HURRICANE SPEcial editon SEPtember 20 2017
Uncover how back-to-back hurricanes affected those connected to the TR community. Learn how residents are recovering from mother nature’s devastating storms: Harvey and Irma
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Sept. 20, 2017
GRIZZLY FRIENDS, FAMILY CAUGHT IN THE STORM Jordan Lear
Cover photo illustration by Brenden Geiselhardt and Lia Hanchett
Within the past month, the United States has been hit by not one, but two major hurricanes along the southern coast from Texas to Florida, and while hurricanes are foreign to Coloradans, many TR students have friends and family recovering from the storms. “We're running out of gas so that's a big scare,” said Monte Nichole, a TR student’s cousin and Houston resident, on Aug. 31. “Right now, we're getting some rain and trucks are stuck in Houston, but we aren't getting any flooding just yet. Some of us are making trips with boats down to Houston to load up everyone we can, anything we can do to help.” Harvey made landfall as a category 4 hurricane, which had 156 mph winds. Both Harvey and Irma annihilated coastlines, leaving only remains of once flourishing cities and neighborhoods. The strength of a hurricane relies on water temperature, wind shear and moisture in the atmosphere. Warm water and moisture give the storm strength and the changes in wind keep the storm for dissolving. The warmth of the Atlantic ocean is at its peak, which is why September is considered ‘hurricane season.’ Not only that, but meteorologists are blaming climate change for the intense hurricanes; because warmer temperatures give hurricanes fuel, the warming of the earth is claimed to have helped cause there treacherous storms. “We don’t have all of the answers yet. There are scientific linkages we’re still trying to work out,” wrote Michael E. Mann, Susan J. Hassol and Thomas C. Peterson in The Washington Post; they are all
‘Be prepared, safety first and have a plan in place. You can rebuild your possessions, but not your life. meteorologists who were surveying the storms. On Aug. 25, Hurricane Harvey hit land in Corpus Christi, Texas. As the storm destroyed Texas, President Trump issued a Presidential Disaster Declaration. Harvey was named the most expensive hurricane in current history; worth billions of dollars in damage. At least 70 people are pronounced dead due to the storm and 22 people were still missing as of Sept. 11. According to the National Weather Service, Harvey broke a record rainfall with 51 inches of rain. That’s more than 4 feet. Due to flooding, hundreds of people were stranded, unable to contact police so they used social media to get rescued. It was “one of the largest disasters America has ever faced,” Greg Abbott, Governor of Texas said in The New York Times, “We need to recognize it will be a new normal, a new and different normal for this entire region.” Rebuilding could take years and devastation is the current ‘normal’ for Texas. The devastation could cost almost $180 billion, even more than Katrina in 2005. Sixteen days after Hurricane Harvey destroyed Texas, Hurricane Irma roared through Florida, Puerto Rico, Cuba, British Virgin Islands, and the Bahamas. As the category 5 storm
Shelly Johnson Lake Wales, Florida
hit the islands off the coast, it destroyed everything in its path. When it hit land in Florida, the storm died down to a category 2 storm. President Donald Trump issued an Emergency Disaster Declaration for Florida as well as the islands the storm hit. Hurricane Irma broke records: for the strongest wind of 185 mph and the longest duration of a category 5 storm for 3.25 days. Lexi Schieler texted her best friend, a TR student: “Live in Richmond Hill, Georgia. We went up to South Carolina to stay with friends. Our four-hour drive turned into an eight-hour drive due to the traffic coming up from Florida. It's very scary to just stop and leave everything, but it's even more scary to not know what you are going to come back to.” TR students and staff can help hurricane victims by donating money or supplies to the Red Cross, or by donating to various help centers like: Global Giving, The Salvation Army, and The Center for Disaster Philanthropy. The five former presidents — George W Bush, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter — are raising money for victims of both Hurricane Irma and Harvey.
Sept. 20, 2017
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COMMUNITIES BAND TOGETHER Julia Anhalt
Nichole Sameshima
Keepers Pier in Port Aransas, Texas, before the devastation of Hurricane Harvey. The small beach town was devastated in the storm and now is recovering.
