Kate Friedman, a rising December graduate, is interning in Houston this summer with bp. Here are her thoughts about her hurricane excitement last week.
At first, I honestly didn’t think too much about the hurricane. The locals didn’t seem worried and I thought that the chances of it affecting me in Houston were slim.
As time went on, I learned that bp has an excellent team of in-house meteorologists that sent some updates every couple hours. I brushed those off until Sunday morning. Up until that weekend, no one was quite sure where the storm would hit, but on Saturday the meteorology team let us know that Beryl was heading straight towards us!
Sunday night, my manager checked in on me and asked how I was doing and if I was preparing for the storm. LER alumna Mimi Crossgrove, MHRIR 13, offered her best Houstonian advice and made sure I was as safe and as prepped as possible.
The storm hit us early Monday morning, around 2 or 3 am. The night before I stocked up on water and tried to stay updated on the bp meteorology updates.
I woke up early Monday morning because of all the storm commotion. My power was flickering from around 5:45 am – 8:30 am. There were a couple times when everything would turn off for a couple minutes, but I was lucky when my power stayed on after 8:30. The storm caused around 2 million people in Houston to lose power, so I felt so lucky my apartment was fine.
I had a couple meetings Monday morning that were rescheduled because the Humanitarian Assistance Team was activated. It was nice to see how quickly bp jumped in to help their employees and make sure everyone was safe.
Safety and caring for others are some of the core pillars of bp’s “Who We Are” values, and after this storm I continue to see the genuine care bp has for their employees.
I’m very grateful for my power, the support I received from my managers, and to be a part of this organization. Now I can tick “survived a hurricane” off my bucket list!
