Whew! I don’t know about you but hopefully you were as lucky as we were when we met Harvey. We evacuated. For unusual reasons we had not evacuated when Claudette came around way back then. She was a low numbered hurricane. As you all know Harvey was a four.

We were trapped because Claudette came early.. The weather folks assured us we had plenty of time the evening before so we decided to wait till the next morning to leave. The next morning and Claudette came at the same time. So we were here in our humble new little house.

We soon learned that hurricanes are very nasty folks whatever their name or intensity number. She was loud and roared and the house shook and the electricity went out. It was at least uncomfortable and definitely scary. Fortunately the house weathered the storm safely.

We decided then and there we didn’t want that experience ever again and would evacuate. I figured a week early was about right but prudence said that might be a bit to soon. Given that Claudette was a one we figured the higher number Harvey would be worse It was.

It stayed far longer than it was welcome, did far more damage in a far wider area. In all ways was a particularly bad boy. We fully expected disaster when we returned after a week or so of no electricity but for us it was fortunately minor damage. Not so for many and our hearts go out to those all along the Texas coast that weren’t so fortunate.

We have a larder to fill because with the electricity off the food in it spoiled. We, along with many others, have a destroyed or missing pier. We have a tree or two to cut up and haul away and some roof shingles and other debris to clean up. However, Harvey up and down the coast left much more work for many other folks.

We all have a lot of clean up and replacing to do. As near as I can tell the good folks are doing just that. Our children who lived in Houston didn’t get flooded, thank goodness. They, along with the other fortunate ones, are working to get things straightened out up there. However, if Claudette took a year or so, it will likely take a far longer time to get fully repaired from Harvey.

I don’t know who establishes the names of Hurricanes. But this time they must have had some sort of premonition. Harvey was not a particularly popular name before and might be less popular in the immediate future. Harvey’s provenance is at least interesting. It comes from the old Breton words Haer and viu. Haer loosely translates in to strong or war. The phrase often translates to Battle worthy. Those naming guys named this brute pretty well. Those of us who are left certainly have a Battle-worthy task of recovering. I know we can make it.