The House on Pilings

When Hurricane Harvey slammed into Rockport, Texas, in August 2017, entire neighborhoods were flattened. Roofs peeled away like paper. Walls collapsed into heaps of soggy insulation and broken drywall. But scattered among the devastation, certain houses stood — battered, yes, but standing. The difference was underneath. These homes had been built on deep concrete pilings driven straight down into bedrock, not just resting on shallow slab foundations poured over sand.…