Someone's whole life, destroyed in a night. It's a story that can be told on many streets in the Texan town of Rockport.

The small coastal community felt the full force of Hurricane Harvey, which flattened houses and ripped down power lines.

We pass homes with no roofs or the front - pulled clean off - exposing their contents inside like broken dolls' houses.

Image: A tree fell on to Magda Graham's house

On the road we met Magda Graham and husband Richard, who are looking for help and were at home when the storm hit.

"Very scary," she says. "The winds were whistling - it sounded like a tornado. If you opened the door it was just a roar, a horrendous roar.


"We had trees everywhere - we had one on our roof."

We follow them through ruined neighbourhoods, down flooded roads to their bungalow - which now lies under a huge tree.

Richard says they are lucky that only their roof has been damaged, their neighbours have suffered far worse.

In the the local school, set up as a makeshift shelter, we meet families who have lost everything.

Camp beds have been put out on the floor of the gym. Every hour more people arrive adding to the 100 who are already here.

Matthew Ayala stands smoking by the front door.

Image: Matthew Ayala says a tornado destroyed his neighbour's trailer with them inside

He says he was on his porch when the hurricane - and tornadoes - came in from the sea and wiped out his street.

"A tree came flying through someone else's yard and knocked the RV out, up in the air, and then I got the dogs in the house.

"By then the tornadoes had lifted up the ponies and took them down. I seen the other family with four or five kids run back in their trailer and the tornado hit it and they were gone."

Officials have confirmed at least one person from the town has been killed.

People were warned if they stayed here they could die but it is not clear how many listened.

Emergency crews are only now being able to assess the damage.

The hurricane has left its scar on every street and every face in this community - and now "catastrophic" flooding threatens.

While the town is determined to rebuild, the true extent of what and who they have lost still has not been revealed.