Hurricane Harvey impact

My name is David Locklear, 

a.k.a. "THE ALR SUBPOENA GUY."

I have been self-employed over 20 years assisting defense attorneys as a sub-contractor with their court cases.    99% of that work involves delivering court documents throughout southeast Texas from Lufkin to Victoria, but the brunt of the work is around Harris County.    I never know from day to day what town I will be in.   I may be in Rosenberg or Anahuac or even Stagecoach.     I spend 14 to 16 hours a day in or near my vehicle. I need a large vehicle for various reasons, thus I waste a lot of gas.    I tried a tiny 2 seater hybrid car, and it was not practical.   I tried a Honda Fit and a motor-scooter and a small pick-up truck and it was not practical. 

While I do have competition, there is not a business in Texas like mine.   I found a niche and tried my best to keep it afloat.

The problems started way back after Tropical Storm Allison.   That decimated my business and I never fully recovered.    So as I watched Hurricane Harvey work its way towards our area, I knew I had to take action.

I had been living in very cheap weekly motels for nearly 13 years.     This is due to entirely to my business model, but also due to a toxic marital separation, where I am trying to keep my child's interest in check.  

So as the storm was approaching, and things were starting to close, court cases began to get reset.    I knew I was in for a long haul.     So I closed my business before the storm made landfall, and put all my belongings in storage in Brenham, in a high and dry space ( I already had the storage unit due to marital issues ).

My estranged-wife and daughter had to be evacuated.    They refused to come to my cheap motel.     So I moved down the road to a similar motel, but one with a larger nicer room.    That ended up costing me money I did not need to spend.  When they arrived at the motel, they turned around and drove back thru the eye of the tropical storm to an area that flooded.   I could not talk any sense into my estranged-wife as she was hysterical and did not understand the storm or what its impact was going to be.  

I ended up having to give up the weekly during the storm ( even though it was paid for ) and head to my daughter's house to try to get all their furniture off the ground.     I ended up getting trapped there "alone" for 2 days, and had to wear my mother-in-laws clothes while I was there.    Ironically after all that stress, their street never received more than a 1/4 inch of water.    My memory is, that all the food had to be thrown away.

After the storm subsided, I had to put all the furniture back.     My estranged-wife and I were at a boiling point.    She had completely lost all common sense, and there was no way I could stay with them.

So for the past 11 months, I have been living like a gypsy.   Sleeping in my car at truck-stops, sleeping on a relative's couch.     But I quickly wore out my welcome with all my friends whose life had quickly returned to normal.

About 3 months ago, I was befriended by a Cuban immigrant that I briefly new about 5 years ago.   I told them my story and they offered to rent me a tiny room in their apartment.   While that offer beats sleeping in my car, it was not practical for my job nor for seeing my daughter.      I must find a clean weekly motel.

There is no way I can afford a similar apartment in Houston, as my income fluctuates due to a cash-flow problem.

You may ask, why don't you just get a better job.    I have an Associates Degree and I completed 3 years of Mechanical Engineering at A&M.   I have worked for local engineering firms in the 80's and early 90's making good money.    I speak fluent Spanish.

It is really hard to go back to all that after being self-employed for 20 years.     I briefly worked in a rural machine shop back around 2007, and it was not where I felt I needed to be.    I briefly worked at the airport pumping gas in planes, and that too, was not my forte.

So what is it I am asking for help.    

I want to live in the Sleep Inn, just north of downtown, ( on I-45 a block north of North Main St. behind Whataburger ).    There are problems with that.   Sometimes I have to sleep in Beaumont or Cleveland or Huntsville or College Station.    So I end up paying for 2 motels on the same night.      

If I had a stable place to sleep and operate my business, and not worry about that, I could focus on my business and make enough money to pay my bills. 

I just don't have the capital or the cash-flow to pull it off without hurricane aid. 

My guess is that I lost at least $ 10,000 due to the storm that I will never be able to recover.

The quantity of business is back but there are nightmare problems due to the Harris County Criminal Courthouse still being closed and that the Central Police Station of the Houston Police Department and other stations are still closed after over 11 months.     So I am having to work harder for less money.     And also that my customer's were affected by the storm and have not fully recovered themselves, nor have their clientele.

If anyone wishes to help, I have set up a spot using the app, CASH.

https://cash.me/app/GMGNRLX