Houston flooding affecting at least two Southeast students

For two Southeast Missouri State University students, Harvey isn’t a distant news item. It hits close to home — literally.

Naomi Tesfay, a Southeast freshman, was at home in Houston two weeks ago. She has family and friends there.

The neighborhood next to her family’s home is flooding and under an evacuation notice, Tesfay said. But so far, she said her family is still in their home.

“There’s not really anywhere to go,” Tesfay said.

Roads are flooded, and hospitals are full when they’re not being evacuated.

“It’s not like people can just go over to the next town or anything,” she said.

Stadiums are being converted to shelters, she said.

“I was really hesitant on coming here; it’s really far from home,” Tesfay said. “I didn’t want to be too far away from my family. I’m really close with them and overprotective, didn’t know if I should go away to school, and now this happens.”

Tesfay said she would like to go home to help with relief efforts after the storm passes, “but almost all airports are closed, freeways and highways are closed, so I wouldn’t even know how to get there.”

Southeast senior Justin Thurman is living in Houston while he completes his courses online.

He said the apartment he lives in is just above Interstate 610. He said he lives on one of the few slight inclines in Houston and feels fortunate.

Thurman said he’s heard reports the floodwaters near him are over 24 inches deep. There’s a car stuck in floodwaters outside he can see from his apartment, and he said he’s using it as a water gauge.

About 2 a.m. Monday, he could see the water had dropped about 3 inches from where it had been Sunday afternoon. But about 7:40 a.m. Monday, the roads briefly were clear of water.

“About 10 to 15 minutes ago, there’s probably 2 to 3 inches of standing water on the roads, and it’s been raining all day,” Thurman said.

The pictures he’s seen online don’t do the situation justice, Thurman added.

Thurman, originally from Jackson, said he never took flash flood warnings seriously and never even had his cellphone set up to receive such alerts, but “I know to take them seriously now.”

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

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