By Cara Young, C.R. Lyles, Sara Perry and Hunter Llenos
April Boles:
- When did you/your family evacuate? Was your house already flooded?
“My family did not evacuate, however, my mother was worried that our new sheetrock would be destroyed. Our house did not flood even though we live 10 minutes away from LSC-Kingwood. We spent the recovery time repairing my grandmother’s house.
2. What was your most challenging loss and why? What was your motivation to overcome it?
“My most challenging loss was the loss of my grandma’s house. My family had Thanksgiving there and anytime something happened the entire family knew to go there. The family safe house was destroyed.”
3. What was the biggest change for you good or bad?
“The biggest change was that even when the school was back up and running, the courthouse was still closed.”
4. Would you say a year later you’re still struggling with Harvey or have you moved on from it?
“My grandmother has most of her house rebuilt and I have finally been able to enroll in school. We’ve moved on from the trauma of Harvey.”
Reagan Mcdonald:
1. When did you/your family evacuate? Was your house already flooded?
“My house didn’t flood at all, luckily we did not have to evacuate.”
2. What was your most challenging loss and why? What was your motivation to overcome it?
“My most challenging loss was the loss of electricity because I had to work and the heat was unbearable.”
3. What was the biggest change for you good or bad?
“I had recently graduated from high school, so my biggest challenge was the delay of college starting. I had to put my life on pause.”
4. Would you say a year later you’re still struggling with Harvey or have you moved on from it?
“I have moved on from Harvey and I am enrolling in classes.”
Alyssa Trusky:
1. When did you/your family evacuate? Was your house already flooded?
“We lived on the third floor of an apartment building and didn’t have to evacuate. We woke up at 3 on the first night of the storm and waist deep water in the parking lot, and the first floor of our building was flooding. We woke up our neighbors and had their family (mom, grandma, a 4-year-old girl, and the dog and cat) come upstairs.”
2. What was your most challenging loss and why? What was your motivation to overcome it?
“Our most challenging loss was my husband’s car. It was a custom built sports car and it still hasn’t been replaced. It was hard on him emotionally to lose the car, and it was hard on our family because we lost one mode of transportation. To overcome the challenge of losing a car and not having power for several days, we volunteered at a Red Cross center to help out those who had lost everything. It provided a different perspective about how bad things could have been…”
3. What was the biggest change for you good or bad?
“The biggest change from the storm is that we moved to Washington state! We didn’t want to risk the hurricanes again.”
4. Would you say a year later you’re still struggling with Harvey or have you moved on from it?
“We have mostly moved on from the hurricane. It doesn’t affect us emotionally anymore. We never bought a second car though!”
Nicolas Oviedo Orjuela:
1. When did you/your family evacuate? Was your house already flooded?
“My house did not flood and we didn’t evacuate, I live in a high elevation area.”
2. What was your most challenging loss and why? What was your motivation to overcome it?
“My most challenging loss was all my personal robotics equipment (worth $1,500) in the engineering lab at LSC-Kingwood (CLB 118), I brought all that equipment from Colombia when I move here to the U.S. and also everything I bought here. My motivation to overcome was that all my family and friends were okay and my dream of becoming a permanent resident of this country.”
3. What was the biggest change for you good or bad?
“My biggest challenge was getting a transfer to the University Park campus to take classes, and to LSC North Harris to work, I live in the Kingwood area, and had a 25-30 minute commute. In the beginning was really hard but now I’m used to it and I really love UP (University Park). And I’m still taking classes at University Park now, but now I’m working at the Kingwood campus.”
4. Would you say a year later you’re still struggling with Harvey or have you moved on from it?
Yes, I am still struggling because things have changed because of Harvey, and I learned a lot of different things (as an employee) that are going to change again it really is hard.”
Hurricane Harvey
a country song
Don’t know what I did to deserve all this stuff
Papa said that life ain’t fair
I don’t think I really ask for much
I just want some peace and care
There’s only one darn conclusion
that can clear my confusion
And it explains it to me all the long day
I must live downstream from a wastewater plant
cause poop keeps floating my way!
Tired of my loved ones moving
Tired of reconstruction delays
Tired of mother nature, ruining my plans
Tired of keeping bullies at bay
The photographer spies, keep driving by
and trade privacy for help on the way
and on top of it all,
I can’t stand at all,
adults who don’t know how to behave!
Gonna buy me some pointy toe cowboy boots
to kick that stuff away
and cover my boots with duck feather oil
to keep those insults at bay
Gonna buy me a bottle of bleach
clean my area so I can stay
Gonna fill my heart
with positivity light
and look forward to a brighter day!
by LEO, LSC-Kingwood
thehowlerlsc.com 