O’Hara grad Blewett flees Houston with teammates ahead of Harvey
When Hanna Blewett heard that a tropical event was aimed at Houston, she wasn’t quite sure how severe it would be.
As a precaution, the Cardinal O’Hara grad and most of her teammates on the University of Houston women’s swim team found other places to be, either flying home or, in Blewett’s case, retreating 30 miles north to the high-and-dry ground of The Woodlands, Texas, with a teammate.
Suffice it to say that few people, in Houston or elsewhere, anticipated that Hurricane Harvey would del- uge southeast Texas with a U.S. record of 50-plus inches, overloading bayous and flooding massive swathes of the fourth-most populous city in the U.S.
“It was kind of a surprise to everyone because we had no clue,” Blewett said Wednesday by phone. “We found out two days before it hit, so most of our team either went home, flew home or went to somebody who was close to campus.”
Most of the Cougars swimmers live in the same building just off campus, which lies along Brays Bayou. If you’ve followed any social media or television coverage, you’ve probably seen that bayou bursting its banks to outrageous proportions as the storm, which made land- fall as a Category 3 hurricane, stalled for days to unleash torrents of rain.
Reports Blewett got from a handful of apartment mates who stayed behind, mostly on the third floor, was that the water hadn’t infiltrated the structure. In an act of teamwork from a distance, Blewett and others made sure those pinned down for the better part of a week could access their rooms to get at their fridges to provide additional nourishment.
While floodwaters have receded and the storm has moved east, many of the roads to campus are still impassable, the cleanup before the cleanup. Blewett isn’t sure when she’ll return to campus, aiming for Thursday or Friday.
Blewett feels grateful to have such a network of contacts through the swim team to rely on in a crisis.
“We find ways to help each other out, which is the lucky part of being on the team because you have so many connections,” she said. “The coaches are so invested in us and the girls on our team, so we’re lucky because we felt pretty safe, so we felt we had somewhere to go if anything got dangerous.”
The storm has interrupted classes, which began Aug. 21 but were cancelled starting late last Friday and will remain so through the rest of this week. Training has also been disrupted, though Blewett is one of the lucky ones able to continue with dryland workouts her coaches and trainers have broadcast to the group, even finding a pool to log a workout
More intriguing is how the Cougars are aiding relief efforts. May people’s property and possessions have been destroyed, and even something as simple as a change of clothes is a luxury for thousands remaining in shelters.
The Houston athletic de- partment, first through its basketball program, has reached out to clubs and teams with excess. gear that they can donate, primarily shirts and shoes. Head swim coach Ryan Wochomurka extended that call to old swim team apparel as well as towels. To date, media reports indicate that the school has heard from more than 500 groups donating.