On August 28, 2017, at 4:10 p.m. local time, University of Houston basketball Coach Kelvin Sampson tweeted a call for help from the notes section on his iPhone. Hurricane Harvey had hit landfall, and significant parts of Houston, America’s fourth-most populated city, were underwater.
Kelvin Sampson's tweet:
News outlets across the country showed before and after images of normally congested interstates leading into the city, now filled with white-tipped waves crashing into road signs, leaving many citizens trapped.
After colleagues in and around college basketball contacted Sampson to help, he came up with a solution that could benefit thousands of Houston residents following the natural disaster.