Duke women's soccer comes together to help tornado-victim teammate

With a mile-wide tornado bearing down on her home, Anastasia Hunt climbed into her family’s above-ground storm shelter. Seven terrifying minutes later, her house was gone.

After the rushing winds of the EF5 twister that struck Moore, Okla. Monday afternoon had subsided, Hunt climbed through the rubble to view what was left of her home.

It wasn’t much. The room where the junior defender for Duke’s women’s soccer team hid out with her mother, Doreen, was the only piece of her house still intact.

“When it was over, I just grabbed my mom and told her how much I loved her,” Hunt said. “I was crying and she was praying. I just held onto her as tight as I could. I didn’t think we were going to make it, but we did.”

Hunt’s home was one of 2,400 that were leveled by the tornado’s winds, which exceeded 200 mph. But although Hunt lost the majority of her personal belongings in the storm, she said it was the encouragement that she received from her Blue Devil teammates that helped her to survive the ordeal.

“The outpouring of support I received has been absolutely amazing,” Hunt said. “I know that we could go anywhere, and any of my teammates would open their doors for me and my family.... It’s really touching to know that we’re not alone.”

As soon as the storm had passed, Hunt reached out to her father, who works at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City. She also texted her roommate, fellow defender Tabria Williford, to let her know that she and her mother were unharmed.

Moments later, cell phone reception in Moore went down when the area’s cell towers became overloaded with activity. When Hunt was finally able to use her phone again, it had been inundated with an outpouring of support from her Duke teammates.

“Every single person on my team has reached out to me some way or another,” Hunt said. “I’ve talked to many of them. I’ve gotten at least one text from every single one of them.”

In addition to the support she has received from her coaches and teammates, a number of Duke administrators have reached out to the Hunt family in the aftermath of the tornado, including Vice President of Student Affairs Larry Moneta and Vice President and Director of Athletics Kevin White.

In a stroke of luck, the Hunt family did not have to search for a place to stay. Anastasia’s father, Alvin, manages a number of rental properties, one of which was vacated last Sunday and was unharmed by the tornado.

Wednesday was the first day Hunt and her family had been to her house to view the devastation the tornado had left in its path. Police and other first responders had cordoned off Hunt’s neighborhood for search and rescue efforts. Hunt said that her family has yet to decide whether to purchase another house or attempt to rebuild on their land.

“It’s a weird feeling, to know that you are technically homeless right now,” Hunt said. “I don’t know how to describe it.”

Hunt’s teammates have already begun to reach out and offer to send the family supplies and provisions for the coming weeks, and the athletic department is preparing to organize fundraising efforts.

“I’m just very proud of our players. They were all very concerned for the safety of the Hunt family and they were all very relieved to hear that they were unharmed,” Duke head coach Robbie Church said. “We’re a big family, and when somebody goes down like this everybody really steps forward to help each other.

Dealing with natural disasters has been difficult for collegiate athletes in the past due to NCAA rules that prevent them from accepting impermissible benefits. But Wednesday night, Church said that the athletic department’s fundraising efforts have been approved by Duke’s compliance department and are ready to proceed.

“The NCAA in the past 10 years has been much more flexible about finding ways to help student-athletes in emergency situations,” said Deputy Director of Athletics Chris Kennedy. “It’s very early, so we have people brainstorming and trying out ideas about ways we might go.”

Planning to remain in Oklahoma with her family for the remainder of the summer, Hunt said thanks to the efforts made by the Duke community, the process of rebuilding now appears much less formidable.

“It’s just things—they can always be replaced,” Hunt said. “You can always have a place to live but it’s the people you’re with that make your home a home. Your home is where your heart is.”