Canoeing surgeon, dedicated athletes: 10 tales of heroism
Disaster brings out the best in Texans helping neighbors.
It’s been a week since Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas and devastated much of the southeastern part of the state, including the Coastal Bend and Texas’ largest metro area of Houston.
But in the midst of destruction, glimmers of hope shone through the floodwaters.
Texans banded together to help each other out, the way only Texans truly can. “Tejas” means “friends,” after all. Here are 10 of the most heartwarming stories of friendship, love and Texan-ness we’ve come across this week. Grab the tissues.
1. Houston’s Jim “Mattress Mack” McInvale, the owner of Gallery Furniture, opened up his two Houston-area stores to Harvey evacuees for housing and food. He also used trucks to navigate flooded areas and rescue people throughout Houston. He said he’s doing it because the community helped him when he needed it most after someone set fire to his store’s warehouse in 2009. Thousands are now petitioning for a “Mattress Mack Day” in Houston.
2. The University of Houston football team spent Wednesday collecting donations and piling them into trucks from the University of Texas, the University of Texas at San Antonio and Texas State University. Head coach Major Applewhite was behind the plan — the UH Cougars were evacuated to Austin during the storm, so Applewhite put out a call to the nine FBS teams with home games (and therefore available equipment trucks) and took the football players and trucks full of donations back to Houston on Friday morning.
3. Austinites (and Houston natives) Michael and Susan Dell announced Friday that their foundation is launching a Rebuild Texas Fund with a goal of raising $100 million for the longterm recovery of communities affected by Hurricane Harvey, and other celebrities who call Texas home pledged to help out. This includes sometimes-Austinite Sandra Bullock, as well as “Fixer Upper” stars Chip and Joanna Gaines, Houston Texans star JJ Watt, “Supernatural” star Jensen Ackles, native Houstonian Beyoncé, and more.
4. Hundreds of Austinites volunteered to help out their neighbors to the southeast. About 700 people signed up to provide interpretation services at shelters, and the Austin Disaster Relief Network received more than 600 “welcome kits” (with more coming in). The Austin restaurant industry and music industry banded together to host various fundraisers and special events to help victims of the flooding (see a full list of events on Austin360.com).
5. Texas’ favorite grocery store, H-E-B, was able to get help trucks and caravans into impacted areas seemingly before state and federal resources were able to access them. They donated more than $1 million in disaster relief in the forms of free meals, food bank donations and financial commitments. While we’re talking about great Texas businesses: Whataburger pledged $1.5 million to Harvey relief efforts.
6. Restaurant industry folks donated their time and talents to keep people fed. Pizza Hut workers in Sugar Land used kayaks to bring 120 pizzas to flood victims who were trapped inside their homes and running low on food. And even some food workers trapped by the flooding spent their stranded time wisely: Bakers at El Bolillo in Houston were stuck inside the bakery for two days, so they baked sheets of pan dulce to be delivered to those in need.
7. A surgeon from Dickinson guided his canoe through waist-high water to perform surgery on a 16-yearold with a life-threatening condition. He traveled at least a mile in floodwaters to get to the boy, who will now make a full recovery. “Sometimes you have to do whatever it takes,” Dr. Stephen Kimmel said in a press release.
8. A man dressed as Spider-Man visited a Houston shelter to bring joy to kids and grownups alike who were unable to return to their homes. There were plenty of high-fives to go around, and he even handed out stickers.
9. Modern-day heroes banded together to rescue the four-legged victims of the Harvey flooding. Texas country singer Miranda Lambert not only mobilized her animal nonprofit to help out, but even put boots on the ground to help rescue animals herself. People worked together to rescue dogs from high water, and a father-son team of Cowboys spent a day rescuing livestock from floodwaters.
10. And finally, a 5-yearold Houston native in Philadelphia set up a lemonade stand to raise money for flood victims. Wearing a Houston Texans hat, the boy reportedly raised more than $400 to be donated to the American Red Cross.