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Remembering Harvey: Students from Houston reflect on storm one year later

One year after Hurricane Harvey struck South Texas, causing $125 billion in damage and more than 100 deaths, memories of the storm remain fresh in the minds of Oklahoma Christian University students from the Houston area.

Junior Nikki Larsen said she was at the Houston Hobby Airport waiting to catch a flight to Oklahoma City when Harvey first arrived. As the storm made landfall, her flight was cancelled and she barely made it out of the city before the worst of the wind and rain hit.

“I had to get to study abroad orientation by Monday and my flight was on a Saturday night,” Larsen said. “My dad took me to the airport just in case it was going to fly but stayed outside in case it was cancelled. Long story short, I was trapped in the airport overnight. My dad was flooded in his Tahoe outside the airport and they emergency flew me to Dallas the next day.”

Upon arriving in Dallas at approximately 11 p.m. on Sunday, Larsen said John and Darla deSteiguer picked her up from the airport and drove back to Edmond. After a short night of sleep at the deSteiguer house, Larsen said she made it to training on time Monday morning.

While safe in Oklahoma, the storm threatened to flood Larsen’s home in Cypress, a Houston suburb 75 miles away from the coast.

“Our neighborhood is lifted, but water still got to our doorstep,” Larsen said. “And my best friend who lives in the neighborhood, water got to her car and it was totaled.”

Senior Megan Deister was on campus when the storm hit, anxiously watching news coverage and keeping in contact with her family. She said her family’s home survived the storm, but some of her friends were not as lucky.

“It was just scary to see all of the neighborhoods and even major highways that were being completely drowned in all the water,” Deister said. “Then, there were all those life rescue boats that were coming and helping all of the people who were trapped in their houses.”

After traveling back to Houston for the first time on a mission trip with the Edmond Church of Christ, Deister said she witnessed firsthand how the tragedy caused people to grow closer.

“Everyone was really good about coming together during that time and setting aside any differences they had,” Deister said. “I know a lot of churches helped anyone they could. People who might not be Christians set aside their differences and let other people help them.”

According to Larsen, Houston is nearing a full recovery and the Astros’ 2017 World Series inspired the city to come back stronger.

“I feel like we, as a people, got closer through Harvey and then the Astros winning the world series was like icing on the cake that said, ‘We made it’,” Larsen said.

The economy of Houston is now booming, with homes and businesses being rebuilt with stricter building codes, according to the Houston Chronicle. In an interview with the Chronicle, Greater Houston Partnership economist Patrick Jankowski said the city should see no long-term economic damage due to the storm.

While the Houston area has remained untouched by hurricanes since Harvey struck, residents of the east coast may not be so lucky later this week, as category-four Hurricane Florence barrels toward the Carolinas and Virginia.

Currently classified as a potentially catastrophic hurricane, forecasters expect the storm to make landfall sometime Thursday afternoon or evening. Ahead of the storm, Florida Gov. Roy Cooper has already requested a federal disaster declaration from President Donald Trump.

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