Minutes after she heard her parents' phones screeching in the kitchen, Tracy Wei and the rest of her family scrambled to pack a weeks worth of clothing and important documents before cramming into a mini-van and leaving.
It was late August 2017, and Hurricane Harvey threatened to spill over a levy that typically guarded their Sugar Land neighborhood from floodwaters. Wei's home was spared, but dozens of her Sartartia Middle School classmates weren't as lucky. Listening to their stories and pain, she knew she needed to help.
“Just processing the hurricane and coming together as a community, it was hard,” the now 15-year-old said. The one thing that was really powerful about Houston was that we really formed a community during Harvey. I wanted to help.”
In the weeks after Harvey, Wei and Raina Parikh, also 15, worked to develop an app to address students’ mental health in the wake of natural disasters. It’s called SAY: Stories About You, and it allows kids to share their experiences after storms, fires and floods. The goal, the girls say, is to let others know they’re not alone in their struggles.
Kids’ pain is still evident, even nearly three years after Hurricane Harvey blew into the Houston area. Some students sob in their classrooms during storms, worried their homes and toys will flood again. Others jump when they hear a phone blast emergency signals, a sound that reminds them of the dozens of weather warnings that went out during the downpours. Still more have detailed plans in the back of their mind in case they need to make a quick escape to avoid rising waters.
Bob Sanborn, president and CEO of the Children at Risk nonprofit, said adults tend to focus on physical well being after devastation rather than mental health. Texas, he noted, is 49th in the nation when it comes to state spending on mental health.
“You hear so often that kids are resilient, and they are,” Sanborn said. “But that doesn’t mean they don’t suffer trauma, and often they hide trauma even when it’s still there.”
The app allows kids to pick from a list of disasters and zip codes, but most entries thus far are from Harvey. One wrote about evacuating to Austin, unsure what she and her family would return to. Another wrote about all the dead fish that lined his street once the water subsided. One, from the 77053 ZIP code, said they were stuck in their home without electricity for a week, worrying for survival as their food supplies began to dwindle.
“I’m glad we’re here breathing and alive,” they wrote.
With Tropical Storm Cristobal churning in the Gulf, both Wei and Parikh had worried there may soon be more entries.
“It’s still early in hurricane season, and we’re all in an isolated environment,” Parikh said. “This can allow children to share their stories therapeutic environment.”
shelby.webb@chron.com
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