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By Emily Christensen

When Hurricane Harvey made landfall near Rockport, Texas, on Friday, Aug. 25, Wayne Zemke ’92 was watching. He knew the Category 4 hurricane was headed toward Houston, where he lives with his wife and daughter. He also was hopeful that, like other hurricanes before it, this one would lose intensity and spare the city he has grown to love. 

By Saturday, he knew that wasn’t likely. Harvey hit Houston at the most unfortunate time. While most storms rain themselves out quickly after making landfall, Harvey hit another storm in Houston, causing it to stall over the city of 2.3 million people. 

By Sunday, Zemke had started to worry about the safety of his home. Though it wasn’t prone to floods—it survived the Tax Day Floods of 2016, when a storm system dropped 17 inches of rain—city leaders were warning those in his neighborhood they may not be so lucky this time around. 

By Monday, the Zemkes were moving everything they could to the second floor of their home. The Addicks Reservoir, which protects their home and the rest of the Buffalo Bayou from flooding, was full. To keep water from spilling over and inundating the whole area, officials agreed on a planned release that would minimize the damage in Zemke’s neighborhood. 

“We are on the bottom side of the reservoir. My house sits at 108 feet above sea level. The water got to 109 feet in the reservoir,” Zemke said. “We ended up with nine inches of water in the house. If the city had let the water go over the dam, we would have had a lot more water in our home. Our house would probably be gone, and there very likely would have been casualties.”  

His family was initially forced to evacuate and then allowed to return. As of Nov. 3 they were still confined to the upper level of their home. Despite all of that, Zemke counts himself among the lucky Houstonians. A small fleet of knowledgeable volunteers—mostly his colleagues at Caterpillar—spent their Labor Day at his home cleaning and tearing out water damaged materials. He’s been able to use existing relationships to find and hire the professionals needed to properly dry out his home and begin the rebuilding process. 

“We will be the first home in our neighborhood that is completed,” Zemke said. “But we couldn’t have done it alone. We’ve had an outpouring of support from around the globe, whether it was other Caterpillar employees or our vendors and suppliers, friends, or family. People need to know that those things matter.” 

Laura Vincent Wood ’07 also counts herself among the lucky ones. Though her Houston neighborhood was cut off from the rest of the city, her home remained untouched by floodwaters. However, in the aftermath of Harvey, Wood, a licensed clinical social worker at the Carole & Ronald Krist Samaritan Center, has helped dozens of survivors. This was her first time serving after a large-scale natural disaster. 

“Pre-Harvey, I counseled people with all kinds of concerns. Post-Harvey has probably been the most demanding period in my career,” Wood said. “The biggest challenge was to realize all of those pre-Harvey concerns are still present. So now there are people experiencing divorce plus Harvey, or cancer plus Harvey, or fill-in-the-blank plus Harvey.”

A University of Michigan study—released after Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of Florida and Louisiana in August 2005—found that 30 to 40 percent of adults directly affected by the event may suffer from PTSD, while 10 to 20 percent of rescue workers and 5 to 10 percent of the general population may experience PTSD symptoms. Wood remembers reading an American Red Cross list of common emotional responses following a traumatic event or natural disaster and relating to more than half of the items. 

“My first response was one of becoming angry with myself. I felt weak and questioned what right I had to feel overwhelmed when I should feel nothing but grateful,” she said. “I recognized that I have to treat myself with the same compassion I am showing to others. The last few months have forced me to evaluate how to practice better self-care in order to reduce compassion fatigue.” 

Heeding the call

Laura Wulff ’04, a clinical social worker in Greensboro, N.C., put her life on hold for a week post-Harvey to serve as a disaster mental health worker through the American Red Cross. Her stations in Austin and Houston served as shelters for those whose homes were no longer inhabitable nearly one month after the storms hit. 

“I was shocked that there were still about 350 people at my shelter in Houston at that time, including men, women, and children. For the most part, those at the shelter a month after are those who likely didn’t have many resources or had other needs,” Wulff said. 

Yet people still tried to care for and give what they could to the volunteers.

“A group of us from the Red Cross would be out wearing some of our Red Cross gear. Strangers would stop us and thank us. I had strangers buy meals and drinks for us to show their appreciation, even though they had lost so much,” she said. 

Wulff said one of the most memorable moments of the week was reconnecting with a young woman she met for the first time while working at Lutheran Services in Iowa’s Bremwood campus in Waverly. The young woman, who was only 12 when they first met, sought out Wulff while she was visiting a Red Cross site in Houston. Wulff connected her with a Red Cross case worker, a county case worker, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to begin the assistance process. 

“The next day, she and her best friend met me at my hotel with their two young children, and we all played in the pool. One of them commented that this was the first time they had been able to relax or have fun since before the storm hit,” Wulff said. 

Wartburg responds

The hardest-hit communities are not expected to fully recover from the devastation caused by hurricanes in 2017 for years. 

“I know people who have yet to return to their homes and some who will never return and have chosen to move instead,” Wood said. “There is heartbreak all around, and yet the strength and resilience of people never ceases to amaze me. It’s part of why I love what I do as a social worker. Person after person has described having their faith in humanity restored and seeing God at work. Seeing the way people have rallied around one another and to compile their resources and skills has been truly inspiring.” 

In March a group of Wartburg students, led by Maria Munguia ’20, will travel to Munguia’s hometown of Immokalee, Fla., which was devastated by Hurricane Irma on Sept. 10. A second group is expected to spend time helping in Houston this April. This will be the second time Munguia has been able to give back to her community since coming to Wartburg; she also led a service trip to Immokalee in 2016. 

This time, the crew will partner with Rural Neighborhoods, a nonprofit that works in rural areas to help develop strong communities where people can live and grow.

“Immokalee was hit pretty bad by Hurricane Irma. The problem is that a lot of homes are trailer homes that are very fragile during strong wind storms,” said Munguia, a journalism and communication and Spanish major. “A lot of families lost their trailer homes, and since Immokalee is mostly farm workers who aren’t paid well, they are struggling to find places to relocate.”

She is thankful that her new home has been so willing to help her first home.

“I would not be at Wartburg if it weren’t for my hometown. Everything I have ever done has led me to this very moment of giving back to them,” said Munguia, who hopes to teach her classmates about Immokalee during their trip. “I will never be ashamed of my small town. It is full of love, support, and amazing people with beautiful hearts. I feel extremely blessed to be able to give back in Immokalee and know that I have the support of my school behind me.” 

To help send Wartburg Service Trips to Florida and Texas in 2018,  please make a donation at www.wartburg.edu/givetoservice and select the designation “Service Trips – Hurricane Relief.”