ROCKPORT, Texas – Even the little things in Rockport are reminders of Hurricane Harvey.
"I've had 18 flats since the storm," said Mayor Patrick Rios, holding one of the nails that still litter the city.
Two years after the hurricane made landfall on the coast and devastated Rockport's homes and businesses with Category 4 winds, Rios said his city is on its way to recovery, even if the pace of it can be frustrating.
"You know, weeks go by and you sit there and you go, ‘I'm still working on this one project that I've been working on for three or four weeks,'" Rios said. "But if you look back after a month or a quarter or a year and you see how far you've come and how much the staff and how much help, you know, how much progress we have made, it's a little bit reassuring to know that we're getting there."
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2017: Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Texas as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2004. The storm would eventually cause catastrophic flooding throughout much of eastern Texas, killing 106 people and causing $125 billion in damage.2012: Neil Armstrong, the pilot, engineer and astronaut who became the first person to walk on the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969, dies in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the age of 82 after complications from coronary artery bypass surgery.2012: The Voyager 1 spacecraft, originally launched in September 1977, enters interstellar space, becoming the first man-made object to do so. During its mission, the probe became the first to provide detailed images of Jupiter and Saturn and their moons. Voyager 1, along with its sister craft Voyager 2, remains on its extended mission today, tasked with locating and studying the boundaries of the Solar System.2009: R&B singer Chris Brown is sentenced to five years probation and six months community service as part of his plea deal on a felony assault charge for attacking fellow singer and then-girlfriend Rihanna in an early-morning incident on Feb. 8, 2009.2009: Ted Kennedy, the senior United States senator from Massachusetts and the brother of the late President John F. Kennedy and U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, dies from complications of a form of brain cancer at age 77 in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. He was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and the fourth-longest-serving senator in U.S. history, having served there for almost 47 years.2003: Nearly a year after playing his last match as a professional, former world No. 1 tennis star and 14-time Grand Slam champion Pete Sampras formally announces his retirement during a news conference at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, New York. Sampras had won the fifth U.S. Open title of his career the previous year, beating long-time rival Andre Agassi in what turned out to be Sampras' final match.2001: Popular R&B artist Aaliyah dies at age 22 along with eight others in a plane crash in the Bahamas after filming the music video for the single "Rock the Boat." She made her recording debut at age 14 and is best known for songs such as "Back & Forth," "If Your Girl Only Knew" and "Try Again." She also appeared in the movies "Romeo Must Die" and "Queen of the Damned."1998: World War II veteran and former Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell dies of pneumonia at age 90 in Richmond, Virginia. Powell, who compiled a conservative record on the Court while also earning a reputation as a potential swing vote due to his willingness to compromise, was succeeded by Anthony Kennedy following his 1987 retirement.1991: Finnish student Linus Torvalds announces the first version of what will become Linux in a Usenet posting. The free and open source computer operating system was first released less than two months later.1987: Actress Blake Lively, best known for the TV series "Gossip Girl" and movies such as "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," "The Town," "Green Lantern" and "Savages," is born in Los Angeles, California.1976: Alexander Skarsgard, best known for his roles on the HBO series "True Blood" and "Big Little Lies," is born in Stockholm, Sweden.1986: Paul Simon releases his "Graceland" album. The album was a smash hit, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and won the 1987 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The title song also won the 1988 Grammy Award for Record of the Year.1985: Actress and activist Samantha Smith (center) dies at age 13 in a Beechcraft 99 commuter plane crash in Auburn, Maine. Smith became famous after writing a letter in 1982 to Yuri Andropov, the newly appointed general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and receiving a personal reply inviting her to visit the Soviet Union. She became a Goodwill Ambassador through her trip and later wrote a book about her visit. She was starring in the ABC television series "Lime Street" when she, her father and six others were killed in the crash of Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 while attempting to land at Lewiston-Auburn Regional Airport.1984: Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Waite Hoyt, one of the dominant pitchers of the 1920s and the winningest pitcher for the New York Yankees during that decade, dies of heart failure at age 84 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hoyt helped the Yankees to World Series titles in 1923, 1927 and 1928 and compiled a record of 237-182 with 1,206 strikeouts in a career that also saw him play with the New York Giants, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Philadelphia Athletics, Brooklyn Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates.1984: Author Truman Capote, who was responsible for many literary classics, most notably the novella "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and the true crime novel "In Cold Blood," dies of liver cancer at age 59 in Los