Updated August 29th with Jasmine Knight's story.
David Astrein went to MSU for his undergrad and graduate degrees, and moved to Houston after graduating in 2008. He lives in The Heights, a neighborhood in northwest central Houston.
He was lucky to avoid any flooding in his house or on his street, but he can’t leave the house, except by foot. He’s surrounded by water, as close as few blocks away.
“I took a walk around the neighborhood yesterday and you know you see crazy news stories and you never think it’s gonna be you, like you see flooding elsewhere and you see people that take the kayaks or canoes and so there were kayaks and canoes going down the street.”
Some of his friends in the Meyerland area had a much more difficult time.
“They had an air mattress that was blown up because they had some extra family in town. And they used the air mattress to get a couple of their belongings and their infant child out to safety.”
David is the vice president of the Houston Spartans Alumni Club, and says their alumni Facebook group has actually facilitated some rescues.
“There’s some pretty wild stuff going on on that Facebook page. We hear about people who are stranded in high water and 911 is inundated with calls so they can’t get to them so there’s a whole bunch of alternative ways of getting help through social media that people are resorting to and actually getting rescued through. There’s groups of people that have their own personal boats and people coordinate and tell them where to go to pick up people who need to get rescued.”
Jasmine Knight graduated from MSU in 2015, and moved to Houston just last month to attend law school at Thurgood Marshall.
In her immediate area of Bellaire there was minimal flooding. But she learned a friend three miles away needed to be rescued from her apartment, and turned to the Houston Spartans Facebook page for help.
“I just asked and they were so helpful. I really thank God for them because they gave me so many numbers, so many tips, so much in such a short amount of time and with that information I was able to get it to my other classmates and all of us were calling.”
Eventually they got through to 911 and her friend was rescued.
Jasmine has been in her apartment for the last six days, and is hopeful she has enough food to last her until the storm is over.
If you want to find out how you can help Spartans in Houston, you can email the Houston Alumni Club at houtx@msu.edu.
