48 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • Early Summer 2018 TheCoastalBend.com 48 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • Early Summer 2018 TheCoastalBend.com THE BEPKO’S—Brandon, Ashley and their two young sons—were frequent summer visitors to Port Aransas for years before making the big decision to move there for good, after selling their family business in Lubbock almost four years ago. They found a three-story beach house located in the quaint and inten- tionally isolated La Playa Court enclave, next to Sandcastle Condominium off 11th Street. Self-described serial entrepreneurs, the Bepko’s held onto one small business in Lubbock, a prom dress store, opened the Port A Lighthouse, a neon light specialty shop on South Alister, and even rented out their home to overnight guests dur- ing the summer, while living in their RV, to offset the cost of the home. As last summer wrapped up, little did they know that their camping adventure would be extended by over a month, and that they would not be returning to live in their home for more than a year. For most home and business owners whose properties took a direct hit from Hurricane Harvey, but were not com- pletely wiped out by the wind and storm surge, the reality of how mold works in its destructive process of any structure provided a painful education. To the na- ive eyes of most who toured the imme- diate aftermath of Harvey in Port A, the damage did not appear that bad. Like the Bepko house, the frames and exterior walls of most buildings were still intact, even if damaged with missing siding or stucco, and roofs were torn up a bit, but were largely still there. It is what could not be seen from the outside that would destroy these struc- tures for all intents and purposes, in- cluding human habitation, as they were condemned by the City one by one due to water damage including mold. While the six-foot storm surge could not reach the elevated living space of the Bepko house, the roof failed badly and the water came in from above. When the family returned from their evacuation to Fredericksburg, they set up camp at the Port A RV Resort and dove into a rebuilding process that they expected would take a few months—and The Bepko home prior to Hurricane Harvey