by Kendall Cooper
Even though Flower Mound is over 200 miles away from the disaster in Houston, students and faculty on campus have been personally affected. Pre-cal teacher Rick Sudbrook has both friends and family in and around the Houston area.
“My niece, who lives in Port Arthur, Texas, her house got two feet of water in it last night,” Sudbrook said.
His father-in-law lives on the west side of Houston and didn’t leave his house for over a week. Because of his loved ones’ situations, Sudbrook said he has two main worries.
“I think there’s a lot of damage in downtown Houston that will take months, if not years to recover from,” Sudbrook said. “[I] obviously [have] concerns about people who have already died…and they haven’t [been] found yet.”
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by Jackson Bednarczyk
Four boys sleep on a floor far from home. What was originally a getaway from college courses turned into an escape from a ravaging hurricane over a few days. And for most of these boys, their shelter is in the house of a stranger.
After receiving news that classes were cancelled at the University of Houston as a safety measure for Hurricane Harvey, four boys decided to head to North Central Texas to watch a Dallas Cowboys football game. But as Harvey made landfall late Aug. 25, effects were much worse than predicted.
Massive flooding submerged homes, businesses and roads. Much of the Houston area was left under many feet of water with thousands stranded.
With nowhere to go, the group turned to Calculus teacher Kelly Sudderth, who is a family friend to one of the boys. Sudderth, used to only living with her husband, is still adapting to the arrangement while teaching at high school and college.
While most of the boys have something to go back to, one is in much worse shape than the others.
“One of the boys […] has lost everything,” Sudderth said. “And I’m going to send him home? That’s sort of weird to send him home. I mean, he doesn’t have a bed. He said the water was up to the top of his headboard.”
Sudderth has plans to help him and the others in the future by sending care packages once they arrive home. But for now, the best thing she can do is provide them a roof over their heads.
“I think right now those parents are just thankful that their kids are somewhere safe,” Sudderth said.
By Aug. 30, Hurricane Harvey began to clear out of east Texas, but Sudderth still worries when the boys will be able to go back and what they will find if they do.
“Are they ever gonna get to go home?” Sudderth said. “How do you put a kid in a car and say ‘hope everything goes okay’?”
Three still have most of their belongings. One lost everything. All are away from home and don’t know when they will get back — if ever.
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by Marc Kidwell
Wesley Davis, the choir teacher, grew up in Houston, Texas.
“It’s heartbreaking to watch my city underwater.” Davis said.
Two days after Hurricane Harvey touched down, Davis’ mother and father, Krystal and Jon Davis, self evacuated to a shelter nearby. Their residence had taken no damage, until they went back on Tuesday. The home they once lived in has now started to flood. Davis’ brother, James Davis’s apartment complex is now underwater.
Davis and his family are still unsure how much property damage has been done, but he still has a good and hopeful spirit.
“It seems like most people are safe and that’s the most important thing,” Davis said. “You can replace a lot of things but people are impossible to replace.”
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by Arantza Azurmendi
Senior Laura Liles spent most of her childhood living in Houston and has relatives in the area.
“A lot of my friends and my family are still down there because they all thought that it was going to be like ‘alright, it can just blow over,’” Liles said. “And when it hit, they got stuck.”
Liles’ aunt was close to being evacuated. The water flooded her backyard and had almost reached the back door. Liles was worried because her family had no other place to go.
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by Chloe White
Among the faculty affected by Hurricane Harvey is AP Literature & Composition and Academic Decathlon teacher, Karen Loll. Originally from the Houston area, Loll’s mother, uncles, cousins and friends in the coastal area have all been impacted.
“I think that they are emotionally distraught about it and also that fear of the unknown, what’s going to come next,” Loll said.
Loll’s mother had to be relocated from The Woodlands, a suburb in Houston, to her home in Huntsville. While no water entered the homes of her family, the neighborhoods were flooded and they were left stranded.
“Everyone being dislocated from their homes and water, health, food and clothing, watching the children on TV,” Loll said. “They’re so frightened, and that’s a really big concern for me, the safety part, because things you can replace, people you can not.”
