UP students from Texas experience hurricane from thousands of miles away
By Katie Schleiss
The annual Freshman Escape was advertised as a time when students could unwind and relax for a weekend following the first few weeks of college.
But for freshman Chelsea Mitchell, the experience was anything but relaxing. In fact, it was more like a nightmare.
While Mitchell was on the retreat, her parents were in Houston as Hurricane Ike ravaged the Texas coast. Unable to contact her parents because she did not have any cell phone reception, Mitchell said that she felt nervous because she had no idea what was going on.
The same day that Mitchell left for the freshman retreat, the rising waters caused by Hurricane Ike began to flow over the 17-foot Galveston seawall and flooded the city. Hurricane Ike made landfall over Galveston on Sept. 13 and caused extensive damage throughout the Texas coast and widespread coastal flooding.
Mitchell was eventually able to reach her parents on Saturday night. Although her family and home are fine, there were a large number of downed trees in her neighborhood. Her neighbor was not so lucky. According to Mitchell, a pine tree broke her neighbor's house in half and landed one foot from his head.
When Mitchell talked with her mother on the phone, she was informed of the damage throughout much of Houston.
"She said that all of the traffic lights are out, which makes the traffic even worse than normal. Also, about half of the gas stations do not have any gas," Mitchell said.
Additionally, the powerful hurricane winds were responsible for a large portion of the damage. Many of the windows in the skyscrapers downtown were blown out and parts of the retractable roof on Reliant Park, a football field, were blown off. Trees were knocked down all over the city.
Houston is located an hour inland from Galveston, which was hit the hardest and suffered the most damage. Because Houston is more removed from the Gulf, it did not have as much severe flooding as Galveston or the communities in between.
"Ike brought a lot of damage to the Gulf, but Houston is on the way to recovery. I cannot say the same about Galveston or other cities on the water," Mitchell said.
Mitchell plans to return home for fall break and said that Hurricane Ike does not make her hesitant to go home.
"Seeing all the pictures and news coverage of Houston made me a bit homesick, because I kept seeing pictures of places where I spent so much time," Mitchell said.
Freshman Stephanie Lovell had a similar experience. Although Lovell has lived through past hurricanes in her native Houston, she believes that none have caused as much damage as Hurricane Ike.
"There was extensive flooding in my neighborhood, but luckily my house was not damaged by the storm. A few trees in our front yard were uprooted but that is the extent of the damage," Lovell said.
Hurricane Ike reminded freshman Emily Lindgren of the tropical storms that she experienced in the past. Although Lindgren's family currently lives in Austin, she lived in Houston and still has close friends in the area. Lindgren also lived through Hurricane Rita in 2005 and Tropical Storm Allison of 2001. Lindgren describes Tropical Storm Allison as "pretty terrible" and said that Hurricane Ike reminds her of Tropical Storm Allison in terms of how the storm has affected her neighborhood.
"Our neighborhood had flooded, and luckily my family had minimal damage," Lindgren said. "So we opened up our garage and kept feeding the stray animals and pets and took two neighbors in. Rita was also bad, but it didn't affect me as much as Allison."
Lindgren said that she would return to Austin for winter break, no matter how much damage there may be.
"Hurricanes just come with the territory of living close to the Gulf of Mexico," Mitchell said. "But it sounds like people are really stepping up and helping each other get through this time."
