Barry's experience with Hurricane Harvey turns into one of helping others

Nothing could prepare Bryce Barry for some of the things he has experienced the past few weeks.

Barry, a 2010 St. Charles East High School alum, moved to the Houston area in 2014 shortly after his graduation from Butler University in Indianapolis.

"I could have stayed around the Chicago area and looked for a job but I wanted to do something different," said Barry. "I wanted to see what was out there."

It was then that Barry visited an education job fair offered in Indianapolis.

"There was one school district there from Texas so I began talking with them," recalled Barry. "The next thing you know, I'm moving to Houston that summer."

Barry began his professional career as a social studies teacher at Houston's Spring Woods High School, where he also coached basketball, cross-country and football - a natural fit considering he was an all-conference football player during his high school days.

Last June, he earned his Master's degree in Educational Leadership and Administration from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches - a befitting accomplishment since his parents, Blake and Donna, are both Stephen F. Austin graduates.

Last month, Barry became a dean of students at Westside High, a school of 2,900 students located on Houston's west side.

"I loved teaching but I wanted to go outside of the classroom walls and work with more students and teachers," he said.

Barry's first week of school started off innocently enough.

"The solar eclipse happened that Monday and was the story of the week," he said.

However, in the background, Hurricane Harvey was brewing in the Gulf of Mexico.

"Raised in Illinois, I had never lived through a hurricane before," said Barry. "I tried to compare it to being in a blizzard."

By midweek, Barry noticed nearby preparations were moving at breakneck speed.

"That Wednesday, I went to a local grocery store and just about everything was gone," he recalled. "I started taking pictures because I thought it was unbelievable."

Two days later, not much had changed and even that Saturday seemed like the start of a typical weekend for Barry, a resident of downtown Houston.

"My fiancé, Blaire, was with me, and we had lunch downtown Saturday afternoon," said Barry. "It started raining later in the evening and rained all night long."

Upon waking the next day, he began to realize his whole world had changed.

"I walked 300 yards outside my apartment and saw that I-10 was completely under water," said Barry. "I went back inside and it rained all day and night on Sunday.

"On Monday, I walked the opposite direction, looked and the water was up to the stoplight. I couldn't believe it."

The rain began to lighten up a bit on Tuesday and by Wednesday, Barry was getting antsy.

"Seeing all the images, I couldn't sit anymore," he said.

Barry hopped into his dry Ford F-150 - "my truck was under a carport and wasn't even wet," he said - and headed in the only direction possible.

"I couldn't go straight or turn left because of flooding so I turned right and came across people needing help," he said. "There were people launching boats in the water that used to be streets to help evacuate others. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that."

It was just the beginning.

"That's when I saw the pure devastation," said Barry. "We went into homes driving a boat right through their living rooms. I could see furniture floating in the front yards.

"There was a caravan of cars and people waiting to take evacuees to shelters - like an assembly line. It was unbelievable how people dropped everything to help."

Meanwhile, Westside High originally opened as a shelter before a nearby reservoir was released last week, forcing evacuees to move to the Convention Center in downtown Houston.

Although classes were canceled until Sept. 11, Barry and other administrators returned 6 days earlier.

"My morning commute normally takes 20 minutes," Barry said last week. "It took me three hours (this morning) and two-plus hours to return home."

With many students and families losing everything, Barry continued to contribute any way possible.

On Sept. 2, Barry picked up a trailer from his Uncle Chuck's home in Dallas and drove up to Normal to watch his younger brother, Brannon, and Illinois State host his alma mater, Butler (where he played as a safety and linebacker).

"The idea was for me to bring back some school supplies for our students," said Barry. "Thanks to Monsignor Knox, the principal and parishioners of St. Patrick Church (in St. Charles), my brother and the people at Illinois State, and my family and friends, I brought back 400 backpacks filled with tons of school supplies."

The entire experience has left Barry awe-struck.

"It's hard to put into words how much rain fell in such a short time," he said.

Craig Brueske can be reached at csb4k@hotmail.com