance.
The Scotts' neighbor,
"We ended up gutting the whole house.I've been married over 40 years, and my wife and I pretty much had everything out here at the curb as the other neighbors did too," said Franz.
"Floodplains are like little valleys, and they can hold just about anything nature can throw at us, including Harvey," said
He said preventing catastrophic floods will take time.
"Fifty years from now, we need to be able to reclaim all these floodplains.So, part of this can be through buyout with federal money. But the other part is just going to be awareness," said Jacob.
He said there will be other storms and floods in
The advice may be helpful for some, but the Scotts are stuck in their existing home for now.
"This has kind of put us in a situation where we can't really afford just to pick up and leave," Justin said.
They are counting the small blessings. On the day VOA visited them, their new bedroom furniture was delivered.It was the first night the family was together in their home since the flood.
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