Angeles, California.1981: The Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn. Nine years later on the same date, the probe would also make its closest approach to Neptune, the second-to-last planet in the Solar System at the time.1981: Actress Rachel Bilson, best known for her TV roles on "The O.C." and "Hart of Dixie," is born in Los Angeles, California.1975: Bruce Springsteen's album "Born to Run" is released. The album, which features songs such as "Born to Run," "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" and "Thunder Road," proved to be a critical and commercial success, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 album chart.1970: Claudia Schiffer, who became a household name during the early 1990s as one of the world's most successful models, is born in Rheinberg, West Germany.1968: Chef, TV personality and author Rachael Ray is born in Glens Falls, New York.1968: Arthur Ashe becomes the first black person to win a U.S. singles championship, beating Bob Lutz in the final of the United States Amateur Championships.1967: Singer-songwriter and guitarist Jeff Tweedy, best known for his work with the bands Wilco and Uncle Tupelo, is born in Belleville, Illinois.1967: Austrian-American actor Paul Muni, a six-time Academy Award nominee, dies of a heart disorder at age 71 in Montecito, California. Muni won once in his six Oscar nominations, winning Best Actor for the title role in 1936's "The Story of Louis Pasteur." Some of his other best-known performances came in "Scarface," "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang," "The Life of Emile Zola" and "The Last Angry Man."1964: Actor Blair Underwood, best known for playing attorney Jonathan Rollins on the legal drama series "L.A. Law," is born in Tacoma, Washington.1961: Country music singer-songwriter and actor Billy Ray Cyrus is born in Flatwoods, Kentucky. He is best known for his 1992 No. 1 hit song "Achy Breaky Heart" and for his roles on TV series "Doc" and "Hannah Montana," the latter alongside his daughter, fellow singer Miley Cyrus.1958: Filmmaker Tim Burton is born in Burbank, California. He is best known for directing movies such as "Pee-wee's Big Adventure," "Beetlejuice," "Batman," "Edward Scissorhands," "Ed Wood," "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Alice in Wonderland." He has earned two Academy Award nominations in his career, receiving nods for Best Animated Feature for both "Corpse Bride" and "Frankenweenie."1956: Entomologist and sexologist Alfred Kinsey, widely known for his research on human sexuality, dies of a heart ailment and pneumonia at age 62 in Bloomington, Indiana. He founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University in 1947 and wrote the books "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" and "Sexual Behavior in the Human Female," more commonly known as the "Kinsey Reports."1954: Singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, whose best-known songs include "Alison," "Watching the Detectives," "Radio Radio," "Everyday I Write the Book" and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding," is born in Declan Patrick MacManus in London, England. In 2003, he and his backing band, The Attractions, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.1951: Singer-songwriter Rob Halford, best known as the lead singer of the heavy metal band Judas Priest, is born in Sutton Coldfield, England.1950: President Harry Truman orders the U.S. Army to seize control of the nation's railroads to avert a strike. The railroads were seized two days later and were not returned to their owners until two years later.1949: Gene Simmons, best known as the bass player and co-lead vocalist of rock band Kiss, is born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel.1946: Hall of Fame pitcher Rollie Fingers is born in Steubenville, Ohio. Fingers began his major-league career in 1968 with the Oakland Athletics, winning three World Series titles with the team and earning World Series MVP honors in 1974. The seven-time All-Star also played for the San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers in his career, winning the American League's Cy Young and MVP awards in 1981 while with Milwaukee. He earned 341 saves in his career and in 1992 became only the second reliever to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was also almost as well known for his neatly groomed handlebar mustache during his career as he was for his play on the field.1944: Paris is liberated by the Allies during World War II with the occupying German garrison surrendering.1933: Actor Tom Skerritt, best known for the movies "M*A*S*H," "Alien" and "Top Gun" and the television series "Picket Fences," is born in Detroit, Michigan.1932: Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop, flying from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey, in 19 hours, five minutes.1931: TV host and actor Regis Philbin is born in The Bronx, New York. He's best known for hosting the syndicated talk show "Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee" starting in 1988, which became "Live! with Regis and Kelly" starting in 2001 with Kelly Ripa replacing Lee and continued until Philbin's departure in 2011. He's also hosted the game shows "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and "Million Dollar Password" and the first season of the show "America's Got Talent."1930: Actor Sean Connery is born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He's best known for playing British superspy James Bond in seven movies and also won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for "The Untouchables." He's also starred in movies such as "The Name of the Rose," "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," "The Hunt for Red October" and "The Rock."1927: Althea Gibson, who would become the first black athlete to cross the color line of international tennis, is born in Silver, South Carolina. In 1950, Gibson became the first black player to compete in an international