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Colombo ’04 Helps Hurricane Harvey Victims

As they watched the devastation Hurricane Harvey unleashed on
Houston, TX back in August, Dallas residents Brandon Colombo
’04 and co-worker Dylan Grayson couldn’t sit by and do nothing.
The two loaded up a Jeep full of supplies and safety gear, hitched
a boat they bought on Craigslist to the back, and headed down to
Houston to help where they could.

With Houston’s main highways under water and unable to get
through, Brandon and Dylan decided to head into some of the
smaller towns outside of Houston that were hit hard by the storm.
The two ended up in Orange, where a mandatory evacuation
was taking place. Brandon described the scene when they got
there as chaotic – rising water, houses and cars that were fully
submerged, relief workers everywhere, and residents trying to which was admittedly unprepared for the hurricane. Brandon
evacuate. asked if they wanted the boat he and Dylan had intended to
use for their own rescue eff orts and the fi re department gladly
“Going down there, I didn’t know what to expect because I had accepted.
never done this sort of thing before,” said Brandon. “But I started
to have some doubts once we got there.” The water proved to “We ended up taking all of the supplies we bought and all of the
be too deep for their Jeep, but too shallow for the boat they had safety gear, and giving it to Mauriceville Fire Department,” said
bought, so they teamed up with an ex-marine who had a Jet Ski Brandon, who then stuck around to help hand the supplies out to
to help evacuate people from their homes. residents. “They were so grateful for all of it.”

Still looking to donate the supplies they had brought, Brandon Although surreal by his own account, the experience didn’t turn
and Dylan stumbled upon the Mauriceville Fire Department, him off to helping with future rescue and relief eff orts – quite the
opposite, actually. Without hesitation he said, “I would defi nitely
do it again.”

Brandon Colombo ‘04 donates a boat to the Mauriceville Fire Department
in Texas to help with Hurricane Harvey rescue efforts.
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