HARLINGEN — They were only supposed to stay for the weekend.
Rosemarie Garcia and her family drove down from Rockport to Harlingen thinking the storm would be over soon.
Then Harvey was upgraded from a tropical storm to a Category 4 hurricane.
Garcia has five daughters, Jessica, Christina, Jennifer, Elli and Annie.
Garcia and her family all lived in Rockport, a small town off the coast with a population just above 10,000.
Her niece, Harlingen native Michelle Trevino had recently moved to the small town with her three children, two of whom are on the autism spectrum.
“The community was just so friendly,” Trevino said.
When news of Harvey arrived, Garcia’s sister Rebecca Warner invited them to Harlingen to ride out the storm.
They thought it was just going to be a weekend trip.
They came with just enough gas money to make it to the Valley.
Garcia had just paid her rent and utilities and two of her daughters were set to start school.
They never thought the trip would become permanent.
“We grabbed what we could,” Garcia said. “We thought we’re just going to get some rain. Honestly, we were not prepared.”
Trevino said it was the little things like contacts and basic toiletries that they forgot to pack.
Now, Warner has 12 new house guests who are looking to start over since Hurricane Harvey hit.
“There is not much we can do now,” Christina said.
Christina recently received a call from a friend stating that the contents of her apartment had washed out into the parking lot.
“We work so hard for the little things in our house and it’s just gone,” Christina said.
Jennifer is the middle child and had just secured financial aid for her classes at Texas A & M- Corpus Christi before the storm.
Even though the campus will be hosting classes in September, Jennifer used to commute from her home in Rockport which is now gone.
“I can’t even go back to school because I have nowhere to live,” Jennifer said.
In less than a week from the destruction, the Garcia’s are trying to move forward but have been hitting roadblocks.
The family said they met with different agencies to look for help, but were turned away for different reasons.
Jennifer said the Red Cross told them they were not prepared and they attempted to apply for emergency food stamps.
Enrolling the youngest Garcia daughter into the Harlingen school district was the easiest.
“The school district was really helpful,” Jennifer said.
Christina said that the district was willing to let them pick out clothes from the district closet and provide the children with school supplies so their education wouldn’t suffer.
“We can’t just sit around and not do anything,” Jennifer said.
The family said they had to contact FEMA to add their town to the disaster list and it would take a week or two before anyone would be able to check their homes to see if they qualify for help.
“We’ve always lived in Rockport that is our home.” Christina said.
According to Jennifer, the majority of Rockport was washed out in the Hurricane.
