Young’s thoughts with family in Houston area
TORONTO — The latest issue of USA Today sat folded on a table in the middle of the Red Sox clubhouse yesterday. The front-page headline read, “Catastrophe,” in all capital letters, directly beneath an unrecognizable picture of Chris Young’s hometown.
“I wish I could be there with my family right now just to help them out,” Young said. “A lot of my family has been evacuated from their homes, electricity out. They’re finding safe places to go to to try to wait this out and see what happens, but it’s just tough out there right now. All I can do is see the video and the pic- tures and all that. You just hope everybody’s alright.”
Young grew up in the southwest corner of the greater Houston area, in a town called Bellaire, and all of his immediate family remains in the Texas city that’s currently underwater from Hurricane Harvey.
His parents evacuated, Young said, and haven’t seen their house since the storm hit. His sister is still without electricity.
“Everybody in my family, that I know of, is safe and sound right now,” Young said. “Personal belongings and stuff, that stuff is just stuff. It’s not important. As long as they’re safe and healthy and out of danger.”
Images of Houston’s flooded highways and neighborhoods have become staples of the national news in recent days, and Young said he’s followed along with regular conversations — hourly, he said — with loved ones who are dealing with the devastation in real time.
Young’s parents no longer live in his childhood home, but he said their house is where he stays when he’s in Houston during the offseason, and he thinks of that as home. He’s still not sure how much damage it suffered.
“We had advisories that the neighborhood that my parents live in right now was under a mandatory evacuation,” he said. “They got what they could and got out right away, just because I know it (was) going to be a lot of flooding in the area. They’ll just go back to the house afterwards and see what happens.”
Young said his family members would be welcome to stay with him, but both local airports have been shut down.
“I think it’s just a situation, too, where, if everybody finds a safe place to go, everybody just kind of stays there right now,” Young said.
And the fact they’re staying put, safe as could be under the circumstances, leaves Young free to focus on his task at hand.
“They’re keeping me in the loop, and they’re assuring me that they’re safe and for me not to worry,” he said. “But you can’t help but worry, especially when you’re so far away. You just can’t do anything to help. It sucks, but at the same time, you can’t do much about it.”
All things considered, Young said he’s thankful his family’s updates haven’t been worse.
“I’m sure there a lot of families out there that are in way rougher situations than my family is in,” he said. “So, you just continue to pray for everybody and hope that everybody can get to somewhere safe.”