It’s no secret that Ole’ Harvey was no friend to the Youngs (or many others in the Greater Houston area for that matter). He came fast and hit us hard while David and I were on my birthday trip in Oregon. Oregon was fabulous, but it is also bittersweet to look back on because it was ended with two heartbreaking events. Freaking Harvey and the passing of Bailey, our 14 year old beagle. Honestly, it’ll probably be a while before I can get through those words, or talk about any of it, without crying.
So it has been almost 3 full months since Harvey brought 4 1/2 feet of water into our home. That’s right – 4.5 feet. And, we weren’t nearly as bad off as some of our neighbors that got 10 – 15 feet in their homes. Read: that’s flood water into second stories. Anyway, back to my point – 3 months later, and we are still nowhere back to “normal.” I know people mean well when they ask, “Are things finally back to normal?” But, I loathe this question. I mean, really, how does one get back to normal when their home has no dry wall? Every fiber of my smart ass wants to give them a horrible answer, but I don’t. (I mean… at least I don’t have fish in my pool anymore…)
Like I said before, I know that they mean well. And thankfully, when I’m asked by a client, my co-workers are normally there to jump in and save me from having to talk about it. I hate talking about it. I hate even more talking about it and having to pretend that it’s ok. Nothing is “ok” about the aftermath of Harvey.
It’s not fun – It’s horrible. Yes, I get to redo my house, but I wasn’t planning on making several huge changes in a matter of a few months. And, the loss… We lost a lot. The image of seeing everything my husband and I worked so hard for. Spent time picking out and bringing into our home to make it ours. To make it our safe place. To see nearly everything out on my front lawn, it’s not an image I’m likely to forget.
Seriously guys, my toaster had a water line.
Yes, it is stuff. We didn’t know anyone that had their life taken from them because of the storm. (Bailey’s death wasn’t a result of the storm. I know many wonder, but no one asks… Ok, may be one person asked.) We were lucky in many ways that others were not, but that doesn’t make the magnitude of it all hurt any less.
Let me make it very clear that we were SO BLESSED to have so many people show up at our house to lend us a hand, bring food, supplies, and anything else that I asked for. People I’ve never met, bosses and co-workers, friends, and family all blessed us with their presence and help during the 3 days it took us to clear out our home. But, the loss doesn’t just stop after clearing out your house.
Thankfully, (I can’t tell you how thankful that I am) there was a host of ladies that came over and cleaned and packed what was salvageable, while everyone else took our home down to the studs. But, I still don’t know most of what I have and what all needs to replaced, and I won’t until my house is finished (hopefully by the end of the year) and I can unpack. And, I trust that there will be plenty more items to add to my “Needs to be Replaced” list. Over the last few weeks, I’ve slowly found the right people to ask about certain things and learn if they were packed away or destroyed. But, at least once a week, I find out that something else was damaged and either needs to be thrown out or was thrown out.
I lost every pair of shoes that I own, except the 5 pair that came home with me from Oregon and a pair of rain boots that someone picked up in my laundry room when they were prepping my house for the storm. Only 1 of those pairs were work appropriate. So I wore my pink flats to work for about a week straight before I was able to start replacing shoes.
We have flood insurance, so we will have help with the rebuild; however, since the scope of damage done by this storm is so wide-spread, we still don’t know what we will get from the insurance company because they are still processing our claim. Since, we’ve already started construction, the insurance company has released emergency funds, but it’s uneasy trying to re-build without going over a budget you aren’t aware of yet! Sounds fun and risky, right?! It is. But, we really wanted to be ahead of the curve as far as the rebuilds go because there are only so many resources and we don’t want to get stuck in the waiting game with everyone else.
While we are talking about money, let’s talk about the joke that is emergency assistance… Yes, we do have flood insurance, but our flood insurance doesn’t cover emergency housing. (I’m not sure that any do.) We have to maintain our household – continue to pay our mortgage and most of the utilities. We wouldn’t have the income to support an entire other household for 4-5 months while we re-build and don’t forget about slowly replacing things that were lost (pillows, toiletries, shoes, linens, electronics, appliances, food, etc). I guess we could apply to emergency assistance against our content coverage, but then there’s the whole other issue of furnishing an apartment. (And are we going to need that money to help fund the house rebuild?) If we rented anything that was around the same payment as our fairly low mortgage payment and in a safe part of town, we would be in a one bedroom apartment. A couch that fits in a one bedroom apartment is entirely too small for my large living room. Another problem with renting is the short amount of time that we hope to be in a rental, the shortest lease you can get is 6 months. Long story short, renting isn’t a realistic option for us.
However, it’s a good thing we don’t need to, and we had the choice to stay with either set of our parents, because we were only given about $1500 from FEMA for assistance. The amount is comical, and likely won’t even cover the rent on my shortage units, much less help us with an additional household. And for the sake of keeping it real, we also qualified for the $400 in assistance that the Red Cross gave out, only after the shit-show that occurred because they weren’t handing out assistance after donations were received.
Then, you probably don’t even want to get me started on the J.J. Watt Hurricane Harvey Fundraiser. Don’t get me wrong, I love J.J. Watt as much as the next Houstonian, but if you are a middle-class family the reality is that you’ll see no benefit from the $37 million in donations. We are childless, middle-class, young people, who aren’t veterans – so we don’t fall into any of the distribution categories. And while this doesn’t make me angry, it makes me sad. Like I’ve said, and will keep saying, we’ve truly been blessed during this time, but what about other couples that are like us but don’t have the help and support that we’ve been given? Sometimes it only takes one thing. Something big like Harvey. And, they are facing financial ruin.
Was that a long enough story, all to say that:
- We are NOT back to normal, and what is normal after this?!
- We are very blessed. We have the best family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. The way some people stepped up to help still brings tears to my eyes. Not only do I hang out with awesome people, but my friends and family also hang out with awesome people. So many of my sister-in-laws friends came to help. Washed my clothes, took curtains to the dry cleaners, and tried endlessly to salvage and pack everything that they could. Our co-workers and running friend showed up to muck out our disgusting house. So many people stopped by to make sure we were covered with supplies and food. Sadly, I don’t remember everyone that I saw. Things are a blur from that time. So many people showed up – I don’t think they’ll ever know what it means to us.
- We won’t let this break our spirit or our faith. I’ve been quoted several times over the last 3 months saying, “If we don’t laugh, we are going to cry.” God has a plan for us, and we know he’ll bring us through this. If the only thing that I learn is how important it is to show up for other people in their time of need, I know I’ll be able to make a difference to someone along the line.
- Send your hard-earned money somewhere you know it’ll make a difference. We’ve received an outpouring of help and love, and I now know how important it is to take time to research where you are going to donate your money. Also, I can’t tell you the overwhelming feeling we had when friends of friends reached out to bless us with help right after the flood. Without this love and support, we would have been totally on our own replacing everything that has been replaced so far.
We will come through this. I will get back to writing about travels on my travel blog. (And oh have we earned a vacation…) But, a lot of this has been sitting with me, and I wanted to share. And if you are one of the people that showed up for us during our time of need – oh my, how we love you.
-Tabitha
Tab.A.Dilly Travels 