Hurricane Harvey Pounds Rockport, Texas; 10 Injured, High School Heavily Damaged

Pam Wright
Published: August 26,2017
Buildings were ripped to shreds in Rockport and firefighters were unable to respond to pleas for help in the hours following Hurricane Harvey's Friday night landfall along the Texas coast.
KTRK-TV reported 10 people sustained injuries when the roof of a senior housing complex collapsed during the storm. The severity of those injuries was unknown.
Meanwhile, firefighters in Rockport said they wouldn't be able to respond to emergency calls until conditions improved, KTRK also reported.
"There's nothing we can do at this moment," Rockport volunteer fire department Chief Steve Sims told KTRK. "We are anxious to get out there and make assessments, but we're hunkered down for now."
(MORE: The Latest on Hurricane Harvey)

Rockport City Manager Kevin Carruth told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that an unknown number of buildings were destroyed by Harvey's punishing winds. Earlier reports that Rockport High School had been destroyed were inaccurate, the report added, but the structure did sustain heavy damage.
"A part of the roof has caved in, but the reports that buildings have disappeared don’t appear to be accurate," volunteer fire department spokeswoman Gillian Cox told the Caller-Times.
More than 30,000 AEP customers were without power overnight Saturday.
Hours before Hurricane Harvey began its onslaught on the south Texas coast, one elected official offered residents a gruesome warning.
Patrick Rios, the mayor pro tem in Rockport, a town of less than 10,000 people and about 30 miles up the Texas coast from Corpus Christi, told reporters during a press conference Friday that residents who decide to weather the storm near the coast should mark their name and Social Security number on their arms, implying that it would be easier for rescuers to identify them should calamity happen.
"We’re suggesting if people are going to stay here, mark their arm with a Sharpie pen with their name and Social Security number," Rios told reporters Friday. "We hate to talk about things like that. It's not something we like to do but it’s the reality, people don’t listen."

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