Melissa Sturgis #4. Treasured antiques 3 generations back from New England are on this curb. Furniture and collectibles from 8 years overseas in Malaysia, London and Russia.

Melissa Sturgis’ Harvey Story: Three Generations of Antiques Out on the Curb

This is another in a series of looks back at Harvey, as told through the photos of its victims.

Melissa Sturgis, self-described “oil-patch gypsy,” is still angry. “My entire home.  Treasured antiques, three generations back from New England, are on this curb. Furniture and collectibles from eight years overseas in Malaysia, London and Russia. It’s a crime.”

Melissa Sturgis #4. Treasured antiques 3 generations back from New England are on this curb. Furniture and collectibles from 8 years overseas in Malaysia, London and Russia.
Photo courtesy of Melissa Sturgis. Her entire home, three generations of family antiques, and treasures acquired from traveling the world for eight years…all went to the curb after Hurricane Harvey.
Melissa Sturgis #1
What was left on the inside of Melissa Sturgis’ home after Harvey.
Melissa Sturgis #2
Melissa Sturgis, who is 5’10”, shows how high the water got during Harvey.
Melissa Sturgis #7
Family heirloom warped beyond usability.
Melissa Sturgis #6
Catch of the day. Fish on the floor after Harvey.
Cleaning out the closet after Harvey.
Melissa Sturgis #13
Harvey’s wake-up call.
Melissa Sturgis #12
“Someone bring a mop.”
Melissa Sturgis #11
Morning after Harvey. Melissa Sturgis’ Slip ‘N Slide Dining Room.
Melissa Sturgis #5
Shattered dreams left behind by Hurricane Harvey.

Silver Lining

Melissa Sturgis lives in Alaska now and says she is not moving back, though she keeps in touch with all of her Kingwood friends.

“Harvey was devastating, but it actually had a silver lining.  It shook us out of complacency and made us more resilient…taught us that life is about more than things….it’s about perfect strangers coming together to help one another. People opening their home to the five of us for several days.”

“As a side note, my brother in law, sister in law, nephew and 2 cats from Sugarland were forced to evacuate. They drove hours in the torrential rain to get to my house in KW for safety–then lost their two cars in my driveway—AND THEY NEVER FLOODED IN SUGARLAND. And my sister in law had cancer at the time….and still does.”

“Yes it was tortuous, tossing out Great Grandma’s Dining Room table onto the pile….as Grandma (who also flooded and was evacuated from Arbor Terrace in Town Center) sat on the sidewalk watching her things and her mother’s antiques get tossed. Excruciating. But we survived. I’m just grateful I am no longer there. I was in Kingwood last week visiting my mother in law and Fosters Mill Estates STILL has houses abandoned or partially fixed and for sale. Some are still being worked on. It’s awful.”

Why I’m Posting These Now

Melissa donated her pictures to the cause in the hope that they will help create awareness of the devastation that flooding causes, and perhaps, just perhaps, they may create some positive change, too. Thanks, Melissa!

I’m posting these now for several reasons:

If you have pictures from Harvey that you would like to share with the world, please send them through the submissions page of this web site.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 3/13/2019

561 Days since Hurricane Harvey

PTSD, Re-Traumatization, a Lifeboat Mentality and Flood-Bond Politics

Yesterday, I learned about re-traumatization of people suffering PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) from Harvey. I had contacted Janice Costa, one of Kingwood’s leading psychotherapists to gain some insight. Keep in mind as you read this that neither Costa, nor I, have any idea how widespread this phenomenon is. However, Stephen Costello, the City of Houston’s flood czar, while speaking to a symposium on flooding at the University of Houston last year stated that 18% of Harris county’s residents suffered some sort of serious psychological distress after Harvey.

From presentation by Stephen Costello to Houston Geological Society in 2018 during a symposium on Flooding in Southeast Texas: The Science Behind the Floods. Costello said 18% of Harris County residents were suffering from “serious psychological distress” after Harvey.

I pointed out to Costa how the traffic on my site spiked when I posted The Night 11,000 Lake Houston Area Residents Became Homeless. Thousands of people have viewed it in the last week and are still viewing it. In fact, it’s my most popular flood post ever with the exception of the one with that snappy headline, Public Notice.

Trash Day in the Barrington after Harvey. Photo by Joy Dominique.
Trash Day in the Barrington after Harvey. Photo by Joy Dominique.

What Did I Tap Into?

I had accidentally tapped into some powerful emotions, but I wasn’t sure what or why and hoped Costa could help. Costa said victims sometimes feel such images and stories “validate” what they went through. “Yes! See. It was that bad!”

In the case of Harvey, it’s difficult for some people to let go, because they are constantly getting “re-traumatized” from related sources, she says. The examples below represent my interpretation of what she said, not literally what she said. I added dozens of examples that people have shared with me along the lines she mentioned.

Re-Traumatization, Day after Day

As if Harvey weren’t a big enough disaster, how about these complications? Do any of them sound familiar?

