PORT ARANSAS, Texas _ On a recent sunny morning, the Polly Anna docked at the marina of one of Texas' favorite tourist destinations. On the deck of the shrimp boat sat two coolers of ice filled with plump shrimp selling for six bucks a pound.
In years past, a throng of tourists and locals would quickly have formed by the boat. On this day there was no line, one of many signs that Port Aransas is still struggling to get back to normal after a direct hit from Hurricane Harvey a year ago caused widespread destruction of homes and businesses in the town.
A popular beach town on Mustang Island about 40 miles northeast of Corpus Christi, Port Aransas is one of the state's main Gulf Coast resort areas. Every year, millions cross the Corpus Christi ship channel by ferry, greeted by salt water breezes and dolphins jumping in front of the boat. The visitors head to fishing charters, nature sanctuaries and beaches that stretch for miles.
As peak hurricane season approaches, Port Aransas is still feeling the physical and psychological impact from Hurricane Harvey, the most powerful storm to hit the Texas coast since Hurricane Carla in 1961. All indicators show that the town is limping through the hospitality industry's summer high season and pinning its hopes on a big rebound next year.
A little over half of the island's lodging inventory is open. Nearly all of the high-rise condominiums were heavily damaged and are not expected to reopen for another year or two, tied up with insurance claims and construction delays.
As a result, the city's occupancy tax revenues, which are collected from the rental of rooms in hotels, condominiums and other short-term lodging, were down 50 percent through June, the latest figures available. Those revenues are used to help fund tourism-related facilities and operations.
Help-wanted signs appear everywhere. The small stock of affordable housing on the island was decimated, causing many service workers to look elsewhere for work and housing.
"It was in my estimation the worst storm to ever hit our island," said Mayor Charles Bujan, 74, a Port Aransas native whose grandfather first settled here in 1885. "It was a monster."
Many of the 4,000 residents of Port Aransas have lived all their lives there. They're hardy people and enjoy the lifestyle, Bujan said.
"We are islanders. That's why we live here, because we love the water and we love the island life," he said.
But Hurricane Harvey changed even the most hard-core islander. "This storm has taken a bit of our soul away from us, a bit of our life away from us and made us more cautious. None of us will ever look at the Gulf of Mexico the way we did before August the 26th," Bujan said.
"We still love it here. We'll still be here. But the storm has taken a piece of us," he said. "And I don't think we'll ever get it back."
