What’s Going On at Tulane? An Update After a Devastating Hurricane.
The students at Tulane University had their 2021-2022 school year come to an abrupt halt due to Hurricane Ida that struck Louisiana on September 5, 2021.
After a year of online and hybrid school, college students across the country have been dying to get back to some form of normalcy. This was no different for the 13,000 undergraduates at Tulane. However, a category 4 hurricane within the first month of classes left the entire community in complete disarray.
No one was able to predict the magnitude of Ida which made it extremely difficult to create an absolute shelter plan. “A lot of us thought it would be a two-day thing and figured that school would resume as normal,” says Ethan, a current sophomore at Tulane. “No one thought that we wouldn’t be going back to campus for another month.”
Tulane is located in uptown New Orleans, which is above sea level. So, many students did not think a complete evacuation was necessary. Ethan mentions that Tulane sent out an official email on Wednesday, September 1, 2021 that warned students of a storm, but the administration had thought that it would only reach a level 2. Then, once the storm hit, everyone was told to stay in their hallways. It only escalated from here.
At the time of the start of the storm, Tulane was partially under construction. There were four cranes located outside of some of the residence halls, and all of the students who lived in these buildings had to sleep in the dining halls. Then, many of the windows in the business school shattered. At this point, it was too late to get everyone fully evacuated.
Tulane was able to bus tens of thousands of students to a hub in Houston, Texas. Currently, many alumni that live in Texas have offered to house the international students until they can safely return to campus.
A day and a half after the storm ended, the Tulane community found out that they would not be able to return to school until early-mid October. Since then, that time has been shortened to late September.
Much of the return to school is still up in the air, because the school has yet to completely regain power. “We start online school this upcoming Monday, but going online has really crushed everyone's spirits,” Ethan says. “Rumors are going around as to when we will be able to go back exactly, but I’m hoping it’s sooner than later.”
Hurricane Ida was one of the strongest tropical storms to hit Louisiana in the past century. Millions have had their lives flipped upside down in the blink of an eye, and we can only hope that things will soon return to normal. For resources on how to help New Orleans communities affected by the storm, visit the United Way of Southeast Louisiana and the Greater New Orleans Foundation.