Hurricane Harvey Disaster Response
OE-0018 - September 2017 - SAF I - North America - USA - Texas

Hurricane Harvey was the first major hurricane of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, causing over 100 deaths and inundating metropolitan Houston with over $125 billion in damages. This mission was a follow-up to Mission OE-0016. In this mission, donated supplies from the tri-state area of New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut were collected, boxed, and loaded onto two large 27 foot box trucks which were donated by Rolling V Transportation Services in South Fallsburg, NY. The collections and loading were done by a bevy of volunteers at SUNY Sullivan, and the donation effort was spearheaded by the Liberty Rotary Club of Liberty, NY. The two trucks drove in convoy to the Friendswood, Texas area, where a team of OpEndev mission specialists, accompanied by representatives from SUNY Sullivan and the Liberty Rotary, met the trucks and assisted with the unloading as well as the delivery of the supplies to those in need in the area. Much of the damage sustained several weeks prior during Hurricane Harvey had yet to be cleaned up, and many people were not able to live in their homes and had lost most of their possessions. These critical supplies were very timely, as the distribution center (a repurposed church building) was very low on supplies and was predicted to completely run out of supplies the next day.