Past Disaster Victim Uses Her Experience to Help Others

Nelda Engstrom, our Program Director, knows a bit about coming back from disaster. She navigated a rebound from a natural disaster that damaged her home and business.

It is the week of the anniversary of Hurricane Ike. Ike washed ashore on her Island home of Galveston, TX, on September 13, 2008, a few days before the financial markets crashed.

While Ike didn’t have high wind speeds, it was a BIG storm that had two eyes and carried with it two large walls of water, or storm surge. The storm surge covered the island, made it into homes and businesses and rushed out again. Twice. According to Nelda, “It looked like our belongings went through a rough cycle of a washing machine, only with stinky seawater.” To make matters worse, it would be two weeks before being anyone was allowed back on the Island to see their properties. Mold and mildew set in. Everything inside was a complete loss. If something was salvageable, there was a good chance looters would get to it first. It would be months before there was water, sewer or electricity.

There were tens of thousands of homes and businesses damaged. It was questionable whether Galveston would survive. The county’s largest employer, the University of Texas Medical Branch, laid off thousands of people and had to close its hospital and most of its clinics. Many residents returned, though the island, which once boasted 75,000, would shrink to 35,000. It was hard to know whether there would be enough residents to sustain the businesses which were thriving before the storm. The schools were in peril, the infrastructure was broken, and no one outside of the Texas Coast seemed to be paying attention. They were absorbed in problems brought about by the building recession.

Little by little, Nelda said she put her head down and worked through all the barriers. There were insurance issues with the National Flood Insurance Program, The Texas Windstorm Catastrophe Pool, and her personal insurance. With three policies, there still wasn’t nearly enough money to recover what was lost.

Nevertheless, she says she “honestly feels like Ike taught her the hardest lessons.” Lessons that she benefits from today and hopes to point out to the wildfire survivors she works with. Among the lessons learned is that “stuff is just stuff,” “everything will be ok in the end, if it’s not ok, it’s not the end,” and suggests folks “just keep swimming.”

The process of disaster recovery is slow. Galveston is still repairing infrastructure fourteen years later. The population still hasn’t returned to its previous level. Despite this, Nelda’s flower shop she fought so hard to restore, was eventually sold to one of her employees and is thriving. The property she owns is standing and fully repaired. The economic engines which drive the city are back in force. The resiliency of the islanders inspires her. She says she sees that same spirit in the residents of the McKenzie Valley.

If you’d like to reach out to Nelda, you can email her at DCML@McKenzieValleyLTRG.org. She’d be glad to help you access some of the services the McKenzie Valley LTRG offers or just give you a little encouragement to keep on keeping on!