Through the Storm: In the Aftermath of Ida

Ground zero to hurricanes such as Andrew and Katrina, the people of south Louisiana are no stranger to the dangers that hurricane season poses to the coastal piece of land that many Louisianans call home. Despite this understanding however, the winds of Hurricane Ida battered the coastline and cities throughout the state in manners that many simply didn’t expect.
Settled in the heart of the Bluff, Southern University’s Baton Rouge campuses overlooked the Mississippi as Hurricane Ida made landfall on Sunday morning and brought chaotic winds and plentiful rain to the capital city throughout Sunday and into Monday morning. Despite the university’s placement towards the southernmost part of the state however, the school largely received a pass from the damage suffered by most of the state.
“I heard the wind and a few trees fall, but other than that, it really wasn’t that bad [for us],” said Robyn James, a sophomore marketing major from Austin, Texas.
While Southern University’s campuses may be located in the city of Baton Rouge, it’s students and staff find their homes throughout the state, and as such, there have been a multitude of different perspectives shared by the Jaguar Nation throughout the storm, and now in its aftermath. An example of this would be the choice made by many SU students and Louisiana residents to evacuate Louisiana in preparation for the storm.
In a poll conducted by Southern University’s Office of Student Media on Twitter, a group of sixty eight students participated in a poll gauging whether or not they were choosing to evacuate. While evacuation was not mandatory, over fifty one percent of the students polled said that they were choosing to leave. While this poll, limited in scope as it may be, has demonstrated that the majority of students and their families chose to leave, nearly just as many decided that they were capable of riding out the storm.
“Leaving just didn’t really seem like a real option. [My family and I] have been through a lot of hurricanes together, so I figured we’d be straight.” said Alexus Johnson, a junior finance major Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Like Alexus, many students made the case that they had been through the Louisiana brand of hurricane before, and therefore saw no need to panic for this one. While this may have ultimately proved to be sound decision making in some areas of the state such as areas throughout the capital city, large portions of the state saw the storm at its worst as storm damage and flooding took place throughout the state as a whole.
Taking this damage into account as many of their students were from these areas, the university sent mass emails out to the student body in the days following the hurricane to notify them that campus was closed until after Labor Day. This gave many students the ability to check on loved ones, return to the state, and return to some sense of normalcy as the final clouds of the storm passed.
While campus is set to resume its normal activities on September 7, many households in southeast Louisiana are still without power, and likely will be for weeks to come in some areas, according to the Advocate.
In the storm’s aftermath, President Ray Belton PhD said via his Twitter, “I am always so proud to be a product of and to serve Southern!..Assessments are ongoing but we see no significant damage on either campus.”