Big Country residents on the coast following Tropical Storm Beryl

HOUSTON, Texas ( KTAB/KRBC ) – Recovery efforts are ongoing along the Texas Coast after Hurricane Beryl made landfall and has since turned into Tropical Depression Beryl. First responders from the Big Country area, including EMS and fire personnel from the Abilene Fire Department, Roscoe Volunteer Fire Department, and Mitchell County EMS, arrived in San Antonio on Saturday. They have been assigned to Texas Response Taskforce 1 to provide mostly evacuation and medical assistance.

Their work could take anywhere from 2 to 10 days. As they continued, another group from Big Country arrived in Houston. Richard Cumby, the administrative sponsor of Wylie ISD, spoke with KTAB/KRBC about his journey to the area with a bus full of 15 Wylie High School FFA students. The team arrived on Tuesday for the annual state FFA convention.

“We were supposed to leave about 7 O’clock on Monday but of course with the hurricane coming through that got pushed back a little bit… The convention center did not have power as we were coming down, so we decided to stop and stay over in College Station… Of course, we were following the weather,” Cumby said.

While in College Station, they got word that the convention staff was meeting to decide whether or not the convention would go on. On Tuesday, it was decided that with power restored and damage to the area cleared away, the event would proceed, and the team continued for Houston. Cumby commented on the conditions they faced along the way.

“We got into a lot of the wind when we got close to College Station, then leaving today and coming this way, you’d periodically see a billboard that was torn up. The closer you got to Houston, you could see where the trees had lost a lot of limbs, a lot of leaves,” said Cumby.

Though they encountered some blowback from the storm, the students were able to skirt around the more impacted areas and arrive safely. Cumby said their hotel in the medical district and the convention center appear to be back in normal operation.

“Power is good here. I talked to the AG teachers a while ago, and they said everything was good down at the convention center. The power’s all good. There’s no water standing in the roads, and there’s no flooding down there,” Cumby said.

The 96th annual FFA Convention was able to proceed as residents and businesses returned to the area. This is all thanks to the tireless and ongoing work of the thousands of local responders and Texas volunteers who answered the call to do what is needed.

“There was a lot of work crews in College Station… They were heading out I’m gonna guess toward the Galveston area… But right here in Houston… You wouldn’t even know it… At least right here in the city… I just think they were prepared and ready for the cleanup,” said Cumby.

The FFA Convention will wrap on Friday, and many of the events will be condensed for time. Cumby says they will return to Wylie sometime in the afternoon on Friday.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com.