Campus Alert Archive
TAMUG

71 Students and One Dog Bused 200 Miles Inland: How Texas A&M Galveston Evacuated for Hurricane Harvey

TXhurricaneemergency notificationhigh confidence
Confirmed Threat

On Thursday, August 24, 2017, Texas A&M University at Galveston ordered all students, faculty, and staff to evacuate the seaside campus by noon Friday, August 25 as Hurricane Harvey intensified rapidly in the Gulf of Mexico. Approximately 71 students — and one dog — were evacuated 200 miles inland to the Texas A&M College Station flagship campus, where the newly opened Park West student facility housed about 110 displaced TAMUG and other Texas A&M System students. The Galveston campus reopened for classes on Labor Day, Monday, September 4.

Alerts
4
Response
—
Killed
—
Injured
—
Institution
Texas A&M University at Galveston
Public R1 · TX
~2,300 studentsCode Maroon Galveston
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

4 messages in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTEmail
Approximate reconstructionReconstructed from TAMUG's Hurricane Harvey 2017 information page474 chars
Code Maroon Galveston: Hurricane Harvey is forecast to make landfall on the central Texas coast Friday night as a major hurricane. The Texas A&M University at Galveston Campus will be evacuated. All students, faculty, and staff must be off campus by noon Friday, August 25. Student check-in at residence halls is canceled. Students who cannot self-evacuate will be bused to the College Station flagship campus. Buses will depart Friday afternoon. Bring essential items only.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Code Maroon Galveston is the Galveston-campus-specific instance of the Texas A&M System Code Maroon emergency notification system — TAMUG operates parallel alert infrastructure from the College Station flagship
Noon Friday deadline — about 30 hours before Harvey's first landfall (Rockport, Texas as Category 4 at 10:00 PM CDT Friday August 25) — reflects tight Galveston evacuation timeline
Friday August 25 was originally fall 2017 residence-hall check-in day; the cancellation of check-in is a distinctive feature of this evacuation
UPDATESMS+19 h
Approximate reconstructionReconstructed from The Eagle (Bryan-College Station) coverage of TAMUG bus evacuation to College Station on August 25, 2017358 chars
Code Maroon Galveston: TAMUG evacuation buses are departing for College Station this afternoon. Approximately 71 students are being evacuated — those without other options including out-of-state and international students. The Park West student facility at College Station will house evacuees. Campus is now closed. No personnel remain on the seaside campus.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

71 students and 1 dog — the contemporaneously reported figure — were evacuated to College Station; 110 students total (TAMUG plus other Texas A&M System students from affected campuses) were housed at Park West
Park West student facility — newly opened for fall 2017 — became an unintended emergency shelter; the building had not been formally commissioned for hurricane-shelter use
Out-of-state and international students who could not self-evacuate were the primary cohort transported — a common feature of seaside-university evacuations
UPDATEEmail+3d
Approximate reconstructionReconstructed from The Eagle coverage of Texas A&M System response to Harvey's stalling over southeast Texas378 chars
Code Maroon Galveston: Hurricane Harvey has stalled over southeast Texas and is producing catastrophic rainfall in the Houston-Galveston region. The TAMUG Galveston Campus remains closed. All students remaining at Park West in College Station will continue to be housed there. Classes will not resume this week. Updates will continue through Code Maroon Galveston and tamug.edu.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Harvey stalled over southeast Texas for four days (August 25-29), producing more than 60 inches of rainfall in some Houston-area locations — the single largest rainfall event in U.S. continental history
Galveston Island itself was on Harvey's eastern flank and received less rainfall than Houston (approximately 22 inches versus 60+ inches at Cedar Bayou) — but Galveston's connecting roadways were impassable due to mainland flooding
The 'Aggie family opened its doors' framing in subsequent coverage emphasizes the Texas A&M System mutual-aid culture — also activated for Hurricane Rita 2005 and Hurricane Ike 2008
ALL CLEAREmail+10d
Approximate reconstructionReconstructed from The Eagle coverage of TAMUG reopening for classes on Labor Day Monday September 4, 2017364 chars
Code Maroon Galveston: The TAMUG Galveston Campus will reopen for classes on Monday, September 4 — Labor Day. Damage to the seaside campus was minimal. Students evacuated to College Station will be bused back beginning Sunday afternoon. Faculty are asked to be flexible with students whose travel or housing was affected by Hurricane Harvey. Welcome back to TAMUG.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Labor Day Monday September 4 reopening — Texas A&M System schools traditionally do not hold class on Labor Day, but TAMUG reopened that day to recover from the lost evacuation week
Minimal-damage finding reflects that Galveston Island was on Harvey's eastern flank; the Aransas Bay area (Rockport-Port Aransas) received the worst landfall damage
Bus return Sunday September 3 — 10 days after evacuation — represents one of the longer TAMUG hurricane displacement periods, exceeded only by 2008 Hurricane Ike (six weeks)
Context

