deliverance how a Father-son duo Decided to brave harvey’s waters and rescue their neighbors
EVAN HAMMERMAN
After entire neighborhoods flooded, coach Alan Paul rowed along with senior Evan Hammerman and his father Steve, floating from street to street and saving people stranded in their homes. The Hammermans rescued people with a borrowed canoe for six straight days.
What happens when parents are away during a hurricane By Gracie Blue
Andrea Anaya sat in her parents’ bed, munching on the only food left in her house, blueberries and nuts, as the rains from Hurricane Harvey pounded the roof of her otherwise-empty abode on Aug. 27. Two days earlier, Anaya’s parents had left town on a six day Caribbean cruise. In order to block out the noisy storm, Anaya watched the “Game of Thrones” season finale at maximum volume. When the power went out later that night, the senior only had 10 percent of her phone battery left. She texted a facetious farewell to her friends, joking that she would see them when the storm was over. When her phone died, she retreated to her room to sleep. Five hours later, there was a loud knocking. Anaya looked down from her third floor window to see senior Evan Hammerman banging on the front door, prepared to rescue her. Still dressed in her pajamas, Anaya grabbed her laptop and phone and hopped into Hammerman’s car to take shelter for the next few nights at senior Trip George’s house. Anaya’s friends, worried about her safety, had contacted Hammerman, who was canoeing around the city rescuing flood victims. Harvey arrived at a particularly inconvenient time for families with college students. Many parents, like Barrett and Susan Reasoner, were out of town dropping off their older children at college when they found themselves stranded with no way to get home. The Reasoners had just moved their son William in at Lynn University in Florida when their return flight to Houston was cancelled. The Reasoners flew to Dallas and then began to drive home but only made it as close as Huntsville at 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 27. Their daughters Olivia, a senior, and Eloise, a sophomore, were home alone with a sitter. The Reasoners kept in constant touch with their daughters, who reassured their parents that they were fine. “Although we knew our girls were safe, it was unsettling not being with them,” Mrs. Reasoner said. “I wondered if they were putting on a good front so we wouldn’t worry.” After six days of watching television reports for hours on end, the Reasoners finally made it home on Aug. 30. “We are proud of them for staying strong and being mature during an extremely difficult time,” Mrs. Reasoner said.
By Dani Yan Yuko Mori-Akiyama stood in her one-story Meyerland house with flood waters rising to her hip and a panicking 40-pound dog in her arms. Akiyama first noticed the rapidly increasing water level in front of her house on South Rice at 3 a.m. on Aug. 27. Her younger son, Yo (’16) was in Taiwan, and her older son, Taichi, had already moved back to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, a dog-phobic neighbor repeatedly refused to let Akiyama and her dog Hana into his two-story house. Her panic increased when Coast Guard rescuers passed by without stopping to pick her up. A friend of Akiyama’s posted about her situation on Facebook. The message was finally received by senior Evan Hammerman, who arrived at her door with his father Steve in a borrowed canoe. “The water in Ms. Akiyama’s house was so high we literally rowed our canoe right through her front door,” Evan said. “She was shaking when we got there. I was glad we could help in time.” After the Hammermans dropped Akiyama and her dog off at a friend’s house, Evan received a phone call from senior Laura Valderrabano, who had seen photos of Evan’s rescue expedition on Snapchat. She asked him to head towards the Galleria area, where senior Andrea Anaya was home alone with no power and a dead cell phone. “I was in bed, a little freaked out and being overdramatic when Evan suddenly came to save me,” Anaya said. “I was so confused. I had just woken up and he was standing outside with his dad. It was all so crazy, I left without even thinking to bring clothes.” (See sidebar for full story.) For the next five days, the Hammermans paddled their canoe through the Gessner
and Briar Forest area, where they worked with other volunteers to clear people from the flooded area. “It was incredible, people were out there doing everything that they physically could do,” Mr. Hammerman said. “Everyone was communicating; everyone was working together.” On Gessner Road, Mr. Hammerman took people to dry ground on an inflatable motorboat after Evan had retrieved them from their homes on the canoe. “Doing everything with Evan was a very moving experience,” Mr. Hammerman said. “It was an opportunity to work sideby-side with my son, helping people and showing him that we can actually directly impact people’s lives.” Once the Hammermans got to the dry land, volunteers were ready with supplies and cars to transport the rescued people. “It wasn’t organized by the city,” Mr. Hammerman said. “People just heard what was needed and showed up to help evacuees they had never even met before.” Wrestling coach Alan Paul joined the Hammermans on Aug. 29. Paul manned the canoe with Evan and recorded the experience with his GoPro camera. “One man hugged Evan and me and called us heroes after we led him through the floodwaters,” Paul said. “It was very
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emotional to help someone who was so visibly scared of the water.” The rescue team encountered some people who refused to leave their flooded houses. “Rescue personnel tried for two days to get a man in his eighties to leave his home but he would not leave until I took his son to his house to convince him,” Steve said. “It was shocking to me that people wouldn’t leave even with several feet of water in their houses.” After four days, the Gessner and Briar Forest area was almost completely evacuated. Mr. Hammerman witnessed both Hurricane Ike in 2008 and Alicia in 1983 but had never seen anything like Harvey. “I was on the bay when Alicia hit,” Mr. Hammerman said. “The wind and rain were quite impressive, but the flooding was nothing compared to Harvey.” This time, he said, “we were rowing down Gessner and literally going over cars.” Evan views his six-day rescue trip as a fulfillment of responsibility. “Since I was in a situation where I wasn’t affected by Harvey, I think it was my job to help those who were affected,” Evan said. “My house wasn’t damaged and my family was completely okay, so I could either sit at home while other people suffered or go out and do something productive.”
It was shocking to me that people wouldn’t leave even with several feet of water in their houses - steve hammerman
EVAN HAMMERMAN
Coach Alan Paul: “It was very emotional to help someone who was so visibly scared of the water.” Coach Paul joined the Hammerman’s canoe on Aug. 29 to rescue people and their pets.
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OCTOBER 3, 2017
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