Giving Back: Hurricane Harvey Relief
Last August, Hurricane Harvey ravaged the southern United States and the Caribbean, hitting the Houston, Texas region especially hard. Reports estimate that the storm left over $125 billion of damage in its wake, tying it with Hurricane Katrina as the costliest hurricane in recorded US history, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Structure Tone Southwest’s Houston-based team, thankfully, made it through the storm safely. But employees and their families were left with hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages, ranging from ruined lawns to completely destroyed homes, cars and other property.
The Structure Tone family quickly galvanized to help our Houston colleagues. Once the storm passed, Structure Tone Southwest staff met at employees’ destroyed homes to help with demolition and clearing out debris. The company also set up a GoFundMe page for employees to contribute to, which ultimately raised over $95,000. With an added company contribution, the total recovery fund came to over $160,000, which went directly to Structure Tone employees’ recovery efforts.
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“The devastation was so staggering that rebuilding seemed like an almost impossible task in the immediate wake of the storm. Without the money raised by the Structure Tone team, I really don’t know how our employees would be dealing with this. It’s made a huge difference—the response was just amazing,” says John Halpin (above), Structure Tone Southwest’s human resources manager.
As the Houston area approaches the one-year anniversary of the storm, recovery is still a work in progress. Contractors and other professionals are hard to come by as the entire region is rebuilding. One of Structure Tone’s Houston employees who lost everything had to wait more than three months before a contractor could even begin the renovations.
“We are renting an apartment while we renovate our house. We finally have a contractor that started last week,” he says. “I know we have a long recovery ahead, but it is wonderful to know that I have a larger family in Structure Tone to stand with me during this difficult time.”