Ole Miss Students Dealing with Horrors of Hurricane Harvey

Hurricane Harvey made landfall over the weekend, and the region is dealing with massive amounts of rain and destruction. With no let up in sight, FEMA Administrator Brock Long told CNN that “Texas has never seen an event like this.”

On Sunday, HottyToddy.com talked to several students from the Houston area who have either been severely impacted by Hurricane Harvey or impacted to a lesser degree. In either event, the students are very much concerned about their fellow citizens and are definitely distracted so early in their Ole Miss tenure. With hundreds of road closures and some sixty plus counties declared disaster areas, the anticipated 50 inches of rain is causing unprecedented nightmares for the nation’s fourth largest city. This level of rainfall in such a condensed timeframe is a first in our nation’s history.
Nicole Rasmussen and Natalie Knox are both freshmen whose families are coping with Harvey. Nicole’s house is located in the southwest area of the city incurred about 5 inches of water as of Sunday afternoon. She indicated that this was the first time in some 50 years that this area had been impacted by flooding. Natalie’s home is located in the Heights which is close to downtown and is located on the highest elevation in the area. Thus far, her home has been spared. Both young ladies were able to take photos which are included in this column.

Three young men (all freshmen from the Woodlands area)  also told us about the developments near their homes. Dylan Casey, Tucker Woody and Davis Hollick are all students in the School of Business. They indicated that the Woodlands was so far not being greatly affected by the storm although the canals and lakes were rising and anticipated to receive almost double the amount of water already incurred within the next 24 hours. One analyst on cable television estimated that 11 trillion gallons of water had already fallen on Texas with another 14 trillion gallons expected.

The students indicated that many residents were probably caught off guard due to not having access to the internet and other forms of communication. They also mentioned that because convenience stores had already been depleted for gasoline and other essentials such as water were complicating the horrific situation. All of the students referenced memories from Hurricane Ike that had occurred during their childhood.
Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the families and individuals in Texas who are being confronted with one of the greatest natural disasters in American history.

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Steve Vassallo is a HottyToddy.com contributor. Steve writes on Ole Miss athletics, Oxford business, politics and other subjects. He is an Ole Miss grad and former radio announcer for the basketball team. Currently, Steve is a highly successful leader in the real estate business who lives in Oxford with his wife Rosie. You can contact Steve at sovassallo@gmail.com or call him at 985-852-7745.