Former city council member John Beard has a term to describe Port Arthur residents. In his Gulf Coast city of 55,000, people have all but given up on getting the help they need to recover from the storm that damaged or destroyed about 80 percent of housing, turning neighborhoods into lakes. Beard calls the city’s residents “Harvey-fatigued.”
In the majority-minority city, home to oil refineries and one of the highest unemployment rates in the state, many residents can’t afford to rebuild their homes or relocate more than two years after Hurricane Harvey. Some are still living in moldy, barely habitable houses that haven’t been gutted, or have been gutted but not reconstructed, Beard says. Others haven’t returned since fleeing the city two summers ago. Many are still stuck waiting for government help. “They filled out applications ’til they got writer’s cramp, they read paperwork ’til they got bleary eyed,” Beard says. “They’re really just worn out. … You can only take so much.”
Beard has seen Port Arthur struggle to recover from a slew of storms in recent years—Hurricanes Rita, Ike, and Harvey—each one hitting as residents are still trying to repair the damage of the last. Since Harvey, Beard has fought to have his community’s voices heard. He started the Port Arthur Community Action Network, an advocacy group to help residents through the convoluted, bureaucratic system of government grants. He’s spent hours at city hall speaking to council members. And he’s warned anyone who’ll listen that that his city’s very existence hangs in the balance.
