Hurricane Harvey brought flooding and safety concerns to the residents of Texas, but in the wake of the storm, College Station students found a way to make the most of the natural disaster.
Students from various majors, classifications and organizations all had relatively the same idea after the university announced the cancellation of school on Sunday, Aug. 27: Celebrating a classless couple of days by playing in the rain.
Animal science sophomore Emma Coffman said after days of being inside preparing for Rush Week, an impromptu slip n’ slide was exactly what she and her friends needed to have some fun.
“Honestly it was just us being bored out of our minds,” Coffman said. “I was recruiting with my sorority and we’d been inside all day and it was driving us nuts so a buddy of mine put this thing together and had us come over and the next thing you know there was Dawn [soap] being sprayed on a tarp down a hill.”
International studies junior Mia Viccinelli said she and her friends took precautionary measures to make sure they were prepared for the worst case scenario, but decided to create a slip n’ slide similar to Coffman’s when the bad weather had subsided.
“Before the hurricane all of us stocked up on canned goods and water and we took a lot of preventative measures,” Viccinelli said. “So after a couple of days of sitting around and watching TV we actually went to Walmart and got all of the supplies and then went over to a friends house and his backyard was completely saturated from the days of rain prior … and we set up a slip n’ slide.”
Viccinelli said while most of College Station seemed to have the same idea of making slip n’ slides, she also saw people thinking outside of the box for their outdoor activities.
“I saw videos of people outside playing water sports,” Viccinelli said. “I saw people skim boarding and the kayaking going on at the channels running through the parks. People were definitely making the most of it.”
Alec Blodgett and Melanie Klassen, both Class of 2017, were two of the residents who chose to enjoy different activities during the hurricane by heading to the on-campus golf course for some time outside.
“We were tired of being cooped up and needed to go on a run,” Blodgett said. “There was a lot of standing water around campus, but we absolutely needed to get out of the house.”
Special education sophomore Katelyn Peterson said that a quick trip to the Dollar Tree was all she and her friends needed to make the most out of the weather.
“Me and my friends went to Gabbard Park and someone had set up a slip n’ slide so we were using that and then we had gotten tubes from the Dollar Tree and decided to go swimming,” Peterson said. “There’s a rushing stream behind my house so two of my roommates did the tubes down there as well.”
Coffman said the weather was not severe enough to prevent her from playing in the rain but that she would advise others in the future to be cognizant of maintaining safety while enjoying themselves.
“Honestly if you’re in a safe location and you are not having to drive very far I would say it was worth it,” Coffman said. “We were having fun with it but maintaining that level of safety. If you’re driving in areas that are flooded I would probably recommend that people stay home.”