" A PERSON CAN NEVER GO HOME AGAIN"

[Cupajo]

---To paraphrase a famous quote---

Living along the Texas Gulf Coast was far different from living inland a hundred miles or so. I was born inland where the summers were hotter and drier and there were severe floods that could produce unbelievably deep flood waters. Lots of people lived to regret building fine new homes along rivers such as the Guadalupe that runs through Gonzales.

During a major flood the homeowners were lucky (?) to have a home left as some of them were in water deep enough to cover the roof. They were looking for quiet places in the bottom land where they could have lush lawns etc. only to discover that they were called

 

[Wayne in BC]

Why people would keep building in a flood zone. We have a few places here where rivers flood and take out houses every few years and several times i have counseled newcomers not buy homes there when they comment that they like the prices

 

[Dan-MO]

You are a great writer, thank you for your posts!

 

[Cupajo]

I worked for and became friends with a spry old lady that had been living just outside of Houston when the Galveston hurricane hit the area. Her father and Mom were from New England and had moved near Houston to manage a chicken farm for an older family member. She was born there and was 3 years old when the storm hit. She remembered until her death at 105 years, the terror of that storm and how the farm house shook and rattled and all they could hear was the roar of the storm, She told me that her Mom and Dad packed up and moved back to Long Island on the first train out of there!!

Cupajo

 

[Royal]

in my off time I went to visit Norm G, a man I met early in my web and metal detecting life. He lived between Huston and Galviston. That is the flattest dang country I ever saw. I have a gps and would watch the altitude driving between the two cities and the only place I saw that was 20 ft above sea level were the bridges. 20 dang feet at the top of the bridges!

Norm and his wife had a beautiful home about half way between the two cities but I always wondered how the managed to survive the storms. I don't remember a dang tree anywhere near his house either.

Norm died quite a few years ago

 

[Cupajo]

My wife , 3 kids and I traveled to Texas for Christmas in the late '80s. As we were driving away from Connecticut I noticed that the temperature was in the high thirties and low forties. The closer we got to Texas, the colder it got. We were only about a hundred miles or so from the end of the long drive when we reached Houston at one AM. I stopped for gas and noticed the temperature was 19 deg. F and the wind was blowing at 20+ miles per. I told my wife that I thought we needed to pick up my Mom and take her back where it was warm. BRRRRRRRRRRRR!

During the week we were there it got above the freezing point 2 times. The streams and bays froze over with a huge fish kill! The game wardens were on hand to be sure no one took more dead fish than the legal limit , so I was told. The causeway out to Galveston Island was closed because of icy conditions, and Mom and Dad had frozen pipes! The houses were built up off the ground on blocks to protect against flooding and left open to help them be cooler in summer. The plumbing was not protected from the cold and were going to freeze when weather got so severe. I purchased sheets of plastic foam insulation 2" thick and closed in the spaces around the foundation, blocking the cold air and soon we had water. The old house had the pipes underground and the pump in a shed where it could be kept warm. Many of the homes in the area had all pumps and related piping exposed to the elements and lost them.

I spent the first 19 years of my life in Texas and never saw it get as cold as that year. The last visit a few years before that one, at the same time of year, we were out enjoying the warm air wearing shorts and T shirts, picking up fallen pecans at a grove not far from my sisters house in Baytown.

Cupajo