With the highest number of out-of-state students from any state – more than 1,159 students just last year – the recent flooding in Texas has affected a number of Ole Miss students and alumni.
The floods in May rained enough to cover the entire state in over eight inches of water CNN reported Saturday and NBC News reported the number of dead had risen to 24 on that same day. The flooding has heavily affected Houston, San Antonio and Austin with numerous small towns and communities in between.
Furqani al-Amin, sophomore management information systems major, lives in Houston. He said his car was filled with water and totaled on May 12 while parked on the curb in front of his home.
“I hadn’t had my car for a full year,” al-Amin said. “Multiple of my neighbors cars were flooded but not like mine. I was devastated.”
Al-Amin will not be able to return to Ole Miss due to financial issues.
“That’s more money that my parents shouldn’t have to worry about,” al-Amin said.
Rachel Clark, a graduate of 2013 had nearly 3 feet of flooding in her neighborhood in Midtown and said there was 4-5 feet of water in the downtown area.
“Several homes and businesses in that part of town withstood some intense water damage, but the streets were clear of water and debris by the time I drove to work on Tuesday after Memorial Day,” Clark said.
Daniel Minus, who lives outside of San Antonio, said parts of her families land was covered in as much as 6-7 inches of water, though her home, standing on a hill, only had 2-3 inches.
The flooding made many roads impassable for Minus, who traveled to Nashville and was delayed nearly 3 hours because of highway flooding.
“I had to wait a few hours to get on the road because they had closed it off and they had to drain out water on the highway,” Minus said.
Minus said knowing that the flood was taking lives as close as Wemberly, a town only 60 miles from her, is hard to grasp.
“It’s just heart-wrenching to know,” Minus said. “It’s horrible to see on the news that it’s in your state.”
Gabriella Gonzaba, a senior secondary social studies education major also from San Antonio, is an orientation leader on campus this summer.
“It’s really hard having to be here. I just went home for the weekend but now I’m here. It’s hard seeing everyone struggle there and I’m here,” Gonzaba said. “I can’t help in any way. I can’t take my siblings to school, I’m 12 hours away.”
Gonzaba said her community had experienced flooding before, but not like this.
“We were not prepared for this,” Gonzaba said. “It just hit us.”
Gonzaba, too, said it was hard to cope with the reality of this situation.
“It’s actually people you know,” Gonzaba said. “People ask me, ‘Does that affect you?’ Yeah. You think those things affect people you don’t know or strangers. Those are people you sit in class with, those are people down the hall from each other. Just keep praying for the families because we have so many Ole Miss from Texas.”
