This is one of two huge barges that floated about 15 miles and landed about 5 miles from my house on Hwy 73. It took demo team a week to cut a path through so traffic could go through. The other barge is directly behind this one.




This is a pic of one of the bridges around here, the barges in first picture are about 5 miles on the other side of that bridge.




Pic of some flood gates that cut off the city of Port Arthur from the lower areas. I travel through these gates all the time, I live on the flooded side of the levee by the way.....





Pic of some poor guys boat that landed on the debris line off of Hwy 73 near my house. It was a nice boat




There were many people in my town where I grew up who lost everything, most had 4'-8' of water in their homes........my family raise cattle and farm rice for a living, we lost about 400 head of cattle, they just vanished without a trace, we found six alive and about 20 dead ones. The rest are gone! In the debris we found, cows, hogs, deer, all sorts of structure debris, 2 aluminuim boats, one complete house, it just floated off it's slab!!!

Its a mess around here, going to take a long time to clean everything up, anyway, just wanted to share the pics of the barges, thought they were interesting.....

 

Amazing pics. Man, I couldn't imagine. Best of luck getting things all straightened up.

 

Man, Those are amazing pictures. I feel for you people. Our son lives in Beaumont and out doughter is about 25 miles South West of Sugar Land.

 

Really, I'm about 10 miles from Beaumont, actually where I grew up has a Beaumont address, but it's outside the city limits. Were considered Fannett/LaBelle areas.

 

it wasnt fun at all, im definitely going to remember it.
best of luck on recovering towards you man.

 

My son has a restored home near downtown. It escaped damage this time, other than they lost several huge trees. They had some damage from Rita, but not a lot. They were without power for about 10 days. They have an apartment in Houston, so that was not a problem for them as it was most folks. I just don't know where you even start cleaning up a mess like that. Such a huge area, too.

 

hope everything gets straightened out asap!

 

I can't even imagine....

thanks for sharing though, Hope for a speedy recovery. best wishes

 

Thanks everyone!!! Yeah, it's going to take awhile, this area was hit with Hurricane Rita 3 years ago, so this isn't our first go round......most everyone knows what to do now and recovery is starting alot quicker......

One debris pile that is located on the bolivar Pennsuila is 1 mile long x 50' wide x 30' tall, they are currently searching the piles for bodies. There are over 350 people still missing and less than 50 bodies recovered.......

They think most of the bodies were swept out into the ocean, infact one of my friends that lived in Bridge City had a casket wash up in their front yard. They assumed it was from a nearby grave yard that had over 150 caskets float up. Police came back about a week later and told them that it was actually from a grave yard in Louisiana where the casket floated up during Hurricane Rita three years ago. It must have been at the bottom of the Gulf for three years and broke loose during the tidal surge......I've seen some pretty crazy stuff on land after the tidal surge come through here......there were weird small saltwater fish on my brothers front porch that were left when the water receaded, I've fished the Gulf for years and never seen anything like these........freaking wierd looking!!!

 

Shoulda told that demo team to watch out and hookup your truck to that barge.

If I weren't a student, I'd be over there helping you guys. Best of luck from Florida!

 

jdeere, thanks for the pics!

everyone was talking about the barges, i wanted to drive to see them but never got around to it. beaumont wasnt hit as hard as i would have thought, we are building a house in beaumont (i currently live in nederland) and it didnt sustain any damage.


everything wasn't too terribly bad where i was, but you guys seem to have gotten hit a little harder.



id love to see more pictures if you dont mind!

 

x2!

 

Dude, that barge pic is amazing!.......

 

Those are incredible pictures. Hope you guys are back to normal ASAP.

 

Chris here are a few more pics!!! Where in Nederland do you live?


***Here is one of a neighborhood on the flooded side of the levee system in Port Acres.





***Pic of the bridges going into Bridge City, of the 2300 homes in Bridge City, only about 30 were dry, all the others had up to 8' in them.....





***Pic of bridge over the Inter Coastal Canal going into Sabine Pass.....search and rescue were using it as a boat launch.