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                    <span class="blox-headline entry-title">Houston Native Discusses Hurricane Harvey</span>
                

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    <p class="story-times dtstamp">
        Posted: <span class="posted" title="2017-08-29T18:12:00-05:00">Tuesday, August 29, 2017 6:12 pm</span>
        
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    <span class="bookmark hide"><a class="url entry-title" href="http://uatrav.com/opinion/article_886479f0-8d0f-11e7-8860-8bc91f9151e4.html" rel="bookmark nofollow">Houston Native Discusses Hurricane Harvey</a></span>

        
                
                    <span class="author vcard"><span class="fn">Kevin Snyder</span></span>
                
                    
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                        <span class="paragraph-0"><p dir="ltr">We’ve all heard the name, whether you’ve watched Family Feud or you saw Miss Colombia mistakenly crowned Miss Universe in 2015. For the people of Southeast Texas, from Corpus Christi to Beaumont, to the people of Houston and their families, a new name now sits near the top of a chilling list: The Great Storm of 1900, Allison, Katrina, Rita, Ike and now Harvey.</p></span>
                        
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                        <span class="paragraph-1"><p dir="ltr">Growing up, I’ve stared down the barrel of two different storms: Hurricanes Rita in 2005 and Ike in 2008. Hurricane Rita was the first big storm of my life, looking to make landfall as a Category 5 hurricane, and holding the title as the fourth-most intense hurricane recorded in the Atlantic Basin, measuring in at 897 mb, according to the National Weather Service.</p></span>
                        
                    
                        
                
                    
                    
                    <p dir="ltr">Thankfully, my family was able to evacuate, spending 18 hours on the road to go almost 200 miles. Crowded roads and extended travel times are the reason why Houston didn’t evacuate, for those who’ve questioned.</p>
                    
                    
                
                    
                    
                    <p dir="ltr">I was a few years older, in sixth grade, when Ike came through, but still too young to truly realize something bigger than my front-yard home run derby was unfolding. Ignorance was bliss, I guess.<br class="kix-line-break" />While it was once lost on me, I feel it all too heavily now. My heart breaks as I watch the local news station’s live stream, hearing stories of a family of seven with both elderly people and children, attempting to drive for safety, only to find their SUV swept away by Hurricane Harvey.</p>
                    
                    
                
                    
                    
                    <p dir="ltr">They never mentioned whether they survived or not, but I pray they did.</p>
                    
                    
                
                    
                    
                    <p dir="ltr">I watch as lives are forever changed, some even lost. I watch, helplessly, from 500 miles away as people I call friends are forced out of their childhood homes. I watch. All my life, I’ve been one to take action. I learn by doing. I’m constantly doing something, yet now I’ve been forced to watch.</p>
                    
                    
                
                    
                    
                    <p dir="ltr">Thankfully, the people who call Houston home aren’t in the same current state as me. Hundreds of boats, whether they were bass, flat-bottom, john, fan or plastic, arrived to help those in distress.</p>
                    
                    
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                    <p dir="ltr">Along with what Louisiana calls the Cajun Navy, civilians have helped first responders save hundreds if not thousands of lives. People laugh at trucks with a 30-inch lift kit on it, but when there’s two feet of water in the road, that 30-inch lift will bring a tear to your eye.</p>
                    
                    
                
                    
                    
                    <p dir="ltr">These are just a microcosm of what is transpiring between the people of Houston. They are representative of a bigger picture that I pray America can witness: an image of love, selflessness, compassion and humanity.<br class="kix-line-break" />I await a time that I can find a word to properly describe the scenes unfolding in Houston, but for now, that word is sobering. An understatement, yes, but it is definitely sobering seeing the only city you can actually remember calling home be so devastated.</p>
                    
                    
                
                    
                    
                    <p dir="ltr">Luckily, my city knows how to swim. We’ve been hit hard before. We’ll get hit hard again, but when the rain settles and the clouds clear, Southeast Texas will be standing, sheltering strangers, feeding the hungry and finding the lost. The Great Storm of 1900, Allison, Katrina, Rita, Ike and now Harvey—infamous names in the history of Southeast Texas, the region knows that it’s times like these that give a city, and its people, its strength.<br class="kix-line-break" />God bless the first responders, the families, the volunteers and God bless Texas.</p>
                    
                    
                

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