THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • Late Summer 2018 19 TheCoastalBend.com Editor The Year of Harvey & A World of Change Late Summer 2018 A s Coastal Benders prepare to commemorate the first an- niversary of that unthinkable event the became our harsh realty last August—the landfall of a Cat-4-plus storm like Hurricane Harvey over the northern tip of Mustang Island—we have by now settled into the new reality of what’s left, what’s new, and what’s gone forever. While many homes and businesses vacated after the storm have been rebuilt, some better than before, hundreds of prop- erty owners on the islands are living out the painful les- sons that came with 47 years of complacency. The fragile cone of security built around the settled conclusion that, “they always miss us,” referring to devastat- ing hurricanes like Katrina and Ike, was shattered for good on August 25, 2017. Harvey snuck up on the Texas coast in what became a worst-case meteoro- logical scenario: a week before making landfall in Texas, Tropical Storm Harvey brought heavy rains, but little damage, to the Lesser Antilles Islands off the northern coast of Venezuela. [see A Season of Loss: Bad Moon Rising, January- February 2018]. By August 19, the weak Tropical Depression Harvey was de- clared dissipated by the National Weather Service and was ignored until it had crossed Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, and had entered the warmest waters of the year in the Gulf of Mexico. By Wednesday the 23rd, the Weather Service started issuing frantic-sound- ing warnings concerning the potential for Harvey to strengthen into a dangerous storm, now aimed directly at the central coast of Texas. The warnings, however, carried a distinct caveat about the kind of threat that the storm posed, and that was as a “heavy rainmaker,” with a wide footprint that could flood communities from Port Isabel to Galveston. On Thursday, the day before landfall, Harvey was still a tropical storm, but by Friday at 4 a.m. it had strengthened into a Cat 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 105 m.p.h. In the ensuing 12 hours, Harvey would spin faster and in a tighter rota- tion with a vividly distinct center of circulation, while at the same time con- tracting in size as it roared toward the center of Corpus Christi. It was within those last few hours on Friday afternoon that Harvey aimed slightly northward from its previous trajectory and crossed our barrier islands at the Port Aransas ship channel, rather than through Packery Channel, 15 miles south where Pa- dre Island becomes Mustang Island. Unlike in Houston, the damage that Harvey brought to the Coastal Bend was not from flooding that came with torrential rains, but from peak winds of 130 m.p.h. and a storm surge of up to seven feet. Corpus Christi’s population of almost 350,000 was spared the kind of dev- astation that wiped out entire blocks in Port Aransas, Aransas Pass, Ingleside, Rockport-Fulton and Bayside—altogether home to fewer than 40,000 people. It might be lost on many Corpus Christians, particularly those who do not make it out to the islands very often, that many large businesses, plus hundreds of pri- vate homes, are years away from full restoration. Some may not be reopened at all, and we know of many that are gone for good. At the same time, new invest- ment is in full bloom on the islands as property owners who have chosen to sell are being replaced by new owners who see opportunity amid the devastation. At the hands of Harvey, we have said goodbye to these fine businesses in Port A: Behringer’s Landing Restaurant, A Mano Mexican Imports, the old Cast- away’s (under reconstruction across Alister St.), Rock Cottages, Laughing Horse Lodge, Silver King, Port A Lighthouse, Sammy’s Deli, Fire It Ceramics, Lisa Mayo Interiors, EATS, Saltgrass Boutique, and several others. On both islands, we are still to see the reopening of important hospitality establishments like: Port Royal (in full), La Mirage, Mayan Princess, Seagull, Sandpiper, Sandcastle, The Dunes, Cline’s Landing, Holiday Inn North Padre, as well as some of the best food by the beach at Island Italian on North Padre. With all the sad and uncertain news aside, there is plenty of good news about the resurgence of Padre and Mustang Islands following Hurricane Harvey. Dozens of establishments wiped out by the storm are rebuilt, reopened, and are better than ever: Trout Street Bar & Grill, FINS, Irie’s Island Food, The Tar- pon Inn, Giggity’s & Kody’s, Island Café, Lone Star Taste, Coffee Waves, Fly It! Kites, Port A Outfitters, Oceans of Seafood, Camp Coyoacan, Third Coast, Ocean Treasures, Paul’s Seafood Market, Chilla’s, Woody’s, ROAM, Coastal Ed’s—wow, there’s more good news than bad! Just as encouraging is the strong level of new investment, due to and despite the hurricane. Two sizable business investments, in particular, were taken on in the weeks leading up to Harvey. My Coastal Home, whose three stores (Port A, Rockport and North Padre) were all seriously damaged in the storm, has since doubled-down on the rebuilding of the Coastal Bend by expanding their business rather than scaling down. Like- wise, the owners of Bluewater Cowboy, the new, three-story restaurant and bar on Beach St. in Port A, were in the final stages of construction on their new building when Harvey hit. Pressing forward, “the BC” opened last spring and guests are loving it. High-quality pur- veyors like Island Wine in Port A have popped up, fueled by a next generation of island entre- preneurs. For this very magazine, a year ago we published our last edition as the Texas Coastal Bend Tour Guide, catering to out-of-town visitors and newcomers to the area, with an editorial profile limited to events, restaurants and attractions. A year later, we have been accepted by the community at large—from those here for the weekend for the first time in their lives, to those who have lived their entire lives in the Coastal Bend—as a source of good local information and real journalism. Our only evidence is how our copies seem to fly off stands about as quickly as we can supply them—from locations that span from the U.S.S. Lexington to H.E.B. stores, to dozens of hotels and restaurants. They say that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger—a lesson thousands of us can verify one year after life changed in ways that are yet to, and may never, return to our previous “normal.” Ten years of experience have been con- centrated into a single year since last August. We all know so much more about insurance, flooding, wind, weather warnings, whom to trust and not, contrac- tors and inspectors, Texas politics, FEMA, the Red Cross, and what it is to be a displaced refugee or temporarily homeless. Let’s hope that those lessons translate into intelligent action in time to less- en the sting of the next, inevitable Hurricane ___________. —The Editor