Hurricane Harvey Texas Impacts

[Bob Dylan]

We had just bought our retirement house on August 20 in Rockport, Tx. To take possession on September 1. Harvey hit on August 25.

Have not been able to see the damage inside yet.

Sorry to hear this Tony! Its pretty bad on the Coast especially around Port A and Rockport/Fulton.

 

[tonys96]

We had just bought our retirement house on August 20 in Rockport, Tx. To take possession on September 1. Harvey hit on August 25.

Have not been able to see the damage inside yet.

That is some terrible news. Rockport was a total disaster from what I've read.

Thanks. We have not been able to get in because we gave the sellers more time to get out, since they evacuated early. Maybe next week.......

 

[tonys96]

We had just bought our retirement house on August 20 in Rockport, Tx. To take possession on September 1. Harvey hit on August 25.

Have not been able to see the damage inside yet.

Sorry to hear this Tony! Its pretty bad on the Coast especially around Port A and Rockport/Fulton.
Hopefully y'all had good insurance or good luck, some did!

My brother tells me that Rockport, PortA, and Aransas Pass look like war zones. There was no insurance in place, as we had not taken possession yet. Drone pics of the house show missing shingles, the back porch roof blown off, the carport has disappeared, all the trees stripped of leaves, etc. We do not know yet about water damage inside or storm surge damage in the crawl space. :unsure:

 

[AmtrakBlue]

We had just bought our retirement house on August 20 in Rockport, Tx. To take possession on September 1. Harvey hit on August 25.

Have not been able to see the damage inside yet.

Sorry to hear this Tony! Its pretty bad on the Coast especially around Port A and Rockport/Fulton.
Hopefully y'all had good insurance or good luck, some did!

My brother tells me that Rockport, PortA, and Aransas Pass look like war zones. There was no insurance in place, as we had not taken possession yet. Drone pics of the house show missing shingles, the back porch roof blown off, the carport has disappeared, all the trees stripped of leaves, etc. We do not know yet about water damage inside or storm surge damage in the crawl space. :unsure:

I would think you could not take possession since the house is no longer in the condition it was in when you signed the intent to buy contract?

 

[tonys96]

We had just bought our retirement house on August 20 in Rockport, Tx. To take possession on September 1. Harvey hit on August 25.

Have not been able to see the damage inside yet.

Sorry to hear this Tony! Its pretty bad on the Coast especially around Port A and Rockport/Fulton.
Hopefully y'all had good insurance or good luck, some did!

My brother tells me that Rockport, PortA, and Aransas Pass look like war zones. There was no insurance in place, as we had not taken possession yet. Drone pics of the house show missing shingles, the back porch roof blown off, the carport has disappeared, all the trees stripped of leaves, etc. We do not know yet about water damage inside or storm surge damage in the crawl space. :unsure:

I would think you could not take possession since the house is no longer in the condition it was in when you signed the intent to buy contract?

No. We already closed. Anyway, if the damage is not too bad, we want the house anyway.

 

[neroden]

Hope you got your homeowners insurance already. (I remember I got mine before the closing.) And hopefully flood insurance too... though I realize probably not :-(

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Hope you got your homeowners insurance already. (I remember I got mine before the closing.) And hopefully flood insurance too... though I realize probably not :-(

His best option at this point is to apply for FEMA assistance even without flood insurance. A few weeks ago the federal government was gearing up to slash FEMA's funding. Then in the wake of two extremely well timed hurricanes they've since reversed course on a dime and increased funding instead, at least temporarily. Might as well take advantage of it before they change their mind and return to defunding FEMA instead.

 

[tonys96]

Hope you got your homeowners insurance already. (I remember I got mine before the closing.) And hopefully flood insurance too... though I realize probably not :-(

His best option at this point is to apply for FEMA assistance even without flood insurance. A few weeks ago the federal government was gearing up to slash FEMA's funding. Then in the wake of two extremely well timed hurricanes they've since reversed course on a dime and increased funding instead, at least temporarily. Might as well take advantage of it before they change their mind and return to defunding FEMA instead.

Fema is assisting those who lost their residences. Mine is a future retirement house. We are high and dry here in DFW. My brother's house in Rockport id not too damaged, it is new and built like a war bunker, with steel plates in the walls and steel beams down to rock. He had slight wind damage and some water damage, all told, not too bad.

His investment properties (rentals) were not so lucky. Several demolished, several repairable. We might seek SBA assistance if we need it. I was going to pull out the carpeting and install laminate flooring anyway.....

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Hope you got your homeowners insurance already. (I remember I got mine before the closing.) And hopefully flood insurance too... though I realize probably not :-(

His best option at this point is to apply for FEMA assistance even without flood insurance. A few weeks ago the federal government was gearing up to slash FEMA's funding. Then in the wake of two extremely well timed hurricanes they've since reversed course on a dime and increased funding instead, at least temporarily. Might as well take advantage of it before they change their mind and return to defunding FEMA instead.

Fema is assisting those who lost their residences. Mine is a future retirement house. We are high and dry here in DFW. My brother's house in Rockport id not too damaged, it is new and built like a war bunker, with steel plates in the walls and steel beams down to rock. He had slight wind damage and some water damage, all told, not too bad. His investment properties (rentals) were not so lucky. Several demolished, several repairable. We might seek SBA assistance if we need it. I was going to pull out the carpeting and install laminate flooring anyway.....

Ah, good point. My information was secondhand based on what I was hearing from folks in Houston, but you seem to be on top of it. Sounds like you're in a bit of a bind financially, but at least none of your important stuff was there yet, including yourself.

