Amanda Tinkham, SpeedyStop employee

During hurricane Beryl, people had to leave their homes for various reasons, trying to find open stores, cooling centers and even charging centers. One of the most sought after things was gas. 

During the hurricane, everyone lost power, and businesses were no exception. When places got generators running, there was often a line of cars waiting to get to the business. The night the SpeedyStop gas station got power, they were hit with traffic almost immediately. 

“People just kept fighting for those parking spots and gas,” said Amanda Tinkham, who was working that night. “It’s not like we were going to run out, because we got sometimes three deliveries a day.”

Tinkham said that during the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, the lines would get so long they would lead out of the parking lot. Eventually, the police got involved and helped direct the traffic to the pumps in a safe manner. In return, the SpeedyStop employees offered the officers a gas pump all to themselves so they could refill and continue to help people around Kingwood.

As a reward the officers came by a few weeks later and offered the employees of SpeedyStop a plaque commemorating them for their hard work and dedication to helping people in need. 

“We got a plaque just a couple weeks ago,” Tinkham said. “They came in and presented it to us for helping them out. “I’m like, ‘Well, we helped you out. You helped us with directing traffic and keeping people level-headed.’ It just turned out really great.”