  • Flooding, but not having flood insurance, because you thought you were safely outside the 500-year flood plain
  • Power outages, spoiled food, Igloo coolers and grilling in the rain
  • Food lines, second-hand shops and shelter life
  • Separation from families, not being able to find loved ones in the shelter system
  • Loss of important papers, tax documents, and family albums
  • Losing the Bible that had been in your family for five generations
  • Gutting your own house, often with the help of strangers
  • Not being able to monitor everything they dragged to the curb
  • Seeing your life’s work piled on the street and picked over by looters
  • Your first Christmas without wallboard
  • Family heirlooms destroyed
  • Showering with a garden hose
  • Being displaced and dispossessed
  • Being forced to accept charity instead of feeling privileged to give it
  • Finding temporary lodging with friends, family or in hotels
  • Moving every few weeks so you didn’t wear out your welcome
  • Finding a vehicle and then finding out it had concealed flood damage
  • Stress at work from not being able to focus on your job while you rebuilt your life
  • The bad performance review at work that you knew was coming
  • Losing a business
  • Kids who cried themselves to sleep every time it rained
  • Breaking out in a cold sweat when you hear a helicopter
  • Feeling guilty about not being able to thank all the people who helped you
  • The two extra hours a day you didn’t get to spend with your kids because they were being bussed cross town to another high school.
  • Report cards that showed plummeting grades because your kids were traumatized
  • Educational handicaps that your kids may face for the rest of their lives as a result of effectively losing a year
  • Living in a camper
  • Your insurance benefits running out before repairs were completed
  • Losing your job
  • Losing your mind
  • Losing your spouse from all the stress
  • Trying to find money to rebuild
  • Living out of your car
  • Not having a car to live out of
  • Battling with the insurance adjuster
  • Battling with FEMA
  • Looking for help and battling a million other people looking for help
  • Struggling to find a contractor
  • Struggling to get the contractor to show up and do the work
  • Giving up the family vacation to supervise a contractor who didn’t show up
  • The contractor who ran off with your check
  • Finding out that the contractor hung your new front door upside down
  • Shoddy repairs with inferior materials
  • The City inspector who said the contractor did it all wrong
  • Lung ailments from breathing that unique Houston brew of mold, varnish, plaster dust and Clorox
  • Seeing friends and relatives succumb to the stress
  • Friends moving away to escape the stress
  • Going to the laundromat and using the machine next to the guy who was washing the clothes he had on
  • Living upstairs for a year and a half
  • Using your garage as a walk-in closet
  • Actually beginning to think of Taco Bell as haute cuisine
  • Learning to cook with a hot plate and a microwave
  • The stress zit that looked like a third eye in your forehead
  • Your favorite stores and restaurants being out of business for a year … or disappearing altogether
  • Going to college classes in a rented warehouse
  • Commuting two extra hours a day because the 59 bridge was out
  • Draining your retirement funds to rebuild
  • Then finding that wasn’t enough and tapping into your kids’ college funds
  • Not knowing how you’ll replenish them
  • Gaining 20 pounds from Chunky-Monkey stress relief
  • Jaw and neck pain from constantly grinding your teeth
  • FEMA and HUD help that arrived after you’d already rebuilt your home
  • Discovering that you lost all your repair receipts
  • Aches and pains from doing-it-all-yourself
  • Learning to love scratch-and-dent sales
  • Refurnishing your house from “Flooding Kingwood with Kindness”
  • Losing someone to cancer or heart-disease while trying to cope with everything else
  • The neighbor that abandoned the house next door…affecting your home’s value
  • Fearing what the next storm front could bring

My apologies to anyone I omitted!

More Re-traumatization!

Now consider the political systems around you. While we struggled individually, government offered help. Then came other kinds of re-traumatization.

The Lifeboat Mentality

In my opinion, people are looking for help and seeing hurt ahead. Many SAW the flood bond as a lifeboat. It buoyed their hopes and dreams for a return to safer shores. They were counting on the mitigation projects in it to protect them. Now, they feel thrown overboard by the struggle over prioritization of projects, i.e., who gets theirs first.

Our county judge called it “class warfare.” Fox News called it “bait and switch.” I call it maddening. I think residents rich and poor would agree.

Residents who suffer from PTSD, have suffered re-traumatization – so severely, so many times – that they may feel there is no escape. Political jousting just re-traumatizes them.

No one is telling them that more than half of the flood bond projects have started already.

Meanwhile, depression, anxiety and related illnesses are starting to surface. One of my dear friends lost her home to Harvey, her husband to cancer, and now is struggling with cardiac issues as she tries to rebuild her home. Alone.

Turning Negatives into Positives

Costa did offer a ray of hope. Some people have managed to find something positive in the flood experience, she said. For instance, those intent on remodeling might suddenly have the insurance money to do it.

One of my dreams is that Republicans and Democrats find a way to work together again. Maybe, collectively, we’ll find a way to create a functioning government that reduces flood risk and restores a sense of order to our lives in time to handle the next big hurricane. I think that would be a positive outcome from all of this. For all of us.

Posted by Bob Rehak on March 7, 2019 with help from Janice Costa

555 Days since Hurricane Harvey

Water Sculptures by Julie Yandell. Taken during Harvey.

