Into the eye of the storm: How I found inspiration in the midst of Houston’s devastation

By now, you’ve all seen the photos. Last week, Hurricane Harvey left immense devastation in Houston. Flooding destroyed homes and businesses. Many had no flood insurance. Most ran out of cash almost immediately.

Like everyone else, I asked “what can I do? How can I help?” The answer came right away from my company’s client. By the end of the day I was making airline reservations with five suitcases full of supplies to donate.

With encouragement from John Sottile at ANCO, I made plans to travel to Houston to answer a call for help. Our client, H-E-B, is the largest grocer in the state with about 350 stores scattered throughout Texas and Mexico. Of those 350 stores, 12 in Houston are down with flood damage and are not accessible. Five stores lost everything; and every single one of the employees of those five stores lost everything, too. As the water began to recede, HEB had organized everything, and many stores first trucks began arriving on Saturday morning, team members from all over Texas fulfilled their commitment to show up, clean up and restock the stores.

First task: alert my neighbors. I have the incredible good fortune to live in a neighborhood of caring, compassionate people who always respond to those in need. No sooner had I put out the call to residents of Ormewood Park than I had a front porch full of clean diapers, ladies’ supplies, granola bars, toilet paper – everything on the list of needed items. It took a couple of hours to pack everything, but we managed to get five suitcases loaded and uber them to the airport. As an aside, I will tell you that when I delivered our contributions, the people were moved to the point they could not speak. They just hugged. And hugged. And hugged.

Saturday morning, Michelle Love, dear friend and regional merchant with HEB picked me up from George Bush airport. Apparently ours was one of the first flights back into Houston since the airport had closed. We headed straight to the store, as they had received their first truck since the storm hit, and we set to work cutting, wrapping and setting cheeses so desperate customers could shop.

Scott McClelland, president of the chain’s Houston division and a 27-year H-E-B veteran, worked from 5 am to 9:30 pm daily. In an interview, Mr. McClelland said,

“I do the commercials for H-E-B in Houston, so people know who I am. So, as I walked in the store, people would come up and hug me and thank us for making the effort to open because the Kroger across the street wasn't open. The Walmart down the street wasn't open. One woman walked up and started crying and she hugged me to thank us for being open.”

I spent the day with Mike Arnold the VP of Fresh for H-E-B. I was impressed that even at their executive levels, these men worked shoulder-to-shoulder with the store stocking crew. There is no job to big or too small when it comes to this team. Mike, along with Michelle and their crew thanked me on several occasions for flying in to help.

This retail chain was not simply thinking of their own loss: H-E-B has a number of full-blown, self-contained kitchens on wheels. They can feed 2,000 people an hour. The store sends them right into the hurricane areas to feed first responders and evacuees whenever there is a crisis. Oftentimes, H-E-B is there before the Red Cross.

Trash is everywhere. It's incredible to see the huge piles of debris from street to street. There were no hotels available, and Michelle Love, invited me to stay with her. (Photo: an HEB store after the flood)

There was a grace note among the ruins: during the crisis Michelle learned, after trying three times, she had passed her ACS CCP exam. No easy task! She is now certified by the American Cheese Society as a cheese professional. She’s also a certified heroine.

We took one evening to celebrate with a beautiful bottle of French champagne and toasted her accomplishments. Then Michelle Love, newly designated ACS CCP, rolled up her sleeves and led the store teams in Houston as they began to get their shops up and running.

So many people were unable to get to work, some stores operated with as few as five employees – one at the door for crowd control and four working the registers, trying to get people taken care of as quickly as possible. Using multiple command centers, a helicopter, private planes, military-style vehicles and frequent calls to suppliers, urging them to send toilet paper and other necessities, H-E-B is taking care of business while they are taking care of a community in need. (Photo: Fransico Moncada, walking three miles to HEB with his uniform in hand. Courtesy of Nicole Fisher, from HEB's Facebook page)

I returned home Monday, September 4. My friend Bernice Reyes, head of training for H-E-B, as well as my colleagues, Tina Higdon, who tirelessly worked with us over the weekend, Tim Locke, Merchandising Manager and Geri Pospisil, Retail Sales, are just some of the folks coming in this week to help out in Houston. The stores are in capable hands.

Last week, Hurricane Harvey left immense devastation in Houston, destroying homes and businesses. This week, a 112-year-old retailer was able to open 60 of its 83 stores in the same city just hours after Harvey hit.

What an amazing tribute to the human spirit! Harvey, don’t mess with Texas.