Remembering Hurricane Harvey's Impact On Southeast Texas

This year marks the eighth anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Harvey in southeast Texas - a memory still fresh in many of our minds. Most of us following the weather reports were expecting a category one or possibly a category two at landfall. Boy, were we wrong! Hurricane Harvey intensified right as it made landfall in Texas on August 25, 2017.

Hurricane Harvey went from a Tropical Depression to a Category 4 in 40 Hours.

The final 40 hours before Harvey made landfall led to massive intensification. Hurricane Harvey exploded from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in around 40 hours. Before we knew it, we were looking at a category four hurricane with peak gusts reported at 132 mph. Landfall occurred on Friday, August 25, at around 10 p.m., with Rockport taking a direct hit.

Victoria had serious damage from Hurricane Harvey.

Since Victoria is only located about 60 miles from Rockport, we also saw some big damage in Victoria. The damage in Victoria made some areas look unrecognizable - downed trees, traffic lights dangling, damaged buildings, and structures that were flattened to the ground. Many Victorians were left without power for weeks. My house was without power for a week, however, we were lucky that my mom's house across town never lost power. Only a few Victoria residents were unaffected by the power outage.

Many people in Victoria left town before Hurricane Harvey made landfall.

Leading up to landfall, we had made the decision to stay home and ride it out. However, the afternoon of landfall, the forecast kept getting worse and worse, and my daughter started to freak out. So at around 4 p.m., six hours before landfall, we took off and went south down Highway 59 to a small town of Bruni, Texas, and enjoyed a couple of days of barbecue and sunny weather.

When we came home there was damage to our home. The front door was lying on the front lawn, the tree was uprooted in our front yard. The roof had multiple leaks and led the damage in our home. Standing water in the garage and all rooms in the front half of the house had water damage.

What do you remember about Hurricane Harvey?

Every southeast Texan has memories of Hurricane Harvey. Did you evacuate? Did you have damage? If so, where did you go? Send us a message via the app and let us know.