While Houston slowly begins to recover from Hurricane Harvey’s downpours of torrential rain, Floridians follow in their footsteps of banding together as a community to recover from Hurricane Irma. In Texas, the Detroit News reported that only 3,000 National Troops had been deployed and 911 operators had received at least 56,000 calls by Saturday morning alone; there were not enough hands to go around. As multitudes of citizens became trapped in their homes, cars, and on flooded roads, they reached out to one another through social media, calling for help. As more and more people became unreachable by the authorities, neighbors and strangers alike stepped up to rescue their fellow Texans. Mack McIngvale, a department store owner, opened his warehouse to the community for shelter. According to CNN’s interview with him, McIngvale and his company helped to shelter more than 800 people (including their dogs
and cats). He even gave out his cell phone number to the public, making it easier to reach him personally. McIngvale sent out trucks that could easily make it through the risky waters to help bring families back to the company warehouses. In Florida, the government ordered a mandatory evacuation. After Irma left the Florida Keys devastated, residents are banding together to clean up their homes and help restore their community. Grizzly David Pena has been a member of the Arapahoe Rescue Patrol for three years and sheds light on the difficulty of being a part of a search and rescue mission. With only 30 rescuers out looking, searches can take anywhere from hours to months. “Bravery is a great thing to have, [along with] hard work,” Pena said. “They [the Arapahoe Rescue Patrol] train you really hard, and you have to be prepared for everything.” A great amount of courage is required to risk one's life for another. The citizens of Houston have proved that you don’t need to be a part of a
rescue team to help save the lives of your neighbors. As the communities of Texas and Florida banded together in an endeavor to make this experience less traumatic for themselves, family, and neighbors, students are asking themselves this question: What can we do to help? During an interview with NPR, Bob Ottenhoff, president and CEO of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy said that, “This is not the time to be donating products or even services. Instead,” he said, “people should give money to groups they trust, and that have the ability to provide aid where it's needed most.” The rebuilding process in Texas and Florida will be long. “Eventually flood victims will have to go back to their homes and rebuild,” Ottenhoff said, and "this is often the part of a disaster that doesn't get media attention and therefore doesn't get donor support." Witnessing so many people helping their neighbors can inspire TR students to be more active and participant in their own communities.
Sept. 20, 2017
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HURRICANES BECOME SOCIAL STORMS Kiana Marsan
Nichole Sameshima
A picture of Amelia’s Landing hotel in Port Aransas, Texas, before Hurricane Harvery hit. The hotel suffered major damage and flooding from the storm.
During hurricanes Harvey and Irma, 9-1-1 lines jammed with emergency calls, so many individuals vocalized themselves on social media and asked others for help. On platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, posts seeking life-saving assistance went viral as entire communities spread their cries for help, which garnered national attention. On Facebook, a video taken by Annette Fuller in Houston exploded. It showcased multiple families, including five children, waiting for the waist-level water engulfing the first level of their neighbor’s home to recede. It raised awareness of the magnitude of the hurricane in its earliest stages, and she was able to return to her single-story home once flooding subsided. “Social media, in some ways, is more powerful than the government agencies,” Fuller said in an interview with The Associated Press. On Twitter, a picture of elderly people wading through their flooded nursing home in Dickinson, Texas, gained track with more than 4,500 retweets. Timothy McIntosh, the son-in-law of one of the residents, uploaded it upon learning they had been waiting several hours for rescue efforts to arrive. “Thanks to all the true believers
that re-tweeted and got the news organizations involved,” McIntosh posted later in the day. “It pushed La Vita Bella [the nursing home] to #1 on the priority list.” Others followed suit of these individuals, tweeting at the account of the Houston Police Department with their names, phone numbers, and addresses. “Thank you, we have forwarded this information to our dispatch,” they replied dozens of times. In Florida, during Hurricane Irma, Facebook was utilized as a means of contacting loved ones and obtaining information about their safety. For Hurricane Irma, the platform activated their safety-check tool where individuals can mark themselves as safe on their profiles for people to see and share other vital information. In an interview with ABC News, Facebook spokesperson Eric Porterfield said they had identified “more than 600 posts asking for help, fuel, shelter or a ride.” He also remarked there were more than 1,200 posts from both individuals and businesses offering help and services for those afflicted. However, social media platforms were wielded to do harm as well. They promoted fake news and dispersed misinformation to all those
who viewed it. Fake phone numbers claiming to be emergency lines for the National Guard were shared several hundred times on Facebook during Hurricane Harvey, the numbers in actuality leading people to private insurance companies. A number of inaccurate pictures circulated Twitter as well. There were individuals asserting that businesses had been looted with shots of phones, computers, and other expensive merchandise in private homes. In reality, only four people were arrested for looting during Hurricane Harvey. False photos were rampant— airplanes almost submerged at an airport, a shark swimming on the freeway, and a crocodile in the streets. Despite attempts to confuse others, social media was primarily employed during Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma as a vital tool for bringing awareness to a tragedy that devastated the lives and the homes of many. Through these platforms, individuals—from across the globe to local ThunderRidge students— have the capability to send love to those affected and help in the small ways they can.