This image is of a street in the neighborhood of Friendswood that flooded in Hurricane Harvey. Every front yard is covered by furniture, carpets, flooring, sheetrock, and various belongings that were wrecked by the water even a month later. In the initial days of clean up, there was an outpour of people coming together to help clean out houses. Help came from other cities and states to help people they knew as well as strangers.

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For Mrs. Byrd, this has been a physically and mentally draining process that is still ongoing. Trying to understand the processes and timelines and what to do next is frustrating. For her family, the next steps are rewiring their house, continuing to get bids for projects like replacing sheetrock, flooring, and cabinets. However, even that is not nearly that simple when you consider the sheer volume of people needing construction and renovation on their homes and how much that delays the process. As of right now, they are expected to get back in their home in June of 2018. Their personal goal is to get to where they can live on the second floor while still renovating the first floor. Mentally, her and her husband desire some sense of normalcy. She discussed even the longing to simply sweep and mop their floors. A simple task that would mean so much more to them.[1]

In the days immediately following Hurricane Harvey, an estimated twenty-seven thousand people were in shelters.[2] Although that is likely a conservative figure, it speaks volumes to consider the physical, financial, and mental aid that those displaced individuals and families will require to recover.

In Russell’s experience, he describes the traffic jams in the affected neighborhoods because there were so many people there to help there was nowhere to drive. Vehicles covered every spare inch of the roads and made getting in and out difficult to say the least.[3]

 

[1] Sheila Byrd, "Sheila Byrd Hurricane Harvey Interview," interview by author, November 2, 2017.

[2] William Axford, "Man in Viral Video Scares off Looters from Robbing North Harris County Store during Harvey," Houston Chronicle, August 31, 2017, http://www.chron.com/news/houston-weather/hurricaneharvey/article/Hurricane-Harvey-looters-viral-video-John-Nash-12165416.php.

[3] Russell Creel, "Russell Creel Hurricane Harvey Interview," interview by author, November 3, 2017.