Background

Texas A&M University at Galveston is the marine-and-maritime branch of the Texas A&M System, located on Pelican Island on Galveston's seaside campus. Code Maroon Galveston is the campus-specific instance of the Texas A&M System emergency notification system. Hurricane Harvey was a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane that made first U.S. landfall near Rockport, Texas at 10:00 PM CDT on Friday, August 25, 2017 with sustained winds of 130 mph, then stalled over southeast Texas for four days producing what the National Weather Service called 'unprecedented' rainfall — more than 60 inches in some Houston-area locations and 22 inches on Galveston Island. TAMUG ordered its evacuation Thursday, August 24, requiring all students, faculty, and staff to be off campus by noon Friday, August 25 — about 30 hours before Harvey's first landfall. Friday was originally fall 2017 residence-hall check-in day; the cancellation of check-in is a distinctive feature of this evacuation. Approximately 71 students — and one dog — were bused 200 miles inland to the Texas A&M College Station flagship, where the newly opened Park West student facility housed about 110 displaced TAMUG and Texas A&M System students. The Galveston campus reopened for classes on Labor Day Monday, September 4, 2017. Damage to the seaside campus was minimal — Galveston Island was on Harvey's eastern flank — but connecting roadways were impassable for days due to mainland Houston-area flooding. The 'Aggie family opened its doors' framing in subsequent coverage emphasizes the Texas A&M System mutual-aid culture activated previously for Hurricane Rita (2005) and Hurricane Ike (2008, which closed the Galveston campus for six weeks). The 2017 Harvey response established the Code Maroon Galveston template later activated for Hurricane Beryl in 2024.
Analysis

Key Findings

TAMUG ordered all students, faculty, and staff off the seaside Galveston campus by noon Friday, August 25, 2017 — about 30 hours before Harvey's Rockport landfall
Approximately 71 students and 1 dog were bused 200 miles inland to the Texas A&M College Station flagship; about 110 displaced students total were housed at the newly opened Park West student facility
Friday August 25 was originally fall 2017 residence-hall check-in day; cancellation of check-in is a distinctive feature of this evacuation
Hurricane Harvey made first U.S. landfall near Rockport, Texas at 10:00 PM CDT Friday August 25 as a Category 4 (130 mph), then stalled over southeast Texas for four days
Damage to the Galveston campus was minimal — the island was on Harvey's eastern flank — but connecting roadways were impassable due to Houston-area flooding
TAMUG reopened for classes on Labor Day Monday September 4, 2017 — 10 days after evacuation
The 'Aggie family opened its doors' Texas A&M System mutual-aid culture was previously activated for Hurricane Rita (2005) and Hurricane Ike (2008, which closed the Galveston campus for six weeks)
Provenance

Sources

  1. Official
    Hurricane Harvey Information - Texas A&M at Galveston (Official Page)
    tamug.edu
  2. News
    Texas A&M Galveston students will be evacuated to College Station campus this afternoon (The Eagle)
    theeagle.com
  3. News
    A&M-Galveston students check in at new Park West student facility (The Eagle)
    theeagle.com
  4. News
    When Hurricane Harvey hit, the Aggie family opened its doors (The Eagle)
    theeagle.com
  5. Student Paper
    Riding out the storm (The Battalion)
    thebatt.com
  6. industry media
    Texas colleges cope with Hurricane Harvey (Inside Higher Ed)
    insidehighered.com
  7. Official
    TAMUG Evacuation (Texas A&M Galveston Emergency)
    tamug.edu
  8. encyclopedia
    Hurricane Harvey (Wikipedia)
    en.wikipedia.org
Tags
hurricanehurricane-harveycampus-closurecampus-evacuationtexasgalvestoncode-maroon2017-hurricane-seasonpublic-r1park-westseaside-campustexas-am-system
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion