ROCKPORT, Texas – Many assumed a town further north of the Texas coast would be spared destruction from Hurricane Harvey’s powerful winds but the city of Refugio took a beating.
In the small town of about 3,000 people, almost everyone has been affected by Harvey.
A month later, some remaining damage is small; but some is enormous.
Alice Torres, her husband and two dogs have had to share a tent for weeks. Harvey made their home unlivable.
“(We have) just an air mattress and pillows and that's for the dogs to be comfortable,” she said.
The tent and a generator is all they’ll have for a while. They don’t know how long it will take to repair their home’s pipes and electricity.
But she says she feels lucky. Down the street is the apartment complex where Clarissa Garza used to live.
“They wanted us out because everything would fall through,” she said. “So now it's like, I guess they're going to knock them down.”
She said her neighbors rode out the storm there.
“I don't know if they got locked in or something with the door (but) they had to jump out their bedroom window,” she said.
Garza has her kids in a hotel, but she said they only have two weeks left there.
“It’s crazy,” she said. “Now we have to find a place (or) relocate maybe.”
On almost every street in town, massive piles of debris, mainly tree limbs can be seen stacked up— a sign that Harvey is still lingering in Refugio but that residents are ready for recovery.
