GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Starting your first year of college can be a challenge.
But that task has nothing on what UW-Green Bay Freshman James Finley just encountered.
Finley’s family lives in one of the Texas neighborhoods that was ravaged by Hurricane Harvey last weekend.
Despite having to deal with flooding in their own house, the Finleys took to the streets to help their neighbors get to higher ground.
His mother Helena says “my husband went knocking on neighbors’ doors. We have quite a few elderly people in our neighborhoods so we were able to get them in canoes and kayaks and get them to higher ground. James’ strength really helped because there was some people that needed to be physically carried and placed in boats.”
James notes “we ended up being able to save about 61 or 62 people in our neighborhood and about 30 dogs.”
While James moves into his Small Hall dorm room, his parents are heading back to their flood-damaged Texas home.
Helena says “we’re living upstairs, so it’s okay. We have no drywall downstairs but we have power and we have water.”
James notes his family’s situation is better than many others in the area.
“If anything, it my have destroyed our homes but it brought all of us closer together.”
Finley is looking forward to meeting his new roommate and swimming and diving teammates.
