Hurricanes Then & Now

On 3rd Anniversary of Harvey’s Blow to LG, Evacuees Flee Here From Laura

At Monday’s La Grange City Council meeting, Shawn Raborn pointed out that the Colorado River was currently at 4.1 feet but that three years ago it reached 54.2 feet. In the days leading up to

In the days leading up to August 28, 2017, Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 20 inches of rain on La Grange and the river swelled out of its banks flooding hundreds of homes and businesses.

As a reminder of just how vulnerable we are to tropical weather, a new storm was brewing in the gulf this week. And though Hurricane Laura did not dump any rain or wind on Fayette County, it was not going unnoticed.

With evacuation orders in place for Galveston and other coastal area of southeast Texas, many evacuees were coming through Fayette County – some to ride out the storm here.

All hotels in La Grange, Schulenburg and Flatonia were full to capacity on Wednesday. Schulenburg Police Chief Troy Brenek said he has noticed a sizable increase in traffic in town this week. He said a large number of evacuees were coming from Louisiana and East Texas. Brenek said the increase in traffic had not resulted in an increase in police calls when the Record spoke with him on Wednesday.

The La Grange Best Western did not have any available rooms for Wednesday night either.

Fayette County Emergency Management Coordinator Craig Moreau said Fayette County is not intended to be an official evacuation site (because it is too close to the coast), though over the years different charitable organizations have set up shelters from time to time.

Instead, Moreau said Fayette County’s role in this is one was more of services (gas, food, etc.) for evacuees before they get back on the road.

Moreau said the traffic on I-10 was about 2-3 times more than normal this week because of evacuees, but the traffic was moving along pretty well, with no major slowdowns, except for some minor accidents Tuesday night.

This impact of evacuees locally because of Laura is very different then back in 2008 when Hurricane Ike threatened Houston and inundated Fayette County with evacuees, who emptied gas and good supplies.

“I still remember walking through HEB with Judge Ed (Janecka) back then,” Raborn said. “The shelves were completely empty. There was nothing left.”

But that Ike impact was temporary. Harvey left scars that were much slower to heal.

There was no loss of life when Harvey flooded La Grange, but there are still flooded damaged homes throughout the community, owned by families waiting on buyout money. There are residents who lost homes and never returned.

“In some sense our community has bounced back,” Raborn said. “We’ve been able to do some infrastructure projects, and there’s some more grant money available in the spring to do more, but the human element is another issue. There are still people here trying to put their lives back together.”