“Any students, faculty or staff found to be on campus by Public Safety will be ordered to leave,” was written on College of Charleston’s weather emergency website, noted on September 8.
Starting college in South Carolina and even Florida is like a vacation; however, not for the beginning of the semester of 2017, as many had to evacuate due to Hurricane Irma.
According to StormGeo, using evaporation from the sea surface and condensation in the atmosphere, hurricanes gain strength by gathering heat and energy from the oceans and releasing the heat into the air. Documented by National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Irma started late August.
Kendall Garrett, a freshman studying elementary education at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, discussed her journey to get back home to Chester County, Pennsylvania last minute.
“When the school closed September 7, I decided to leave a day early, along with most of the student body. My roommate and a few of my friends drove nine hours to Clemson University in South Carolina to stay there during the storm,” Garrett said.
“Take it from the hurricane historian: There has never been a tropical cyclone quite like Irma,” said Robinson Meyer, an associate editor at The Atlantic. “In its sustained 185 mile-per-hour winds, and its record-breaking low pressure (914 millibars), it is the strongest storm ever measured in the open Atlantic.”
Michael Dye, a sophomore studying business marketing at The University of Tampa, decided to stay on campus when the college closed.
“I want to live in Florida and I wanted to experience the hurricane. I was a little nervous and anxious but I am very thankful that Irma did not hit Tampa as bad as predicted,” Dye said.
“Hearing a hurricane was coming towards College of Charleston, I thought it was cool,” Daniel Maestri, a freshman studying business administration said.
“When the school was evacuating the dorms and buildings, that is when I started to worry. We had extra days to get off campus before the storms hit, so I was able to get back home in Pennsylvania,” Maestri said.
Lily Stein, a sophomore at College of Charleston said, “I freaked out. I live off campus nearby, so I was worried about my house and I felt like the school was unorganized, trying to figure out what was going on.”
Stein remembered from last year, because of Hurricane Matthew, the students were only given 24-hours to get off campus. “This year, they gave us more time, which freaked me out even more,” Stein said.
“We were able to board up windows, place sandbags in flood-prone areas and secure all buildings,” said Mike Robertson, senior director of Media Relations for College of Charleston in South Carolina.
At College of Charleston, there have been closings in the history of the college. In 2016, the college closed for two days due to Hurricane Matthew. In 1989, Hurricane Hugo closed the college for over a week. Robertson stated that the college will use some of the fall breaks for make-up days.
Most of the colleges that were hit by Hurricane Irma were prepared and had places for students to live if they were not able to book a flight home in time. Some towns were hit more than others in the path of Irma. According to CNN, Hurricane Irma was the most powerful Atlantic basin hurricane recorded outside the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
Despite being so powerful, College of Charleston did not encounter any serious damage.
“The city of Charleston was only impacted by tropical storm winds and heavy rain,” said Robertson. “There was flooding of the city at the time of high tide, but as the tides went down and the rain slowed down, the flooding did not pose any long-term, major problems.”
