Storm causes havoc on The Woodlands and many others in Texas

By Mary Albl of DyeStat

The Woodlands High cross country coach Juris Green sent out a simple message to his athletes and parents as Hurricane Harvey bore down on the Gulf coast of Texas: This doesn’t have to paralyze us.

The Woodlands, with a boys team ranked No. 11 in the DyeStat preseason national rankings, is located about 30 miles north of Houston. As of Monday morning, Green said the area has 23 inches of rain with more expected. 

“With another three to four days of this, we could be looking at double potentially,” Green said. 

The Woodlands did not take the brunt of the storm the way Houston and other areas have, but Green said it spawned a few tornadoes nearby. Mostly it’s just been torrential rain.

Conroe Independent School District, which includes The Woodlands, was closed Friday and have announced that it would be closed through Sept. 5 at the earliest. School districts across the region are dealing with similar issues. HOW TO HELP

For the two-time defending Texas 6A state champs, the precipitation hasn’t slowed them down. Green has put together training plans and when the rain has stopped, athletes have been able to get outside.

“Parents have been calling me or texting me, ‘We did this, we did that.’ It changes our schedule and not what we normally do, but they’re getting stuff done in a safe way. Those guys are motivated and the parents are motivated. Fight for a normal day.”

The Highlanders’ meet Friday was canceled. While it was quiet and a good day to prepare for the storm, the senior leaders of The Woodlands cross country team organized a run at the park where the meet was supposed to be held.

“They ran an intrasquad race and sent me times,” Green said. “When I was getting those texts from those guys, I did kind have of have a ‘pinch me moment.’ They do not want to lose no matter what is going on around us.”

Last spring, The Woodlands prevailed as the best dual meet boys track and field team in the U.S. in the second annual DyeStat tournament. The school's track is now under water.

Harvey, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane late Friday, and is now being called a tropical storm, could bring up to 50 inches of rain to Houston and a large swath of east Texas by the end of the week, according to multiple reports. 

Weather.com advised: “As of 4 p.m. CDT Sunday, parts of the southeast Houston metro area had received more than 25 inches of rain. One location northeast of Houston, near Dayton, logged more than 27 inches of rain in 48 hours.”

On Sunday, 3,000 national guard and state guard troopers had been activated and sent to Texas. 

“The flooding that is happening in Houston and surrounding areas are as bad as it’s ever been,” Green said. “We are going to see some stuff here that we’ve never seen before in terms of flooding.”

While The Woodlands is not in the direct path, it will be affected and could face flooding. Green said he’s been in touch with coach Mike Gibson of The Woodlands College Park.

Gibson’s team is set to host a meet Saturday that could turn into a swim instead, due to course conditions.

“I host the Nike South Invitational Sept. 29-30. It’s less than a mile from where I live. We are going to have to have a lot of dry days even for that course to recover,” Green said. “There are some low areas. This won’t just end when the storm ends, it’s going to take a few weeks.”

Green said coaches are going to have to get a little creative in how and where they host meets come the next few weeks, whether that be track races, on the roads or even parking lots.

But the bottom line is, regardless of the conditions, cross country season is still on.

“Cross country is not supposed to be a clean sport, if you don’t finish muddy, there’s something wrong with that course,” Green said. “I think we’ll have every opportunity to get some really good cross country in.”