Having been in Florida for many hurricane seasons, I’ve witnessed plenty of powerless nights and humid days. When Hurricane Wilma tore apart my neighborhood three years ago, it retracted the sturdiest trees straight out of the ground and filled my back yard with so much debris, it took three days to remove it all. Besides the hot afternoons and lack of television, I managed to enjoy the days off of school with Army MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) and cases of Orangeade that my dad got for assisting FEMA workers.
While some students around campus may not have crazy stories to tell, if they’re not prepared they just might. Take some tips from other students and faculty when preparing for hurricanes this season.
Commuter Students:
If preparing for a storm seems like too much work, junior Elad Shapira agrees with you. For Wilma, he took no precautions. He held a sliding glass door with his bare hands to prevent it from shattering, and goofed off with his buddies for entertainment.
“I strapped garbage bags to my friend’s arms and body [and] put roller skates on him,” Shapira says. He says the most fun was when he let his friend loose down the street before and after the hurricane.
Freshman Eva Ives believes water is important, no matter where it is.
“Fill up your bathtub with water before the hurricane,” Ives says. And no, it’s not in expectation of sharing the same bathwater with your entire family for days on end. It’s for dumping into your toilet to flush if the water gets cut out, saving plenty of time and effort of locating a working faucet within your neighborhood.
Barbara Stern at the Financial Aid office says that money matters – big time.
“Make sure you have cash with you at home for after the storm,” she says, although the amount may vary depending on your family size. “Credit card readers and ATMs won’t be working after the hurricane, so places like Publix will only be accepting cash.” She also reminds people to remain properly hydrated, with one gallon of drinking water per person per day until power and water are restored.
Freshman Jeffery Ervin says that during Wilma, finding a place to store perishables was hard. So he used the next best thing to a refrigerator: coolers and bags of ice. While his dad obtained ice bags from FEMA workers, he says his family didn’t take anything for granted anymore – not even frozen water.
“Without electricity, we learned to appreciate the small things in life,” he says. “I really learned from [Hurricane Wilma].”
Resident Students:
Freshman Kris Anne Ocedek doesn’t have much faith in her fellow freshman residents.
“I think a lot of freshmen underestimate what could happen, just because they’re from other places and don’t know what they’re about,” she says. To prepare, Ocedek says she’s made a set of emergency contacts in case the residential halls are evacuated.
Sophomore Dylan Wright advises students to keep parking in mind when they are keeping their vehicles safe in a storm.
“A huge tree fell into my neighbor’s yard. If it had fallen the other way, our cars would have been crushed,” Wright says. Park your car in one of the campus garages, and store your bikes and skateboards in your dorm room. Scooters and motorcycles aren’t allowed on campus during a hurricane, so make sure to find a place nearby to hold them.
Housing Director Jill Eckardt says that one of the best things for students to do in case of a hurricane is to keep in constant communication with the university. Students should inform the school of where they are going during evacuation, and have a bag ready with the necessities for an extended stay away from the dorms.
“The top priority is the safety of our residents,” she says. “Next is the safety of our buildings where our students live.”
Senior Chesnaye Long says she was at the Jupiter campus with other students and no evacuation plan when Hurricane Wilma hit South Florida.
“We were all up on the third floor and we heard a slam,” she says. “The gutter had fallen off the building and hit against it.”
Long says that the Jupiter campus wasn’t evacuated during the storm and Wilma had knocked the power out in the morning, causing the emergency lights to be on all day. Long advises others to keep a plan in mind, no matter where they are.
