A thousand miles away from home in Indiana, hurricanes raged on for days. It spewed storm surge and whipped whistling winds across Texas and Florida, causing hundreds of thousands of homes to flood. In one of those homes lived Senior Zach Black. Now Black has moved Columbus to start over.

“It was the storm of the century, like they said. It was so bad. So many people lost their lives and many lost their houses,” Black said.

Black lived close to Galveston, Texas. He was enjoying senior year when his world turned upside down. As the storm barreled toward his home, his family decided to move.

“The Friday I left [for Columbus], I got to the airport, and I was supposed to leave at 10:30, but my flight got delayed, then canceled. Then I had to spend the night at the airport and sleep with a tinfoil blanket. I was there for 36 hours. Finally, the eye hit so it was calm enough that they were able to send five planes out of Houston to Dallas.”

Now Black is at Columbus East, which is something so surreal to him.

“It’s my senior year, I am going to graduate with people I don’t even know-strangers-not people I have known my whole life.”

The harsh reality of the hurricanes,  is that the storm changed lives just as it did to Black.

Although Black admits Texas was his home in all, because of Hurricane Harvey, he realized leaving was the better choice. He was ready to restart.

Restarting is something Senior Kaylin Miller has come to comprehend. She has seen what Hurricane Harvey in Texas did to a close family she knew.

“The family had just moved to Houston only months ago and I was so upset to learn they were about to be hit by the Hurricane. They evacuated Texas before the storm hit but unfortunately, their home faced tremendous damage,” Miller said.

The storm affected everyone from having to leave everything behind or simply by feeling heartbroken after scrolling through social media. Now many are trying to help by donating to the cleanup efforts and simply welcoming a new student seeking refuge.

For other ways to help hurricane victims visit http://www.redcross.org/about-us/our-work/disaster-relief/hurricane-relief