Hope After Harvey: 6 Months of Recovery, Rockport residents

Hurricane Harvey's destruction spared few, especially those living in the coastal cities that witnessed the strongest part of the hurricane. The cleanup is seemingly endless, but the work hasn't stopped.

"The roof was off. The top was off. You know, the bottom was two inches deep in mud," said Rockport resident Phil Howard. "I hate to tear that down, too, because it's, you know, it's almost history."

Down the road, neighbor Peggy Dawe continues to cleanup the mess left after Harvey.

"I'm not saying we won't ever rebuild, but I need to be wise about it," said Dawe. "My nephew was raised in this house."

Dawe's parents built the home on seven foot stilts, toothpicks as Harvey's surge wiped out neighborhood's along Copano Bay.

"A lot of damage on the backside when the water washed into the bay and it came back and a lot of homes," said Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Rios.

"A lot of the town didn't get the surge, but we got the surge out here also," said Howard.

It's a storm he's not experienced in the 37 years of calling Rockport home.

"If you look around, most of the roofs that survived are hip roofs," said Howard. "FEMA gave me the $33,300 which is the max that they do, and I'm not complaining that helped."

But with two properties, one being a rental, the damage done is far greater.

"Probably about a quarter million dollar hickey on the two houses, you know, combined," said Howard.

Driving through Rockport six months ago, and now, tell two stories. One shows the immediate aftermath of a Category 4 storm; the other, rotting debris lining roads that were previously impassable.

"You drive something every day and you just take for granted the street sign," said Dawe. "It was quite devastating through the whole neighborhood."

"But God is good," Dawe says.

Dawe choosing to praise even after burying her husband days before Harvey.

"Number one, I didn't think that He'd be taking him home and number two that Harvey was going to hit us," said Dawe.

However, in the month of August the unimaginable became reality. Dawe inherited the blue two bedroom, two bath after her parents passed. She and her husband, before he died, were in the process of cleaning it out.

"We were here every week," Dawe said. "Had our ups and downs, like everybody else, but he was good."

The future may be uncertain for Dawe. "I hope I never have to see one again in my life," she said about a Harvey-like storm.

But for the town of Rockport, with 10,000 permanent residents, the plan to rebuild extends from the devastated neighborhoods to the damaged city hall that stands even after a direct hit by one of mother nature's most powerful storms.

"It's so weird, you know, to have gone through that and see it and now you see it, it's getting back, I guess getting back to what normal is," said Howard.