By Jason Skaggs
In 2005, the United States experienced one of the worst hurricane seasons ever recorded. Sam Woolverton, Palestine Junior, witnessed this firsthand. She was stranded at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston for six hours as Hurricane Rita pummeled the Texas coastline in September of that year.
On September 24, 2005, Woolverton and her 1-year-old son, Nicholas, traveled to Palestine to visit her family. Her husband, Josh, stayed at their home in Tucson because he could not get time off from work.
Woolverton flew from Tucson to Houston that morning. She had heard that a storm was heading for the Texas coast, but felt that it was safe to travel. The storm was not expected to make landfall until after her arrival in Houston. Then she would take a connecting flight to Waco and be safely in Palestine by the time the storm hit.
What she did not know, however, is that city officials in Galveston would order mass evacuations of the local residents. Also, officials in Houston ordered parts of Houston to be evacuated, and suggested that residents in other parts of the city evacuate as well. The result was gridlock on the Texas highways, as hundreds of thousands of people attempted to flee the imminent storm.
When Woolverton arrived in Houston, her connecting flight to Waco had been cancelled. The traffic in and around Houston had left the airport short-staffed, and all flights out of Houston had to be cancelled. Woolverton recalled, "None of the pilots could reach the airports because of the traffic outside. Nobody could get in, so the flights had to be cancelled."
Woolverton and her son were stranded at the airport. She called her family in Palestine, and they arranged for her grandfather to pick her up. Palestine was far way, however, and with the traffic she knew she would not be going anywhere for a while.
Her grandfather arrived six hours later, but they still had to take the trip back to Palestine. The trip back was nearly three times as long, because the heaviest traffic was traveling north, away from the coast. When Woolverton arrived in Palestine, over 24 hours had passed since she left her home in Tucson.
During the ordeal, Woolverton's son was well behaved. "My son was amazingly good the entire time. He could have made it really difficult, but he was good," she said.
Woolverton, with her husband and son, has moved back to Palestine, where she grew up. She commutes nearly three hours everyday to take classes here in Nacogdoches. "Palestine's pretty far away, but it's not that bad," she said. Nothing compares to her experience during Hurricane Rita.
Before enrolling at SFA, Woolverton took classes at Trinity Valley Community College in Palestine. She took time off from school when her family lived in Tucson for one year. She is currently in her third semester at SFA.
Woolverton has short brown hair and brown eyes. She is of moderate height and weight, standing 5 feet 7 inches high.
Woolverton spends some time doing freelance photography, and is taking some photography classes to become more experienced. While she finds photography enjoyable, it is also a way to help pay the bills.
"I make pretty decent money doing it," she said.
