Taking it personally

NOVEMBER 6, 2018 / 2 minute read

I have to admit, my interest to study flood protection wasn’t truly ignited until Hurricane Harvey in Houston last year. My cousin works as a teacher on the Southeast side of the city, and I was struck by the strong community response to help students’ families who had been displaced, or experienced significant property damage from the floods. Even more recently, last month my home country of Trinidad experienced unprecedented floods, with 80% of the country affected by over-bank river flooding and landslides. It was horrifying to see videos of the highway to the airport turn into its own river, and the power of water rushing down the hillsides and washing away homes. Once again, I was given heart by the neighbors helping neighbors, doing whatever was needed to help people who had lost every single one of their possessions.

I bring up these two events because for me, it took having people I love being affected by the devastation that rising waters cause - and I have some shame about that. The terrible truth is that these hurricanes and floods are nothing new, and in fact are only getting worse. For the events that occurred prior to me being an architecture student, such as Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans or the tsunami in Japan or Hurricane Sandy on the US east coast, I felt helpless. The problems were too overwhelming and I felt paralyzed. I didn’t partake in relief efforts other than some minor monetary donations and hoped other people were taking care of it. I didn’t understand.

Architecture school, and ultimately this Valle program, is an opportunity to understand; to understand what we can learn from past storms and the problems we continue to face, to understand that we have options in how we plan our cities, and to understand how we can use our built environment to alleviate damage and to educate the public. True, this all seems very broad and generalized, but hey, it’s given me a start.