Hurricane Florence, the first major hurricane of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season, made landfall in the Carolinas Sept. 14, forcing the evacuation of over 1 million people. As of Sept. 22, the death toll has risen to 43. Damages from the storm are expected to cost between $17 and 18 billion, though that number is likely to rise.
According to the Occidental student directory, seven students from the Carolinas are currently enrolled at the college. Sarah Nelson (first year) of Mebane, North Carolina is one of these students. Although Nelson’s home escaped physical damage, thanks to the higher elevation of her neighborhood, she said the storm still had a large impact on her family’s lives. The aftermath of the storm led to school cancellations for family members, as well as road closures and flooding. Nelson said that friends at coastal schools, such as University of North Carolina Wilmington, will not have class until Oct. 1 while the school assesses and recovers from the damage inflicted by the hurricane. Nelson said that being far from home made it difficult to understand the extent of Hurricane Florence’s damage until her mother called to explain the situation.
“My mom was texting me during my CSP, yesterday, and that’s when I heard all of this. I didn’t really know the extent of the repercussions of anything, really, because I’m so removed over here,” Nelson said.
Despite the challenging situation, Nelson said that her peers have been supportive, specifically mentioning friends and teammates on the swim team who have offered to talk or help in any way they can.
“I went up to one of my really good friends after that class and explained what was happening at home. He was really supportive about it and walked me all the way back to my dorm even though it was out of his way,” Nelson said.
Nelson also said that other Occidental students who have been through similar experiences have reached out to her and offered their support.
Valentyna Koudelkova (first year) is from Outer Banks, North Carolina, one of the most affected regions of the state. Koudelkova’s entire family had to evacuate their home for the duration of the storm.
“I basically live on an island, so my family went to a hotel on the beach because the bridges were blocked off, but they’ve still been able to go to work and everything. But our house floods every time there is a hurricane. Everybody deals with it. It’s a normal thing now,” Koudelkova said.
Koudelkova said that for this reason, she was not worried when news of the storm first broke. However, as more details emerged, her distance from home began to concern her.
“Being here, and hearing about how it was being upgraded to a Category 4 storm and it was headed directly for my town — it started to scare me. I called my mom a lot and talked to her a lot about it, but it ended up being alright,” Koudelkova said.
Koudelkova also echoed Nelson, saying that her classmates and friends at Occidental reached out to her constantly to show support.
Rob Flot, vice president for student affairs & dean of students, sent an email to all students Sept. 13 offering the full support of the Dean of Students Office staff to students who were affected by the hurricane.
“The news coming from North and South Carolina is scary, and I would expect you to be understandably concerned about your family, friends, and loved ones,” Flot said via email. “We are concerned about how you might be impacted by the hurricane’s damage, and want to make sure that you know that support is available during this uncertain time.”
Vivian Garay Santiago, assistant dean of students and director of student success, said that helping students through any type of troubling or traumatic event is of the utmost importance to the Dean of Students Office.
“Students that would come to see us if they are distressed, we could get them connected to support resources, like counseling or financial support if someone needed to travel home, and then we offer academic support,” Santiago said.
According to Santiago, these supports are for students struggling with any kind of emergency, whether it be of a personal nature or related to a larger national tragedy like Hurricane Florence.
“Culture of care is a real thing here, it’s not just something that sounds good for parents and people that are applying to Oxy,” Santiago said. “We try as much as possible to do that. I think generally we feel good about what we do here.”
