San Antonio is a city home to the Alamo, the Spurs, Taco Cabana, and very little natural hazards, but the most notably recent natural disaster that affected San Antonio was in 2017 during my junior year of high school. Hurricane Harvey was the only story you heard on every news station spanning from KSAT (a news channel based in San Antonio) to Telemundo (a Spanish news channel also based in San Antonio). The weather forecast predicted that Alamo City would get eight to ten inches of rain just like during Hurricane Ike in 2008. As the hurricane approached the gulf coast, San Antonio inhabitants emptied water aisles in Walmart, Costco, and H-E-B (a popular supermarket in Texas and northeastern & central México). The mayor at the time, Ron Nirenberg, activated the city’s Emergency Operations Center to help homeowners who needed to evacuate from the hurricane and set barriers around areas that easily flood.
On August 25, 2017, we had early release from school to prepare for the worst. I remember sitting in the passenger’s seat looking at the gloomy clouds waiting to strike while my mother sped home. A couple of hours after arriving home and going on house lockdown, my phone screen broke leading me to be completely bored out of my mind when the hurricane came. My parents turned off the Wi-Fi and other electronic devices in case lighting would hit a power line. Annoyed with not having the media around, I became grumpy with my boredom and complained to my parents about not being able to be online. “Nunca te sabes lo que puedes pasar. Di una pequeña oración a Dios,” my mother told me while I continuously started out the window at the same dim clouds. I kneeled at the side of my bed with a cross in my hands and prayed that my phone breaking would be the only tragedy during this hurricane. I knew my mother had more experience in hurricanes than I did. In Puerto Rico, she had countless experiences with hurricanes and knew exactly how to react.
After praying and sixty hours of waiting for the storm to pass on television, it was back to school Monday. During the drive to school I looked out the window yet again, but this time, all I saw was the sun beaming down on happy, untouched San Antonio. Maybe praying did help turn the hurricane away from San Antonio, I thought, but sadly, I thought too soon. The week after Hurricane Harvey hit, so did a gasoline disaster. One day after school, I was waiting for my friend to finish volleyball practice in the gym and all the volleyball girls started to freak out about an apparent gas shortage due to the hurricane. Getting most of our gas from Houston, the general train of thought for people in San Antonio was it would be a while until gas would be back in the city. One of the coaches shot the rumor down, saying the petroleum refineries in Houston were still running, which ended up being true, but that didn’t stop the local population from losing their marbles. Driving home, my friend decided to try and stop at a gas station on the way back just in case. As we got closer to the Shell station on San Pedro Avenue, horror struck our eyes. The line for gas went on for miles.
San Antonio had made its own gas shortage. Seventy two percent of the gas stations in San Antonio had no gas, and the places that did have gas had high rates (high for Texas standards). Though paying fifty-three more cents for gas was stressful in itself, my family had to make due. For the next week, my mother would get up at 3:00 AM to wait in line for gas so we could just have enough to get basic goods. We only used one car during this crisis, therefore, every morning I would wake up and my father would drop me off at school before going to work. Finally, when the week ended, gas became plentiful again and prices went back down.
Sources:
Bradshaw, Kelsey. “Here's Just How Close S.A. Came to Experiencing a 'Disaster' from Harvey.” San Antonio Express-News, San Antonio Express-News, 29 Aug. 2017, www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/NWS-San-Antonio-how-close-disaster-Harvey-12045441.php#photo-14015521.
Brezosky, Lynn. “Roughly 72 Percent of San Antonio Gas Stations out of Fuel as Panic Continues.” ExpressNews.com, Express-News, 2 Sept. 2017, www.expressnews.com/business/eagle-ford-energy/article/Almost-400-San-Antonio-gas-stations-didn-t-have-12166770.php.
Brezosky, Lynn. “Roughly 72 Percent of San Antonio Gas Stations out of Fuel as Panic Continues.” San Antonio Express-News, Express-News, 3 Sept. 2017, www.mysanantonio.com/business/eagle-ford-energy/article/Almost-400-San-Antonio-gas-stations-didn-t-have-12166769.php#photo-14028221.
report, Advocate staff. “Tracking Hurricane Harvey: Projected Path Points to Storm Hitting Louisiana after Texas.” The Advocate, 25 Aug. 2017, www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/weather_traffic/article_7165bc30-893d-11e7-99e1-f3085130e564.html.
“San Antonio Prepares for Tropical Storm Harvey.” YouTube, KENS 5: Your San Antonio News Source, 24 Aug. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKZLVYP1IXQ.
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