Dak Prescott’s uncle gives a Harvey update from Orange

Phillip Ebarb has been through four hurricanes and 15 tropical storms in his life. Nothing, he said, matches the destruction left by Harvey.

“You can’t combine two of them and get this,” Ebarb said Monday.

Ebarb had just returned to his home in Orange, after evacuating to Lake Charles, La., as flood waters from Harvey wreaked havoc on the Louisiana/Texas border.

Ebarb, the uncle of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, was among the fortunate home owners who did not have water in his house.

It got as close as a half inch, he says.

The same can’t be said for other members of his family or for residents in the area. His sister lost two houses and cars. On the drive back from Lake Charles on Interstate 10, Ebarb saw a van on the side of the road nearly completely flooded and a gas station under water.

Ebarb’s business, Huddle T’s, got about eight inches of water.

Ebarb and his wife were fortunate to have vehicles that could get them back to their home Monday — a Ford F-150 truck and a Jeep Cherokee. Only one of three roads to their home was accessible.

“We were really, really lucky with my house,” Ebarb said. “If it’d rained another five minutes …

“We were trapped for three days, couldn’t even get out. There is no description for this.”

Harvey’s damage stretches all the way from Corpus Christi to the area of the Louisiana/Texas border where Ebarb lives. Moody’s Analytics has estimated the economic cost for southeast Texas will be $51 to $75 billion, making Harvey among the costliest storms in U.S. history.

The silver lining through it all, Ebarb said, has been the way people have helped each other. He said he doesn’t know of a single fatality in the area where he lives despite the record-setting devastation.

“The fact that we have so many people here who are boat people and have been through this so many times, I mean Ike was here just a few years ago [in 2008],” Ebarb said. “Sadly enough, we’ve practiced this so many times that the routine of this devastation saved a lot of lives.

“We’re helping each other out. I have seen nothing but love and support and helping each other out. So I’m so sick of all the negativity that is out there. So sick of the bashing of the president and bashing Joel Osteen and just bashing people for no reason.

“Let people know that we stuck together and worked together through this. That’s why we’re going to recover. Everybody helped everybody,” he said.

That help needs to continue, Ebarb said. It’s going to take the area months, possibly years, before it recovers. Ebarb told Prescott to “be a hero” and use his voice to bring more support to the community.

The outreach extends beyond that, too. Ebarb said when he called Ford Motor Co. about a car payment possibly being late because of the storms, Ford gave him a two-month deferred payment with no penalties.

Ebarb said he hopes that people recognize that the devastation in Orange is just the same as it is in Houston. For now, he said he just wanted to encourage others in the area to ration food, water and gas.

“It’s as bad as Houston, if not worse,” Ebarb said.

This story was originally published September 4, 2017 at 2:34 PM with the headline "Dak Prescott’s uncle gives a Harvey update from Orange."