 

[user 12233]

Meanwhile i love the sunset limited train.

 

[Lonestar648]

In the craziness of Harvey, UP is open to the SL adding a stop in Flatonia, TX. Despite everything, the world doesn't stop. I am glad normal is getting back for more and more. Family in Victoria said that most inside garbage had been picked up so garbage service is returning to its regular days etc. Still lots of repairs to do, some will take months, like some of the hotels in the city.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

In the craziness of Harvey, UP is open to the SL adding a stop in Flatonia, TX. Despite everything, the world doesn't stop. I am glad normal is getting back for more and more. Family in Victoria said that most inside garbage had been picked up so garbage service is returning to its regular days etc. Still lots of repairs to do, some will take months, like some of the hotels in the city.

I saw on FB where garbage trucks from other areas were helping Houston get rid of the excess garbage

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum

 

[AmtrakBlue]

In the craziness of Harvey, UP is open to the SL adding a stop in Flatonia, TX. Despite everything, the world doesn't stop. I am glad normal is getting back for more and more. Family in Victoria said that most inside garbage had been picked up so garbage service is returning to its regular days etc. Still lots of repairs to do, some will take months, like some of the hotels in the city.

I saw on FB where garbage trucks from other areas were helping Houston get rid of the excess garbage

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum

 

[AlamoWye]

In the craziness of Harvey, UP is open to the SL adding a stop in Flatonia, TX. Despite everything, the world doesn't stop. I am glad normal is getting back for more and more. Family in Victoria said that most inside garbage had been picked up so garbage service is returning to its regular days etc. Still lots of repairs to do, some will take months, like some of the hotels in the city.

https://www.fayettecountyrecord.com/articles/2017/09/14/flatonia-amtrak-stop-closer-ever-after-union-pacific’s-approval

 

[west point]

A future note: Did any of the HSR proposal locations ( station and track ) get flooded by Harvey ? Any potential incidents can be mitigated now.

 

[dogbert617]

In the craziness of Harvey, UP is open to the SL adding a stop in Flatonia, TX. Despite everything, the world doesn't stop. I am glad normal is getting back for more and more. Family in Victoria said that most inside garbage had been picked up so garbage service is returning to its regular days etc. Still lots of repairs to do, some will take months, like some of the hotels in the city.

https://www.fayettecountyrecord.com/articles/2017/09/14/flatonia-amtrak-stop-closer-ever-after-union-pacific’s-approval

I'm surprised that area between San Antonio and Houston doesn't have at least 1-2 stops, between both cities. Like say, the stops would be at Columbus and Seguin. Or maybe Schulenburg? Though Flatonia is close enough to Schulenburg, lol. Congrats to Flatonia, and good to hear their attempt to add an Amtrak station was approved by Union Pacific!

 

[Bob Dylan]

Seguin and Luling are fairly close to San Antonio,and both tore down their EX-SP Staions years ago.San Marcos is a stop for the Texas Eagle and is only 20 miles from Sequin.

Flatonia is a nice little Rail Friendly town, and will make a great stop on the Sunset Route between SAS and HOS.

 

[WoodyinNYC]

Seguin and Luling are fairly close to San Antonio,and both tore down their EX-SP Staions years ago.San Marcos is a stop for the Texas Eagle and is only 20 miles from Sequin.

Flatonia is a nice little Rail Friendly town, and will make a great stop on the Sunset Route between SAS and HOS.

Seguin did NOT tear down its SP depot.

The Seguin Conservation Society had offered to take the handsome brick building and pay for moving it. (Apparently SP said it was too close to tracks per federal safety regulations.) But while the Conservation Society tried to line up a new site for the old building, without warning Southern Pacific made its move.

A lawyer for the railroad appeared at City Hall and pulled a demolition permit half an hour before closing time. The next morning, most of the building had been destroyed by the time City Hall offices opened to a storm of citizen protests.

 

[WoodyinNYC]

Flatonia is a nice little Rail Friendly town, and will make a great stop on the Sunset Route between SAS and HOS.

Flatonia saw its chance and grabbed it, ahead of Schulenberg or Luling or Seguin (which is probably too close to SAS anyway). Luling would have better served the Austin market, but props to Flatonia for pulling this off.

That stretch between Houston's suburbs and San Antonio is surprisingly sparsely populated. But Flatonia will nicely serve Victoria, with 100,000 pop, about an hour to the south. And it could even bring riders an hour and a half away from Austin, 2+ million metro, with the University of Texas main campus, not quite as big as Victoria, LOL, but almost.

 

[Lonestar648]

Looking at the map, with I-10 going East/West at 75mph, many of the surrounding towns are closer to Flatonia that appear on the map. Closest commercial air service is either Victoria with a small J31 prop plane to DFW, or going to Austin or San Antonio. These rural stops give many people the opportunity to travel that might not otherwise.

 

[Don Newcomb]

Looking at the map, with I-10 going East/West at 75mph, many of the surrounding towns are closer to Flatonia that appear on the map. Closest commercial air service is either Victoria with a small J31 prop plane to DFW, or going to Austin or San Antonio. These rural stops give many people the opportunity to travel that might not otherwise.

Maybe but, as you're probably aware, Texans have a completely different idea of what constitutes a "Sunday drive" than most of the rest of the US.

 

[Lonestar648]

True, but the number of people from other states is growing dramatically. throughout the state.

 

[Bob Dylan]

True, but the number of people from other states is growing dramatically. throughout the state.

This! There are now more non-native Texans in the Lone Star State than we born and bred Texans.