Hurricane Harvey went through Houston on Aug. 25, 2017 and had almost 40 inches of rain over the span of nine days as well as 130 mph wind.
Five days later, Hurricane Irma hit the state of Florida with 185 mph wind that was sustained over 37 hours over nine several states.
Irma was also stretched for 650 miles and left about 15 million people without power in Florida alone.
Several students at Fort Lewis College had family and friends affected by the hurricanes in some way, including Daris Wienk and Wyatt Hayes.
Daris Wienk
Daris Wienk, a sophomore at FLC, is from Naples, Florida, where the eye of Hurricane Irma passed through.
“The original path of the hurricane three days beforehand had it going up the east coast of Florida,” Wienk said. “Then it moved over to central Florida, and all my friends that go to school in central Florida went back home, and then it moved to the west coast of Florida.”
Most of her family and friends from high school were affected by Hurricane Irma, she said.
Wienk was very lucky that her house in northern Naples did not end up getting flooded out, she said.
However, power has been out throughout some of the city and water is unsafe to drink without boiling it first because of the flooding, she said.
“My brother still hasn’t gone back to school because most public schools are still closed because of the power outages,” she said.
Wienk’s other brother and his nine-months pregnant fianceé had to stay with Wienk’s father because there is no power at her brother’s house, she said.
Many of her friends have not gone back to classes because it was not safe to drive back to school despite the fact that those schools are open now, she said.
“My dad also has not been back to work for two weeks because he had to close to prepare our house for the storm,” she said.
Trees were knocked down around Wienk’s house and pool cages were blown over, she said.
Wienk’s father has spent a large amount of time cleaning up around his house by taking boards off of windows and cleaning debris from the yard, she said.
People can help hurricane relief by donating to victims of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma, Wienk said.
“All of the grocery stores are out of food and water,” she said.
Wyatt Hayes
Wyatt Hayes is a junior at FLC whose brother was on a cruise with his girlfriend and her family in the Bahamas when Hurricane Irma hit.
They had the trip planned for about eight months, and they found out Hurricane Irma was going to hit when they got out to sea, Hayes said.
The cruise was redirected from the Bahamas to Jamaica and Mexico, he said.
“He had to stay six extra days and miss work,” Hayes said.
Hayes did not have any contact with him because they did not have any wifi or service, he said.
Hayes’ brother did not see any damage, but said the water was very rough while on the cruise, he said.
Hayes also has a couple of friends from Ignacio, Colo. that went to go help in Houston after Hurricane Harvey, he said.
People’s damaged property was just in their front yard piled up, he said.
“They saw how all the devastation was just in people's yards in all the neighborhoods,” he said.
People helped out by helping people move their belongings and donating clothes, food, and water, he said.
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