Hurricane Harvey Hits Home for Two Temple Fencers

Ally Micek's mom stopped a TSA agent at the Houston airport right before her daughter and sophomore Camille Simmons' plane was supposed to take off.

She asked if they were going to close the airport, but the TSA agent looked at her and said, "Why? It's a just a little rain."

That's what Micek, Simmons and most of Houston thought before Hurricane Harvey touched down on Saturday, August 26.

"We are all shocked by it," Simmons said. "No one expected it so we are just in shock."

A couple weeks before they were supposed to leave for Temple, Micek and Simmons decided to fly out Friday, a day earlier than originally planned. If they would have waited until Saturday, they might still be in Houston.

"Leading up to leaving it was just a tropical storm," said Simmons, "so I wasn't worried at all. But once I found out it was a hurricane, I kept checking the weather. Ally called me and was like 'are we going to make it out on time?'"

Even though they did make it out on time and are over 1,000 miles away from the damage, it still hits home for the fencers.

"It's hard to see that we got out and other people are still stuck in Houston," Micek said. "We want to be there and we want to help, but knowing there is only so much you can do, it's really hard."

After their plane landed in Philly, they started to realize how bad Harvey really was. Simmons' mom, who is a home health nurse, was calling her patients and telling them that they needed to pack a bag and go to someone else's house because they wouldn't be safe in their homes.

Simmons' mom, who traveled with the girls, still hasn't been able to return home.

Micek also started calling her parents, asking about the damage that was done. In the past, her street never flooded, so she thought this time would be no different.

"My mom called me Monday morning and she was sending me pictures," said Micek. "Our street was flooded and it was still raining."

For Simmons, who lives four streets back from one of the bayous, it was Sunday night when what was happening really sunk in after she found out that her neighbor's and a close family friend's house had both flooded.

"The water got to our front door," Simmons said. "But it didn't get in because our house was built higher up. Luckily, my house was the first row that was out of the flood risk."

Both Micek and Simmons' homes were safe and suffered only minimal damage, but not being there with their family and their city has been of the hardest things for the two of them.

"It was really heartbreaking to hear how bad it was and knowing that I could still be there," Micek said. "It's heartbreaking to be here and not be able to help."

The girls both know that most people in Houston were not as lucky as they were.

"Our families are in the 10 to 15 percent of Houston that were fortunate enough to not be affected," Micek said. "Genuinely 80 to 85 percent of Houston was affected by this. It wasn't just smaller areas; it was all of Houston."

While the Hurricane was devastating, Micek and Simmons urge everyone to learn from Houston.

"Watch how well everyone is helping each other and how everyone has supported each other," Simmons said. "I think that's a good message to take. There's a lot of negativity happening right now, so if people see others reacting to this event and supporting each other even though they don't know each other, it's a good message."

The girls don't know what to expect when they go back to Houston. All of the places they used to visit together, including their favorite hamburger shack, may be destroyed. All they can do is hope that when they go back home, most of the debris will be gone and everything will start to look like it did when they left.

But one thing they know for sure is when they go home Houston, it's going to be even stronger than when they left it.

"Houston will rebuild," Micek said. "And it will rebuild stronger than it was before."

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Hurricane Harvey Hits Home for Two Temple Fencers

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