Return to School After the Storm

Wednesday’s the day I usually drive down to the Gulf to fish, but I knew that I wouldn’t get across the causeway this week short of subterfuge. Instead I drove eight miles over to my local fishing spot on the bay. The wind was gusty and the water sandy so I just had a look around. The harbor looked normal and the boardwalk looked ordinary until I noticed that there was a lot more daylight between the buildings than there used to be. When I got to the little back bay where I often match wits with the local flounders, I found that the wall of a house had landed in the brush there. The tree branches were loaded with junk carried there by wind or water. I walked over to the bayshore to find more junk, an institutional jar of salad dressing, a package of mahi-mahi, part of what was a walk-in cooler. This is debris from what was a thriving restaurant row.

As I drove on south to Bacliff, to see a friend’s house, things got messier. I went to look at the park by the old HL&P spillway but it was full of cars and trucks, people were lined up to get food, water, and ice. In my neighborhood the roads are lined with cut-up branches and tree trunks, but as I got to San Leon the roads were lined with boards, timbers, siding and roofing. Some lots were bulldozed already, others just looked that way. One large bayfront house appeared to have survived intact, but it had a shrimpboat in the front yard.

I drove on south until I got to the Texas City Dike. It was closed, for a while I hear. Looking down the road, I could see that all the bait camps are gone, not a stick left. They must be all out in the bay somewhere.