Christopher Spara, CEO of Maryland Marketing Resources
CEO of Maryland Marketing Resources Christopher Spara, who thinks of himself as a hurricane “expert,” was affected by the tragedy of Beryl in July. As he woke up on that Monday morning, he was met with devastation right there in his backyard.
“We have a lot of tall trees,” Spara said. “[We have] very tall pine trees close to the house. So, I think that was what I was concerned about just hearing the wind whip through and hoping that a tree didn’t fall and land on our house.”
When Beryl hit, Houstonians were left without power. Although it was just a Category 1 storm, many people were preparing for the storm. In fact, many people left Houston and opted to wait out the hurricane somewhere drier. Others prepared by stocking up on canned goods and hoping for the best, which is the route that Spara took.
“We [made sure we] got plenty of food, [and] kind of put things away because we knew that the winds were going to get pretty high, which was a little bit different than past storms,” Spara said. “Wind was a factor, so I just made sure that there wasn’t anything outside as far as furniture or stuff that could blow around and possibly go through some windows.”
Throughout Beryl, destruction ran rampant throughout the streets of Kingwood. All of its residents, including Spara, lost power. Some lost even more than that, as an estimate of 50% of all urbanized area’s trees fell. In addition, 36 people died due to storm-related injuries.
Fortunately for Spara, his family wasn’t affected by much more than the outages. He said he’s lived in Kingwood for over 11 years, and that hurricanes are just “normal, everyday things.”
“I think you just got to kind of prepare for the worst round here,” Spara said. “It’s one of those things that you kind of learn a little bit more each time.”
