When the floods came to Houston, former Victoria resident Mark Folkes did what many other Houstonians are doing: He pitched in to help.
Folkes, a graduate of Victoria’s Canadian College of Performing Arts and now managing director of Stages Repertory Theatre, was spared the brunt of tropical storm Harvey’s wrath, but has been aiding others affected by catastrophic flooding and severe weather.
A problem has been that while the occupants of high-rises near Houston’s downtown core can seek refuge on higher floors, their mechanical systems are on first floors, where flooding has disabled them.
After learning that one of the theatre’s sponsors had been without power since Aug. 26, Folkes and his husband, Christopher Johnston, delivered food, water and ice to residents of Brazos Towers at Bayou Manor.
Before Harvey made landfall, the 14-storey seniors and assisted-living facility had planned to bring two busloads of residents to a show at the theatre.
“Obviously, that’s now the last thing on their minds because they didn’t even have access to water,” recalled Folkes, noting fire trucks and ambulances took them to medical-care facilities.
Johnston, a strategic business partner with a major health-care system, also found himself helping out as needed at Houston Methodist Hospital’s emergency department.
“It was all on hands on deck,” said Folkes, who sprang into action Sunday when his husband’s mother couldn’t leave her Braeswood bungalow because of flooding.
He said they spent four hours trying to find a passable access road. Finally, against Folkes’s advice, Johnston began walking to see how far he could go, waist-deep in water.
He came across a fire station and went inside, but firefighters said it would be impossible for Johnston, who is six-foot-five, to venture any further.
It took 36 hours before the pair were able to reach Johnston’s mother and her dog, Ethel May, who are now living with them in their three-storey townhouse in Midtown.
“Those 36 hours were the most intense,” Folkes said. “You’re concentrated on the safety of your loved ones, and that has been what was most traumatic.”
Folkes has grown accustomed to intense, rapidly changing weather in Houston, including floods, but the difference this time “is that it happened in every single neighbourhood,” he said.
Remarkably, his professional performing-arts company’s two theatres, housed in the historic Star Engraving Building at 3201 Allen Parkway, are dry, although many neighbouring buildings were not as fortunate, he said.
It’s particularly surprising, he said, because their venue, seen in recurring global news footage, sits across from Buffalo Bayou, the city’s main waterway, which is expected to remain flooded for weeks.
“Our building is on higher ground than the buildings around us,” he said, noting nearby homes, office buildings, condo complexes and the ABC News affiliate to the east of them were affected by the floodwaters.
“Unlike most of the others around us, we were safe. Someone is looking out for us.”
Concerned about the safety of artists, staff and patrons of the theatre entering its 40th anniversary season, management decided to close its offices and cancelled 20 performances.
“It wasn’t until last Thursday [Aug. 24] that we seriously started to recognize that this threat existed,” recalled the former Victoria resident, who was born and raised in Mount Pearl, N.L., southwest of St. John’s.
“On Friday morning we decided to cancel our Friday, Saturday and Sunday performances of Always … Patsy Cline [a show Stages created in 1988].”
While the Patsy Cline show will resume on Wednesday, performances of its other show, the Woody Guthrie-inspired musical Woody Sez, couldn’t be rescheduled.
“It’s not a decision we took lightly, and it has an immediate impact on our operations, but we had determined that by dusk it would not be a safe place to be because of flooding in surrounding areas,” said Folkes, 32.
It looks as if Xanadu, the roller-skating musical in which it has invested $100,000, will go on.
The show, scheduled for Sept. 8 and 9 at Houston’s free-admission Miller Outdoor Theatre, will likely be the first such show to be presented there since Harvey hit. The severe weather had prompted officials to cancel all other scheduled summertime performances.
“To be the first to bring something to Miller [since the hurricane] would be great,” Folkes said, noting there’s a community-wide desire to be able to focus on “something good” right now.
“I am so proud to be a Houstonian, and I know we will recover.”
