Harvey takes toll on Houston College of Pharmacy community.

Abstract

The start of the 2017–18 school year brought serious storm-related disruptions to the University of Houston College of Pharmacy community, said F. Lamar Pritchard, dean and professor. “About 25% of our students were either displaced from their homes or suffered loss of some degree to their home and their vehicles,” Pritchard said on September 7. “We have some people that lost everything. We’ve had students contact us saying they’re in evacuation shelters with only one change of clothes.” One student had to be rescued by the Coast Guard twice—first from the student’s home, which was suddenly inundated with 5 feet of water, and then from the student’s parents’ home, which was subsequently flooded. “They are still in an evacuation shelter. And all 3 cars that the student had access to are now lost. So it will take some time to recover from that,” Pritchard said of the family. Some students’ families have lost their homes and businesses and can’t provide critical financial support to their children, Pritchard said.