Hurricane Harvey destroyed their school. Now they share a building with their rival.
Abbie Brabham
For  Abbie Brabham  a senior on Kingwood’s varsity girls’ basketball team   sports were a welcome distraction from Harvey’s fallout — destroyed homes  friends’ families starting over from scratch — and an opportunity to spend more time with  her  teammates  whom  she  considers  her  sisters.
Kayaks  boats  inflatable rafts  canoes and helicopters came through the neighborhood  as rescuers — some professional  some amateur — responded to neighbors who literally waved white flags.  Brabham  and her family were evacuated by one of her classmates  who drove his 4x4 truck to the house the first night of the flooding.
 Shannon Brabham  walks outside her home while daughter Abbie is at school. (Ilana Panich-Linsman/For The Washington Post)
Inside  Brabham ’s home  any items that weren’t on higher ground were left drifting atop the water. The backyard looked like an extension of the San Jacinto River  with a sliver of a black fence poking above the still-moving water. An inflatable toy swan floated in the corner of the family’s living room  blown up by  Brabham  the night of the floods in case she needed it to evacuate.
“I was like  ‘If I am forced to float out of here  I’ll float out in style ’” said  Brabham   one of 262 Kingwood students who were unable to live in their homes following the hurricane. “But after the storm  the swan was a sign of hope that we had our stuff and we could eventually get back.”
Kingwood senior  Abbie Brabham   18  in English class on the Summer Creek campus. (Ilana Panich-Linsman/For The Washington Post)
 Brabham  talks with her mother  Shannon  after her basketball game. (Ilana Panich-Linsman/For The Washington Post)
At the time of the hurricane   Brabham ’s vision of walking through the doors for her senior year at Kingwood was only days away. That day still hasn’t come.
“It was very emotional at first ” said  Brabham   18. “I had grown up in Kingwood and my sister had went to Kingwood  so honestly  it was pretty bad at the beginning. It is my senior year and my house flooded and it is kind of difficult to move schools.”
Kingwood and Summer Creek are different demographically.  Brabham  represents the majority of Kingwood  which is almost 74 percent white  with 5.5 percent of  its  students economically disadvantaged  according to the Texas Education Agency. Summer Creek  which opened in 2009  is 43.5 percent economically disadvantaged and over 80 percent of the student population is African American or Hispanic.
Back in Summer Creek’s main gym  as the clock ticked closer to 6 p.m.   Brabham  donned her white Kingwood jersey for warm-ups. Temporary printout photos of the Kingwood basketball team were on one wall while the permanent Summer Creek team photo was plastered to the opposite end.
But one thing that remained unchanged from before the hurricane — as the final seconds on the warm-up clock ticked off and  Brabham  tightened her ponytail — was the desire of each team to beat its rival.
“We are all in the same school  and we’ve all seen each other at some point  and it is like we are all combining  but there is always still going to be that rivalry there ”  Brabham  said. “And we want to win.”
For  [TGT] were a welcome distraction from Harvey’s fallout — destroyed homes  friends’ families starting over from scratch — and an opportunity to spend more time with  her  teammates  whom  she  considers  her  sisters.
Kayaks  boats  inflatable rafts  canoes and helicopters came through the neighborhood  as rescuers — some professional  some amateur — responded to neighbors who literally waved white flags.  [TGT]and [TGT] family were evacuated by one of [TGT] classmates  who drove [TGT] 4x4 truck to the house the first night of the flooding.
 [TGT]walks outside [TGT] home while daughter Abbie is at school. (Ilana Panich-Linsman/For The Washington Post)
Inside  [TGT]. The backyard looked like an extension of the San Jacinto River  with a sliver of a black fence poking above the still-moving water. An inflatable toy swan floated in the corner of the family’s living room  blown up by  Brabham  the night of the floods in case she needed it to evacuate.
“I was like  ‘If I am forced to float out of here  I’ll float out in style ’” said  [TGT]. “But after the storm  the swan was a sign of hope that we had our stuff and we could eventually get back.”
Kingwood senior  Abbie Brabham   18  in English class on the Summer Creek campus. (Ilana Panich-Linsman/For The Washington Post)
 Brabham  talks with her mother  Shannon  after her basketball game. (Ilana Panich-Linsman/For The Washington Post)
At the time of the hurricane   Brabham ’s vision of walking through the doors for her senior year at Kingwood was only days away. That day still hasn’t come.
“It was very emotional at first ” said  Brabham   18. “I had grown up in Kingwood and my sister had went to Kingwood  so honestly  it was pretty bad at the beginning. It is my senior year and my house flooded and it is kind of difficult to move schools.”
Kingwood and Summer Creek are different demographically.  Brabham  represents the majority of Kingwood  which is almost 74 percent white  with 5.5 percent of  its  students economically disadvantaged  according to the Texas Education Agency. Summer Creek  which opened in 2009  is 43.5 percent economically disadvantaged and over 80 percent of the student population is African American or Hispanic.
Back in Summer Creek’s main gym  as the clock ticked closer to 6 p.m.   Brabham  donned her white Kingwood jersey for warm-ups. Temporary printout photos of the Kingwood basketball team were on one wall while the permanent Summer Creek team photo was plastered to the opposite end.
But one thing that remained unchanged from before the hurricane — as the final seconds on the warm-up clock ticked off and  Brabham  tightened her ponytail — was the desire of each team to beat its rival.
“We are all in the same school  and we’ve all seen each other at some point  and it is like we are all combining  but there is always still going to be that rivalry there ”  Brabham  said. “And we want to win.”