Hurricane Ida From a Tulane Student's Perspective
The lives of Louisiana residents were flipped upside down when, exactly sixteen years after Hurricane Katrina hit, a new storm named Ida made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane. Only days after the storm hit, it had already claimed the lives of at least 60 people living across multiple states including New York, New Jersey, and Louisiana. In Louisiana, evacuations became mandatory as the state was declared to be in a federal state of emergency. Even though the worst of the storm has ended, over a million people are left without electricity, power, or water. In the heat of the storm, several parts of the state had no choice but to evacuate. One place where evacuations were mandatory was in New Orleans, home of Tulane University.
Just weeks after Tulane's school year began, students had to make arrangements to evacuate New Orleans and continue classes online. I had the opportunity to interview Tulane senior Anna Levy about her experience as a student evacuating.
When I asked Anna what it was like having to evacuate on such short notice, she stated that the process gave her “deja vu” from when schools had to evacuate for COVID-19. Anna said that all of this was very sudden. One minute she was sitting in her house with her roommates, and the next thing she knew, everyone was making arrangements to leave before the hurricane. After receiving an email from Tulane recommending that everyone evacuate, Anna packed up her car and drove seven hours to her aunt’s house in Atlanta.
Students are now expected to do school online for four weeks, which for many, is a very difficult task. After having to deal with online learning last year because of Coronavirus, I asked Anna how she felt about having to reacquaint herself with virtual classes: “as an art studio major with a minor in graphic design, in person classes in the studio are very important,” she said, “I was just getting into the swing of things, so being uprooted has been really hard on my own personal motivation.” She also mentioned that although this is difficult, she feels lucky to be surrounded by family, and that she and her friends had plans to meet up somewhere so that they can do online school together. After losing a whole year of regular college because of COVID, Anna didn’t want her the rest of her “college experience to be eliminated senior year.” She also mentioned how she was grateful that Tulane decided to extend the semester by two weeks to make up for part of the time that was lost to the hurricane.
As a senior at a university in the middle of a city that is notorious for its hurricane season, this was not the first time that Anna had experienced something like this. She explained that “we have had hurricanes before,” but they have been much less severe, and only left her and her housemates without power for a few days. “The second people started talking about a category four hurricane, especially on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we were not going to take any risks.”
As for those who were unable to evacuate, Tulane University generously provided busses to Houston, Texas, and paid for students to stay in a hotel for a week. In the midst of this very complicated and far from ideal situation, Anna says that “in terms of the students, Tulane did a great job providing resources.” “Tulane is spending a lot of money on students’ comfort and safety, and I am definitely curious to see what they will do to help the city recover,” she added. Tulane University students are set to return to school for in person classes in a few weeks, but the city of New Orleans is still struggling to get back on their feet after this tribulation.
By Sophia Sanders