Commentary
Eisenhower graduate Torri Stuckey weathers hurricane with his kids in home near Houston
Torri Stuckey looked out of the window of his home in Cypress, Texas, a 15-minute ride northwest of Houston. He couldn’t believe his eyes.
Unrelenting rain, ferocious winds and the sounds of tornado sirens off in the distance.
His three children, all under the age of 6, were in the house seeking shelter inside a closet.
The outstretched force of Hurricane Harvey was at his doorstep.
“It was crazy,” said Stuckey, a 2000 Eisenhower graduate. “My kids were scared. We literally got pounded with rain for two straight days. I never saw rain come down that fast. Our streets were filled with water.
“Being from the Midwest, I never had gone through anything like this. I couldn’t get any sleep.”
Stuckey grew up in Robbins, in the rough-and-tumble Richard Flowers Homes.
He starred at running back for Eisenhower, leading the Cardinals to the Class 6A quarterfinals in 1998 — the best finish in program history. He went on to Northwestern, playing running back for two years before moving to safety.
A great player. An even better man.
Stuckey’s childhood was far from idyllic, which he detailed in his 2012 book, “Impoverished State of Mind: Thinking Outside da Block.”
Hurricane Harvey, however, proved to be a greater threat than any drug dealer, Big Ten defense or strong-armed quarterback.
The mother of all hurricanes dropped more than 50 inches of rain in some parts of Houston and was responsible for more than 30 deaths, including Ruben Jordan, the father of Stuckey’s former Northwestern teammate, Roger Jordan.
“The power of this storm doesn’t get more real than that,” Stuckey said. “He (Ruben Jordan) was a beloved member of the community.”
Although the Stuckey family couldn’t leave their subdivision for three days, the full wrath of Hurricane Harvey remained in the distance, miles away.
Also miles away was Stuckey’s wife, Leanne. She had returned on Aug. 22 to Chicago to visit a friend and was supposed to return on Aug. 26 to Houston. Due to Harvey, Leanne was stuck in Chicago.
To compound matters, she’s 35 weeks pregnant.
“We’re hoping she gets home Saturday,” Stuckey said. “Fortunately, my mother-in-law was here with us. I’m glad my wife was safe, but at the same time she’s almost due to have our baby (a boy) and I’d like to be with her.”
Stuckey worked in Chicago for 10 years, but decided to accept a new position with a different company less than a year ago, one that uprooted the family to Texas.
Stuckey likes his job, but the experience of Hurricane Harvey has him wondering if Texas is the right place to raise his family.
“I’m thankful because it could have been a lot worse for us,” Stuckey said. “A few times during the storm I asked myself, ‘What am I doing here? Do I need to get back to Chicago?’ It’s something my wife and I will talk about.”
Stuckey authored a second book in 2016, “His Dough, Her Cookie: The Black Woman’s Guide to Love and Marriage in the Age of Independence.” He’s also a community activist.
Once he’s allowed to leave his subdivision, he’s prepared to roll up his sleeves and offer assistance to the many in need.
“I want to lend my hands to the relief effort,” Stuckey said. “People need help.”
If there’s any good to come of Hurricane Harvey, it’s seeing people of all races come together.
Unity. Compassion. Humanity.
“Leading up to this, everything was so divisive with what happened in Charlottesville,” said Stuckey, alluding to the rally and counterprotest in the Virginia city. “It takes things like this, a natural disaster, for us as a country to put things in proper perspective.
“To see people go above and beyond to be kind to one another, that’s a beautiful thing.”
Yes it is.
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