Santa Rosa woman evacuated from Harvey’s path and left home behind

Now safe in her native Santa Rosa, it's easy for Kimmy Bisagno to see she underestimated the severity of Hurricane Harvey.

But Wednesday afternoon, when the 34-year-old Bisagno got a five-minute notice to evacuate the Padre Island, Texas, home she shares with her fiance, the panic was real.

Grabbing a handful of clothes and the couple's two dogs, she left the barrier island to make the three-hour drive to San Antonio - that took six hours because thousands of others had the same idea. She continued north to Austin and just kept driving, reaching Santa Rosa by the weekend.

“It's an eerie feeling,” Bisagno said.

“People are panicking, but it's like the calm before the storm. Everyone knows there's a disaster coming, but there's nothing you can do.”

Bisagno's fiance, Steve Maccaferri, is a Coast Guard rescue swimmer. The two boarded up their home Tuesday, and didn't get much sleep that night, watching The Weather Channel as the storm neared.

The next day, Maccaferri, a Boston native, got word Bisagno would need to evacuate.

“He was like, ‘You have to leave right now,'” she said. “One of the main things is he can't worry about the dogs or me being there when he has to focus.”

Harvey made landfall Friday night between Port Aransas and Port O'Connor, Texas - a Category 4 hurricane with winds measured at 130 mph.

Since then, the tropical storm has pounded the Houston area, displacing tens of thousands of residents, with the death toll now at nine. The National Weather Service called the storm's rainfall “beyond anything experienced before.”

Maccaferri is conducting rescue missions in the Houston area. During his first rescue, about 25 people stormed his Coast Guard helicopter, trying to flee the floodwaters, Bisagno said.

The two speak a few times a day, but never longer than five minutes.

Before Harvey, Bisagno and Maccaferri were busying themselves with preparing for their Sept. 22 wedding in Santa Rosa. They left all of their do-it-yourself wedding decorations behind.

Bisagno said Padre Island neighbors have told her there's a foot of water in the house, all the roof shingles are blown off and someone's beached camper is in their yard.

But her wedding gown was safe at her parents' Santa Rosa home.

At this point, they still plan on having their wedding in about three weeks.

“If people are in jeans and shorts and we barbecue, at this point, it's fine,” she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 707-521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @SeaWarren.