tennis event, the U.S. Nationals, the precursor to today's U.S. Open. She became the first black person to win a Grand Slam title, winning the French Open in 1956, and won both Wimbledon and the U.S. Nationals in 1957 and 1958. She was voted Female Athlete of the Year by The Associate Press in both 1957 and 1958. She won a total of 11 Grand Slam tournaments in her career, including six doubles titles, and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame. She died on Sept. 28, 2003, at age 76 from complications following respiratory and bladder infections.1921: Monty Hall, best known as host of the television game show "Let's Make a Deal," is born Monte Halparin in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He died from heart failure at age 96 on Sept. 30, 2017.1918: Composer, conductor and pianist Leonard Bernstein is born in Lawrence, Massachusetts. His fame derived from his long tenure as the music director of the New York Philharmonic and from his music for "West Side Story," as well as "Candide," "Wonderful Town" and "On the Town." He died of a heart attack at age 72 on Oct. 14, 1990, five days after retiring from conducting.1916: President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill creating the United States National Park Service.1908: French physicist Henri Becquerel, the discoverer of radioactivity along with Marie Sk?odowska-Curie and Pierre Curie, dies at age 55 in Le Croisic, Brittany, France. He shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with the Curies for their discovery.1900: German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, whose influence remains strong today within philosophy, notably in existentialism, post-modernism, and post-structuralism, dies of a stroke at age 55 in Weimar, Saxony, German Empire.1875: Former steamboat captain Matthew Webb becomes the first recorded person to swim the English Channel without the use of artificial aids, swimming from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in less than 22 hours.1867: English scientist Michael Faraday, one of the most influential scientists in history, dies at age 75 in Hampton Court, Middlesex, England. Faraday contributed heavily to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry, discovering electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis, among other things.1835: The New York Sun prints the first of six articles in what became known as the "Great Moon Hoax." The articles claimed life had been discovered on the moon using a new type of telescope, describing fantastic animals including bison, goats, unicorns, bipedal tail-less beavers and bat-like winged humanoids who built temples.1688: Henry Morgan, one of the most notorious and successful privateers in history, dies in his mid-50s in Jamaica. His cause of death remains unknown, but has been variously ascribed to tuberculosis or cirrhosis of the liver. A former admiral in the English navy, the Welshman made a name for himself during activities in the Caribbean, primarily raiding Spanish settlements.1609: Galileo Galilei demonstrates one of his early telescope to Venetian lawmakers.1530: Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich, aka Ivan the Terrible, is born in Kolomenskoye, Russia. His long reign, beginning at the age of 16 in 1547 until his death in 1584, saw the conquest of the Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberia, transforming Russia into a multiethnic state spanning almost one billion acres.
2017: Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Texas as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2004. The storm would eventually cause catastrophic flooding throughout much of eastern Texas, killing 106 people and causing $125 billion in damage.
But as Rios guided KSAT on a tour of the city Sunday, it was clear there was still a ways to go. Next to rebuilt and fixed-up homes sat empty lots, where the wreckage had simply been cleared away. Rios said there are some instances where the city will have to step in on some properties where repairs haven't yet been made.
"I hate to say it, but we might have to have them demolished, get them out of here from a health and safety standpoint," Rios said.
In a city where the population is estimated to have dropped from 10,500 to 8,500, the availability of affordable housing to which people could return is one of the biggest issues in Rios' eyes.
"Our businesses are starting to reopen, but they have staffing issues," Rios said.
The city lost every multifamily apartment complex and every condominium due to Harvey, Rios said. Many condominium projects have come back, he said. Some are in the process of coming back.
Some of the apartment complexes are also back, Rios said, including some that are subsidized. However, it's not enough to get everyone back in.
There are highlights amid the challenge, however.
Though some of the hotels do not appear like they will be returning to business, Rios said tourists have been coming back to Rockport.
And the city is close to finishing a reconstruction and revitalization project at Memorial Park.
"This project will be the first project in the city of Rockport that we'll be able to completely tie a ribbon around and say, ‘We're done with this,'" Rios said.
Rios even views the pending relocation of City Hall as an opportunity. The old building has sat vacant since Harvey ripped open the roof. It suffered structural damage, and Rios said it is filled with mold.
As a replacement, the city will be rebuilding in conjunction with a new county courthouse that Rios called a "downtown anchor project."
"It's going to be something that will anchor our downtown, will show people that Rockport is definitely back. We're here for the long run. We're here to stay," Rios said.
In all, the mayor hopes that Rockport will be "substantially" recovered within another three to five years.
For now, "It's going to look and feel different," Rios said. "But when three years from now, it's going to look so much better than it did before."
