Harvey Came To Visit

As a youngster there was a movie starring James Stewart and his 'imaginary' friend, a 6 ft. 3 in. rabbit.  The film's name is Harvey.  A totally different kind of Harvey has been visiting the southern parts of Texas since last Friday.  I am sure that most readers have seen the photos of the terrible flooding in Houston and the lesser suburbs in that area.  The areas of the state where the category 4 storm crossed onto land are left with considerable wind damage.

My oldest sister's BIL lives in Rockport.  He had evacuated so he is safe.  Have not heard about his property's condition.  My youngest sister's husband has a brother, nieces and other relatives in the Houston suburbs.  No water in their home but there is no way out as all the roads are under water.  Finally this afternoon the storm moved away from the Houston area.

We live about 175 miles from where the eye crossed onto land on Friday.  The storm slowed to a crawl sending the swirls of the rain filled clouds swirling across our town starting Saturday afternoon.  Our 5 inch rain gage was filled rather quickly.  Winds buffeted the walls of our building.  We remained inside, safe and secure.   I stepped to the sliding glass door to peek out just before going to bed and stepped in a puddle of water.  Once or twice before we had experienced water coming in through the sliding door some how.  At least that is what we thought.

We pulled out towels and soaked up the water.  Added dry towels in the event it continued to seep in then went to bed.  Promptly to sleep only to be awakened by the storm alarm beeping.  Hubby was up and dressed.  Actually he was waking me to say not to be frightened but firemen were on their way.  The noise was our smoke alarms.  Hubby had been up trying to get them shut off and finally gave up.  After all maybe there was a short someplace.  The firemen arrived and began checking.  They found water leaking into the fire alarm in our bedroom.

More lights turned on and sure enough our dresser had a puddle of water.  After the firemen left, more towels placed in areas.  A ladder with a bucket to catch the drip and back to bed.  A few hours later we were up and more water was seeping across the ceiling.  The wall in the bedroom now had areas the size of a half dollar up and down where there appeared to be wall studs.  The area around the smoke detector was now about 11 inch diameter.  The drip had become a stream from the detector.

It was time to move furniture and valuables away from the moisture.  So now we have Finally Sunday afternoon the rains and wind died down to just the occasional gust.  Water kept seeping into the bedroom carpet overnight on Sunday.  By Monday the ceiling was no longer dripping.  It looked like Harvey was done with the visit to our home.  We now have part of the bedroom furniture in the living area till the carpet is dry.

The corporate folks have been looking over the apartment building.  The plan is to resolve the root issue of the leaking in the walls.  Once that is resolved, the cosmetic things will be repaired.  Till then the furniture will be in slightly new locations.  This inconvenience is helping me look at further downsizing/decluttering.  

As I think about the slight inconvenience we have experienced I can only imagine the folks in Rockport.  In Houston.  In Galveston.  In Spring and all the other suburbs that are in that area.

Prayers and peace,
Janice