By Cheryl Splain, KnoxPages.com Reporter
MOUNT VERNON — When Hurricane Harvey hit the Gulf Coast on Friday, Mount Vernon grad Mariah Lindsey was in the thick of things.
The Category 4 storm hit Corpus Christi, Texas, just before 10 p.m. on Aug. 25. Lindsey, a patrol officer for the Corpus Christi Police Department, was on patrol until the storm actually hit, then she bunkered in a mall with other officers waiting for the storm to ease.
“As a police officer, we boarded up [our houses] the day before, and we all got called in either on standby or active [duty],” she told KnoxPages.com on Wednesday. “We were in different bunkers. We waited eight hours at the mall until the storm let up, then we hit the streets and we patrolled it.”
The eye of the storm made landfall about 25 miles north of Corpus Christi, bringing with it heavy rain and winds of between 130 and 140 mph. Corpus Christi sustained winds of around 105 mph.
“Corpus Christi got really lucky for this one,” she said. “There was no flooding, just fences down and trees down and metal roofs torn off. Rockport got hit hard. A couple of us went on our own time to help out. There were semi trucks turned over; families lost a lot, but luckily they survived. They’re going to need a lot of help.”
Some of the city’s residents evacuated, some stayed. Lindsey said that about 95 percent of Corpus Christi was without power on Saturday, but American Electric Power was out quickly. As of Wednesday, there were still a few places that didn’t have power in the city of around 320,000 people. AEP restored power to a police substation on Wednesday.
High winds and rain from Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas city of Corpus Christi on Friday, bringing down trees and power lines and tearing off roofs. Mount Vernon High School graduate Mariah Lindsey, an officer with the Corpus Christi Police Department, was on hand to help the city recover.
Photo courtesy of Mariah Lindsey
“My house didn’t get power until Monday, and the water was off,” she said. “Luckily the mall still had power; other bunkers did not. AEP did a wonderful job; my hat’s off to them.”
Lindsey said the police department and the city were prepared for the hurricane’s arrival. “I think in the moment it was chaotic, but as prepared as we were, it wasn’t chaotic once we got out [on patrol],” she said. “Coming from Ohio, I’ve never experienced this before, but everyone was prepared. Even though it was stressful being packed together, we were very well prepared.”
Back home in Mount Vernon, Lindsey’s parents, Jim and Sue, were glued to CNN and the Weather Channel.”
“When we first heard the hurricane was going to hit, we immediately started making calls,” said Jim. “This was Mariah’s first hurricane; we were prepping her.”
Jim said that initially, the calls were mostly between Mariah and her mother. “I remained quiet until I heard that it was going to hit Corpus Christi. Then the father instinct kicked in, and I told her I loved her and not to do anything rash,” he said. “She stayed in good touch with us. That night we were up until 2:30 in the morning, texting back and forth.”
“She was sent out to respond to calls around 3 a.m. our time,” said Sue. “We didn’t hear anything from her once she went out. We were not overly nervous, but it was not a great night, either.
“I was worried, the ‘mom thing,’” Sue acknowledged. “I’m worried anyway because of her profession. Not a day goes by I don’t worry.”
Mariah Lindsey – Facebook
Sue said that Mariah has been named Uniformed Officer of the Month and nominated for the honor several other times. “Even though she’s doing very well in her job professionally, it’s concerning,” she said. “She’s 5-foot-2-inches and maybe 115 pounds, all muscle. She’s just a little thing. It was pretty scary for me.”
Last Christmas, Sue gave Mariah a bracelet with the Lord’s Prayer on it. On Friday, she texted Mariah and asked her to put it on. “I asked her to wear it so that I would be with her so would He,” said Sue. “She went back and got it. Those little things help.”
Mariah was still wearing the bracelet on Wednesday night.
“My mom was so scared,” said Mariah. “All you know is what you see on TV: floods, trees down. Initially it was her reassuring me. Once I saw what we were doing, I was reassuring her. There was no flooding, we’re not touching electric lines. It went both ways.”
A 2008 graduate of Mount Vernon High School, Mariah holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Ashland University. She graduated from the Corpus Christi Police Department Academy in February 2015. She shares a house in Corpus Christi with her boyfriend, who is also a police officer.
“The biggest challenge for me personally was we had to board up our house, and then leave our house,” she said. “We were bunkered down in the mall, and you don’t know what’s going on outside. Some of the officers who had families had to kiss them goodbye [if they evacuated] or leave them at home. Not knowing was the hardest.”
“We’re very proud of our daughter and the things she’s done to this point,” said Jim. “We never imagined when she graduated this is where she’d end up.”
Mariah is proud of her city’s response to the storm. “Restaurants provided food to the police and the community,” she said. “They opened their doors and gave us everything we needed. I don’t know how it could have been any better. Our community is doing such an amazing job with everything. It’s almost overwhelming to see how open they are, to see the community coming together…the north side, the south side. It’s an amazing feeling to be part of a department like that.”
That’s a good thing, because weather conditions may have more in store for the sixth largest port in the United States. “Tropical Storm Irma is coming toward us, so we may get some flooding,” said Mariah.
