On August 25, 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall in southern Texas. Over the course of nearly a week after, the storm would wreak havoc from Houston to Louisiana, with residents as far as the Caribbean and Latin America receiving heavy winds and water.
A peak of nearly 52 inches of rainfall stalled itself in Houston, turning roads to rivers, flooding homes and destroying infrastructure, and claiming a death toll currently above the 60s.
Despite being physically removed from the catastrophe, Texan students at Hamilton can still feel its effects. Many had personal stories to tell of their communities back home, with Joel Harper ’21, who is from Austin, stating, “I do have a lot of friends and family from Houston. My grandparents actually live there, and their house wasn’t demolished by the storm, but they’ll definitely have to repair it. Stormwater seeped through everything.”
Sarah Hossain ’18, from Dallas, had more to add about how Hurricane Harvey has disrupted daily life in Houston, where her aunt and cousins live: “Some of the main effects I’ve heard of are that the Houston airport has cancelled most of its’ daily flights (my cousin couldn’t fly out to college in time for the semester to begin) which impacts work and school and that the gas prices around the state are going up.
Houston is the hub of many major oil refineries, and since business has halted due to the hurricane, there has been a gas shortage. As a result of this, some people can’t even get to work or school and are forced to rely on public transportation, which isn’t all too common, especially where I am from.”
In the light of this natural disaster, one thing that everyone can agree on is the atmosphere of unity and altruism, both in Texas and here at Hamilton. Chris Mireles ’21, from San Antonio, remembers a friend “who’s an EMT in Houston right now doing a search and rescue mission.” Here at Hamilton, Harper describes “a community that’s really surrounded the students from Texas”, and Hossain agrees, especially noting “the great support shown this past week when members of the faculty including Dean Martinez, Jeff McArn, Amy James, and others made time to have lunch with students from Texas. It was great to come together with this relatively small group of people to talk through how each of us is personally affected, and to think about ways we can get the Hamilton community involved with fundraising for Hurricane Harvey.”
All over the country and at Hamilton, volunteer efforts and the kindness of others are bringing people together and impacting positive change. For students looking to help those affected by Hurricane Harvey, a fundraiser is currently in the works, with funds going towards the Houston mayor’s Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund.
