CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Seven days after Hurricane Hanna destroyed the small Harbor Del Sol Marina, the cleanup effort is finally underway.
“Right now, what they are doing is a cleanup then we will be able to access the damage a little bit better," said Harbor Del Sol Marina vice president John Nolan. "It really does not look as bad as we thought. All of our pylons are still there, and a lot of the boats are severely damaged so we need to figure out what we are going to do with that and go from there."
On Monday, Sherry Boehme, a resident of the Marina Del Sol condominiums, contacted City Manager Peter Zanoni who, in turn, hired a private contractor at the city’s expense to clean up the marina.
“They are going to have their marina cleaned up," Boehme said. "They are going to have it restored, and they can rebuild their lives. Right now their lives are totally in a mess."
Despite the damage, Noland vowed to rebuild the marina.
"It is a nightmare, but we are going to get over this; we are going to rebuild this," he said. "We have a great little community, and we are going to stick with it to the end. We love this place."
A lot of the owners were not able to remove their boats before the storm. And many of them who call the marina their home lost more than their boats.
“There are many people out here that their boat sank, they lost everything inside their boats, all their personal belongings. They lost everything," Harbor Del Sol Marina boat owner Johnny Heath said. "The Red Cross is helping them out, which is stupendous."
Boat owners are still in the process of assessing the damage but want the community to know they do have plans to rebuild it.
The rebuilding process is expected to take anywhere from a year or perhaps longer.
