Students and faculty gathered on Thursday to consider the impacts of Hurricane Katrina on the University community. Some students from the Gulf Coast region were able to offer first-hand accounts of their evacuation and how the hurricane has personally affected them.
In the first of a series of events responding to the disaster, the Office of Academic Affairs and the Office of the Dean of the College co-sponsored a forum entitled “Katrina: Its Causes and Effects.”
“I got off very easily, but every resident of New Orleans was a victim of the hurricane,” said Hunter King ’08. Both King and fellow New Orleans resident John Rushing ’08 spoke about witnessing the damage to their hometown. Other speakers included Jared Curzan ’06, a visiting student from Tulane University, and Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Peter Patton.
King spent his 20th birthday in a hotel room in Austin, Texas, watching storm coverage on television. At first, his family was resistant to evacuating.
“We wanted to stick it out,” King said. “But my mom said, ‘Pack, it’s a category 5.’”
King went on to speak for natives of the battered city, both those who lived through the storm and those who escaped in its wake. He also discussed his involvement with student relief efforts at the University.
Overall, King said he was optimistic about New Orleans’ future.
“The city will be back, and as strong as ever,” he said. “Like me, [New Orleans residents] know that they don’t want to live anywhere else.”
Rushing and his family evacuated New Orleans at 4:00 a.m. on Aug. 29. He described watching storm coverage from a hotel room in Mississippi.
“You start seeing streets that you know, houses that you know, neighborhoods that you used to live in,” Rushing said. “And they’re not neighborhoods anymore, they’re just rooftops above water.”
Rushing’s family is temporarily living in an apartment in Gonzalez, Louisiana. His sister, a high school senior, takes night classes at a local school. On campus, Rushing hopes to organize a benefit concert for Katrina relief with his a capella singing group, the Wesleyan Spirits.
Curzan spoke about witnessing the damage to his school and studying at Wesleyan for the semester. He is a native of Portland, Connecticut, directly across the Connecticut River from Middletown. He had returned to New Orleans for his senior year at Tulane when Katrina struck, and did not evacuate until after the storm had ended. On Aug. 29, Curzan found refuge in a Tulane engineering building with a professor and his family. He described post-storm store looting and water infested with oil and drowned animals as the Apocalypse. When speaking about being away from his school, Curzan was solemn.
“I’m doing all right now going to school, and hopefully by December I’ll be back on a plane,” he said.
Patton presented his lecture, “The Geology and Hydrology of the Mississippi River Delta: Environmental Constraints on the Redevelopment of New Orleans,” as a science lesson, accompanying it with slides and a handout.
“The bottom line is that, from a geologic perspective, New Orleans sits in a very precarious position on the delta,” Patton said. “It is subsiding because the delta sediment beneath it easily compacts. This is exacerbated by the global rise in sea level. As the delta has eroded there is also less landmass south of the city to help dissipate storm energy.”
Patton reminded listeners of the reality of hurricane dangers by noting that Connecticut is also a coastal state, vulnerable to such events.
“To help us begin to understand what has happened, we thought it would be good to get a variety of viewpoints and to start a discussion,” said Vice President for Academic Affairs and forum host Judith Brown.
Brown also mentioned that future Katrina-related events are being planned. The next event, scheduled for October, will address issues of race and economy. Speakers will include Associate Professor of African American Studies and Associate Professor of History Demetrius Eudell and Professor of Economics Gary Yohe. The third and final forum, whose date and speakers are to be announced, will address political issues and the ways in which students can participate in recovery efforts.
Forum attendees were interested in hearing both the personal stories of the students and learning about the scientific side of the natural disaster.
“I was glad the administration had such an event,” said Aaron Shansky ’07. “New Orleans has certainly been on my mind, and [I] imagine on a lot of people’s minds, and having a forum to address it was positive and helpful. I’d thank the students who spoke for sharing their experience and feelings on such a close and devastating matter.”
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