Road to Recovery: Displaced Fort Bend students still participating in fair
ROSENBERG, Texas (KTRK) -- With the water rising due to Hurricane Harvey, FFA students in Fort Bend County were worried about their families and friends. After the people were accounted for, all students could do was hope their steers, goats and other animals would survive.
"It's been a bumpy road getting here," Ridge Point Hugh School Ag teacher Kathryn Bremer said.
Bremer wasn't sure her students and their animals would make it to the county fair, which they've worked for all year.
The students stepped up to help their animals and each other.
Senior Alyssa Bowen was able to make it to the school barn while no other students could. Her family took care of 30 animals, feeding and watering them all for days.
"I texted them every evening and told them their animals were fed and watered and they were OK," Bowen said.
With the animals taken care of, other students like Ryan Williams, started organizing to help humans in need. He dispatched FFA volunteers to help people begin repairs.
"We were able to dispatch people all over Katy, the north side of Houston and down here in Fort Bend County as well," Williams said. "I figured it was the perfect opportunity to take action against such devastation. It was something way surpassing what I even was imagining."
Some families participating in the fair are still out of their homes.
The Mueths in Needville are taking a break from repairs to show some livestock.
"A lot of good memories here and a lot of responsibility and things these kids learn," Brian Mueth said.
The Mueths expect to be back in their home in a few weeks.
Other students like Tyler Hand have a longer wait. He's hoping to be back home by Christmas.
"That's what we're hoping. Christmas at the latest," he said.
To outsiders, it may seem like no big deal. The livestock show looks like so many others.
But for these kids, it's a much needed taste of normal in what's been a horribly abnormal few weeks.
"Even though I don't have a home to go to, or even though I don't have a house or roof over my head, it's breathtaking to come out to the barn and see even through all this I can still perform my responsibilities and raise something like this," Hand said.