The Night that 11,000 Lake Houston Area People Became Homeless

Eighteen months ago, approximately 11,000 Kingwood, Humble and Atascocita residents went to bed thinking they had escaped the worst of Harvey’s wrath. Hours later, they woke up to find water seeping through their windows, doors and walls in the dark of night. Without any warning. Thanks in part to the release of 80,000 cfs from the Lake Conroe dam.

The Harris County Flood Control Damage Map shows that on the West Fork:

  • 3652 Homes were damaged in Kingwood
  • 366 in Atascocita
  • 466 in Humble
  • Total: 4184 homes flooded in this area partly because of the release of 80,000 cfs from the Lake Conroe dam.

With an average household density of 2.71, that means roughly 11,000 people became homeless that night.

Ironically, Thursday, February 28, the San Jacinto River Authority will vote on whether to continue lowering the level of Lake Conroe seasonally. The measure was designed to help reduce downstream flood risk until mitigation measures can be put in place.

However, rumor has it that one or more members of the board want to present a petition by Lake Conroe boaters to NOT lower the lake level this year. To everyone who signed that petition, I dedicate this photo essay.

Water Sculptures by Julie Yandell. Taken during Harvey.
Water Sculptures by Julie Yandell. Taken during evacuation. Yard decorations take on an ominous feeling in the flood.
Woodland Hills Drive During Harvey by Julie Yandell
The flood cut off Woodland Hills Drive, a major escape route for people in Kingwood Lakes, the Barrington and Kings Cove.
Trash Day in the Barrington after Harvey. Photo by Joy Dominique.
Trash Day in the Barrington after Harvey. Photo by Joy Dominique.
Siding from home washed downstream during Harvey. Photo by Dan Monks.
Water skiing, anyone? Photo by Sidney Nice of Atascocita Point after Harvey.
Water skiing, anyone? Photo by Sidney Nice of Atascocita Point after Harvey.
Sidney Nice's kitchen after Harvey flooded the house to a depth of 63".
Sidney Nice’s kitchen after Harvey flooded the house to a depth of 63″.
Sidney Nice's house in Atascocita Point during Harvey.
Sidney Nice’s house in Atascocita Point during Harvey.
Her home flooded 40 inches above the slab.
Rebecca Johansen’s front door shows how deep flood waters got in her home … 40 inches.
Townhomes on Marina Drive in Forest Cove. Concrete and steel were less effective at preventing erosion than blades of grass.
Residents trying to escape as Harvey's floodwaters rose
Elderly residents of Kingwood Village Estates trying to escape as Harvey’s floodwaters rose. Twelve residents later died: six as a result of injuries sustained during evacuation and another rise as a result of stress from losing their homes.
Marilyn Davenport: Home Damaged During Harvey
Marilyn Davenport: Home Damaged During Harvey
From Ann Crane: "We had over 70 people helping to clear and clean our house. The Kingwood community coming together."
From Ann Crane: “We had over 70 people helping to clear and clean our house. The Kingwood community coming together.”
Jennifer Manning: "What 18 inches of floodwater can do to your home." From Walden on Lake Houston.
Jennifer Manning: “What 18 inches of floodwater can do to your home.” From Walden on Lake Houston.
Jennifer Manning: "We lived in Kingwood from 1992-2012 before buying a house in Walden that was 'built above the '94 flood.' We finished our rehab in June." Ten months!
Jennifer Manning: “We lived in Kingwood from 1992-2012 before buying a house in Walden that was ‘built above the ’94 flood.’ We finished our rehab in June.” Ten months!
The Kelsey Seybold Clinic has also been vacant since Harvey. 44% of all businesses in the Lake Houston Area Chamber were damaged. Some will never return.
Picture by June Ledet of Harvey flooding in Kingwood corner of Kingwood Drive and Forest Garden
Picture by June Ledet of Harvey flooding in Kingwood. Corner of Kingwood Drive and Forest Garden. Flooding here cut off escape routes for thousands more.
Classroom building at Lone Star College/Kingwood flooded during Harvey after SJRA release. Six of nine buildings flooded causing more than $60 million in damage. The College just fully reopened this month.
Milan saunders
Milan Saunders home in Kingwood Lakes
That’s all, folks! Harvey flipped the baby grand piano and broke to legs off the heirloom.
Repairs to IH-69 took about 10 months and $20 million, disrupting all traffic into and out of the City for hours each day.
The mother of all walk in closets…Amy Slaughter’s garage.
Home of a single mother who had just lost her job.
When sewage treatment plants flooded, toilets began flowing in reverse.

So please, Lake Conroe boaters. Let’s keep this in perspective. We understand your inconvenience. Please try to understand ours. Help us recover our lives.

To see more examples of how Harvey affected the lives of Lake Houston Area residents, please see the Submissions Page of this web site. It contains images submitted by residents affected by Harvey. If you have images you would like to share, please send them in via the Submissions Page.

Posted by Bob Rehak on February 28, 2019

548 Days since Hurricane Harvey