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Rockport continues recovery 3 months following Harvey

By Stephen Morgan, FOX 26 News
Published  December 6, 2017 6:39pm CST
News
FOX 26 Houston

ROCKPORT, Texas (FOX 26) - Even though it’s been three months since Harvey made landfall on the South Texas coast, folks are still cleaning up.

First Lady Melania Trump and Second Lady Karen Pence visiting the hard-hit town of Rockport, after a brief stop in Corpus Christi on Wednesday. The presidential visit comes as residents are still recovering.

“This is quite a shock. It’s almost like losing a member of your family,” said Tom Buzzi, who moved to Rockport from Houston five years ago. Buzzi says the help he paid to rebuild following Harvey never came through.

“Everything was, ‘we’re going to start Monday morning, all the paper work is taken care of. Monday morning we’ll be there,’" recalled Buzzi. "We listened to that five weeks in a row. You know, you get excited, we’re going to get our life back starting next Monday. And then nothing.”

The Buzzi’s plan to sell their retirement home and move inland once the rebuild is complete.

"I think the Gulf is going to get hotter and hotter every year and we don’t want to go through this again. We’re both in our 70s and it’s just not worth it,” said Buzzi as he considered what the future Atlantic hurricane seasons could look like.

However, for Cleve and Lynne Woods who live a couple of miles away from Buzzi, they're choosing to stay. The Woods' home sustained significant damage during the Category 4 hurricane.

"Front roof got torn up by trees falling on it. Our garage completely blew away. My boat shed back there completely blew away," said Cleve Woods.

It was six weeks before electricity was restored to the Woods’ house.

"We seen people living in tents. A lady was living in her chicken coop," said Cleve. "We still feel blessed.”

Aside from the new roof and freshly poured concrete, Christmas lights now hang outside and inside.

"We have the outside lights, several trees up inside the house, the Christmas stockings so you kind of look around and feel a little bit of hope," said Lynne Woods. "That’s what we’re aiming for is hope.”