AUSTIN, Texas -- People visit parks to escape the bustle of the city; but in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, thousands went there to escape the devastation.

These days, there are barely any evacuees left. 

Hurricane Harvey’s floodwaters forced evacuee Stephen Michael Meier and his dog Peck to leave everything behind in Angleton.

“I mean it just flipped from nothing and despair and thinking, 'OK where am I going to go, what’s going to happen?' to where when I entered these gates then things just started happening,” he said.

Meier has been living in McKinney Falls State Park, free of charge. Removing the refuse from his refuge has been his way of showing gratitude.

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“There's so giving to me letting me stay here," he said.  “I just decided wait, wait a second, you can’t be a taker. You got to give back.” 

Spectrum News met Meier back in September.  Today, campsites at McKinney Falls with the other evacuees are empty. Meier is the very last one.  He is waiting for his tiny home to be fully built and expects to move to Bastrop County by next week. While, it's been an adjustment to live in tents, Meier said the generosity has given him a new outlook on life.

“The people [[are]] very open, very open." he said. "You can’t go anywhere without a conversation being started, people also are very open minded I’ve noticed here and very friendly and very engaging.” 

Even though he’s bitter about the litter, spending four to five hours a day clearing the grounds of debris is nothing. 

“I’d be a lost little lamb I really would have," Meier said. "I mean this has been a good process and I'm just very blessed in the way things have gone.”