Houston Boilers rally to aid family recovering from Hurricane Harvey
Steve and Cathy Gurnell were prepared to wait it out. They’d lived in their home in Katy, Texas, a western suburb of Houston, for 19 years. No strangers to bad storms, they’d stayed through Rita (2005), Ike (2008), and other smaller hurricanes and tropical storms. As rain from Hurricane Harvey pummeled Texas, friends and family called and texted the Gurnells to check on their safety. Among those concerned were the couple’s middle child, Carrie (LA’10), an assistant volleyball coach at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina.
“My parents are pretty tough people,” Carrie says. “But when I heard the street was flooded, it really hit home that this could be dangerous. I didn’t want them to be struggling, wondering about food and water.”
Initially, there wasn’t much cause for concern. “For the first few days, we were fine,” Cathy says. “There was water in the street, but our house is elevated. My husband was out grilling. I took his picture. Carrie was worried, but I told her, ‘We’re fine.’”
The next day, the US Army Corps of Engineers released the floodgates of two nearby overflowing reservoirs to divert water away from downtown Houston. The Canyon Gate neighborhood was inundated, and the rapidly rising water was lapping at the Gurnells’ front door in a matter of hours.
“At first, we thought we could still camp upstairs and ride it out,” says Cathy. “I found superhuman strength and we moved the majority of our family room upstairs within an hour.”
By the time they finished moving furniture, the water was four feet high outside. They watched as neighbors floated down the street on rafts toward volunteer rescue boats waiting at the entrance of the neighborhood. The Gurnells knew they had to act quickly. They decided to evacuate.
They waded through dark, murky water that was chest high at times, each carrying one of the family dogs above the surface. After boarding a small hunting boat, they were ferried a few miles to volunteer motorists willing to drive them to the temporary shelter set up at the high school. It was a two-and-a-half-hour journey that normally takes 15 minutes in a car. Her other daughter and son-in-law were able to navigate the flooded streets to reach the high school and take the Gurnells to their home in another suburb.
Call to Action
One thousand miles away, Carrie felt helpless. She was desperate to join her family in Katy and help with cleanup, but her coaching commitments kept her in North Carolina. That’s when she saw the Facebook post from the Purdue Alumni Club of Houston. “They were looking for Boilermakers in Houston who needed help,” Carrie says. “I thought it was the least I could do. I gave them my family’s information, and I got responses that day.”
It would take five days for the water to recede and for the National Guard to allow anyone back into the neighborhood. During that time, Cathy was receiving texts from club president Jon Albregts (A’92), who assured her that when she and Steve were ready to return, Boilermakers would be there to help deal with whatever damage they encountered.
“He was very persistent,” Cathy says. “It’s hard to accept help, and I wasn’t sure we would need it. But Jon kept texting me. I thought, ‘Wow. They’re serious.’”
Steve was out of state when Cathy finally was allowed back to their home. Accompanied by her daughter and son-in-law, she returned to survey the destruction.
“The carpet was unbelievably disgusting. Mold was growing all over the place. There was an inch of fuzz on our leather couch already. Our dressers were laying on their sides after floating in water.”
Help was on the way. The following morning, Albregts and five other Boilermakers arrived on the scene and worked nonstop for about seven hours, emptying the first floor of standing water, pulling up carpet and hardwood, tearing out drywall, dismantling cabinets, and removing all the appliances.
“It looked like a war zone,” Albregts says. “The entire neighborhood was covered with drywall, household items, cabinets, furniture, piled 15 or 20 feet in the air. Home after home after home for blocks on end. It was every single house in every direction, as far as the eye could see.”
An Outpouring of Help
Because the Gurnells had stayed behind initially, they were able to move most of the valuables stored on the first floor upstairs prior to evacuation. In the commotion, they neglected to check the closet under the stairs. Cathy’s heart sunk when she opened it and discovered Carrie’s Purdue letter jacket, ruined.
“That was really tough,” Carrie says. “When I had surgery, that jacket kept me alive.”
She suffered a torn labrum entering her sophomore year playing volleyball for Purdue and had surgery on her shoulder during Christmas break. The letter jacket was the only thing that would fit over her arm brace that winter. When coaches Dave Shondell and Kathy Jewell learned of the jacket’s fate, they sent a new one to Carrie the next day.
“The outpouring of help during our time of crisis is just unbelievable,” Cathy says. “I’ve always said Purdue is Carrie’s second home. How can I even thank them for everything they did? They not only saved us days of work, but put us weeks ahead.”
Carrie echoed her mom’s sentiments in a Facebook post she shared September 9: “When I committed to play for Purdue I didn’t understand how much it would change my life. I had an amazing volleyball experience, made friends that will last a lifetime, and I have a degree from an unparalleled university. I’ve tried to explain to people how the Boilermaker community is unlike any other community and I could never really put it into words so I’ll just share this … some alumni are heading to help my parents recover from the flood. Once again, trying to speak about the Boilermaker community has left me speechless.”
For Albregts, his response to help was merely an extension of the Purdue culture. “We value relationships, and we value connections. I didn’t know Carrie was a student-athlete. I didn’t know anything about their family. I only knew a Boilermaker needed help. Any one of us would do the same.”
This story appeared in the Winter 2017 issue of Purdue Alumnus magazine.
