At the University of Texas at Arlington, one little girl sold drawings and other crafts on Facebook with help from her parents to raise money to be able to donate supplies for babies and children affected by Hurricane Harvey.
University of Houston’s student athletes were not able to return home during the storm, living out of their gym bags and practicing at UT Arlington’s facilities.
The University of Miami had to completely revise their school calendar as most classes still have not resumed but will over the coming week of Sept. 18 to 22.
Student journalists found the stories like those mentioned to cover when for the first time in less than a month two category 4 hurricanes made landfall on the continental United States. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma were both category 4 when they hit Texas and Florida. They both left devastation of the areas in their wake.
Irma went up the west coast of Florida hitting the Florida Keys and Naples the heaviest.
Harvey hit Fort Worth and Houston the hardest, pouring rain and flooding areas for days that turned into weeks. While both did damage, the storms were definitely not the same and followed paths that were very different from one another. This left residents of both Florida and Texas unprepared for these giants. Some other local student media reported on the devastation as it was happening as well as during the cleanup process.
Student journalists at the colleges from each of these areas were able to get stories out that national news could not cover. Because the destruction was so widespread, it is difficult to get to every story and that is why local and often student coverage fills in the gaps.
Nicolle Sartain, Gracie Thompson, Maxime Tamsett, Jessica Silverman
