An Eye on Ike (submitted by Jason Plotkin, Assistant Sports Information Director, 9/15/08)
A few student-athletes and members of the Privateer athletic family have been keeping tabs on southeast Texas over the last few days as Hurricane Ike came ashore and left a trail of destruction throughout an area that includes city of Houston.
For those who live on the Gulf of Mexico, it is nothing out of the ordinary, but for a few of those affiliated with the UNO athletic department, it's been a busy few weeks of watching the tropics.
Lindsey Loyd and Ryan Moss both evacuated the city of New Orleans with their teams in preparation for Hurricane Gustav two weeks ago.
Loyd, who was already in Auburn, Ala. with the volleyball team, stayed in place with her teammates at Auburn before heading west by bus to Dallas to compete in the SMU Radisson Invitational the next week.
Moss had a similar story. Like Loyd, he headed out of state with his teammates, joining the Privateer swimming and diving team at Delta State in Cleveland, Miss. After a week of team bonding and intense training, Moss and his teammates got right into the pool for a major competition, competing against the third ranked team in the country, Stanford. The meet against Stanford was not only the first time the Privateer men got in the pool since 1992, but the first intercollegiate sporting event in Baton Rouge after Gustav.
The two student-athletes kept their eyes on the Houston area. Loyd, from just north of Houston, was joined by her parents in Lubbock, Texas this past weekend. Using the cancellation of work and making it out of harm's way as their excuse, Loyd's parents made the road trip to watch the Privateers compete in the Texas Tech Red Raider Round-up.
"We had a lot of friends and family stay behind, but my parents were not going to take that risk," said Loyd, who graduated from Nimitz HS, north of Houston. "All is well with our house, there's no power and just a few fallen branches."
Moss, from the Cypress area, northwest of Houston has been keeping in touch with his family, who did not evacuate.
"My family is fine, but without power right now and no damage to the house," said Moss. "My dad explained to me that he and my mother spent a majority of their time in the car since there is air conditioning."
Like our student-athletes, Ike hit home for me as well. Two weeks ago, my wife and I headed to Houston to spend nearly a week with my parents. Now, it was there turn to deal with the tropical weather as they hunkered down in their southwest side house.
Imitating my role from UNO, I served as a liason between my family and those who wanted to keep tabs on them. Power for my family went out on Friday night and remains out as of Monday afternoon. Their phones have worked off and on and like Ryan's parents, my parents have taken short drives in their car to get some air conditioning and allow their cell phones to charge.
While our minds are with our families in southeast Texas, each of us are thankful that our families have made it through without a scratch, allowing us all to partake in our favorite distraction of being active participants in UNO athletics!
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