<p>New Orleans has several colleges such as Tulane and Xavier. There must be 5 or 6 others in New Orleans. I suspect hurricane Katrina will affect opening day. (I hope the losses will not be as great as feared!!) </p>
<p>How might these colleges be affected by the hurricane? Are they on higher ground? What other coastal colleges are vulnerable to storm surges and flooding? How do southeast and Gulf Coast colleges protect students and otherwise handle hurricanes when school is in session? </p>
<p>It must be a logistical nightmare when you have thousands of students far from home without transportation yet I never hear about damage or danger at colleges during hurricanes.</p>
<p>Dillard is in New Orleans as well.</p>
<p>My sister was supposed to be having orientation at Tulane this weekend. Its not happening so much...</p>
<p>That's the least of issue, if worst case scenario happens, Tulane, Loyola, Xavier, Dillard, SUNO, and University of New Orleans, along with the rest of downtown New Orleans will be covered with 10+ feet of water. </p>
<p>So forget orientation and transportation, will they even get to school this year? And will Troy State, the most vunerable, if I remember, Troy State is right on the water, where a possible 18 feet is expected, talk about damage to infastructure, will the school even be intact after the mess is cleaned up?</p>
<p>following is from MSNBC Citizen Journalists Report
link on MSN web browser called "eyewitness reports"
writer refers to "JSU"...which college is that? </p>
<p>"Quite an orientation
I was born in Connecticut and have lived there all of my life. Now, however, I am a member of Tulane University's class of 2009. I think that it would be safe to say that the beginning of my college career hasn't been the luckiest one. I knew that hurricanes were a definite possibility when I chose my school. In fact, I was pretty leery when presented with the idea of coming down south during hurricane season to go to college.
In the end, however, I fell in love with Tulane and decided to go there. At the beginning, everything was going fine. I arrived in New Orleans a week before Sunday to attend a pre-orientation program.... By Saturday, I was settled in my dorm room, ready to meet my roommate, and set for the beginning of orientation. Freshmen had arrived from across the country and they had begun to unload their packages into their dorm rooms. I, of course, had already finished all of that and was feeling pretty relaxed by comparison. At a little after eleven, however, I got a flyer announcing the evacuation of campus. It was so unreal. I must have spent five minutes straight swearing at it. What a way to begin orientation! It was probably even worse for all the students who had never even seen a hurricane before. At least I had had experience battening down the hatches on my grandmother's house on Long Island Sound. </p>
<p>Eventually, I collected myself and returned to my room with my parents to pack up one of my suitcases to take with me when I left. For all that it had been hard to fit my entire life in one half of a dorm room, it only took me ten minutes to pack up the parts of it that I wanted to take with me. We still didn't know where I was going. My parents had to fly back to Connecticut and it was suggested that I evacuate to JSU with the rest of the students. However, that changed when I met my roommate. It was quickly determined that I would evacuate with her and her family to Jackson where he aunt lives. We left within the hour, stopping at Pass Christian to pack up their house, before continuing on to Jackson. </p>
<p>Since then, we have just been waiting for the storm to come. It feels like it has been forever already. ...Now, however, we are seeing the wind and rain. Jackson has been receiving tornado warnings and we are hunkered down waiting for the storm to roll over. We still have power and internet, but that could change any time now. Still, there is some good news. It looks like New Orleans has survived the storm, which means that hopefully, I will have a school to go back to. We're just hoping for the best for everybody else out there; hoping that they are as lucky as we have been so far!
-- Caroline, New Orleans, La."</p>
<p>collegehelp...I believe JSU refers to Jackson State University</p>
<p>I just got an email from tulane and tried to go to their website but it was down. Has anyone yet heard how bad the damage has been?</p>
<p>I heard on CNN that students at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro were forced to take shelter because of tornados spawned by hurricane Katrina.</p>
<p>Tulane has purposely shut down their computers and servers -- except for the emergency site -- <a href="http://emergency.tulane.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://emergency.tulane.edu/</a> -- in order to avoid more damage to the system.</p>
<p>One of my friends goes to Tulane- he had to go back to Houston, TX. :eek:</p>
<p>I don't think anybody takes into account a school's vulnerability to natural disasters when they apply or select a school, although I recall being a little wary of California earthquakes. Natural disasters affect a college so rarely. But, it might make sense to check a school's disaster plan in case of hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, flooding, power outage, and so on. Colleges have a serious responsibility under those circumstances. </p>
<p>article in The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson Mississippi)</p>
<p>"Freshmen Flee"
"JACKSON, Miss.- Mia Turner deposited her belongings on freshmen move-in day Saturday in her dorm room at Tulane University in New Orleans. And it wasn't long afterward that the Boston resident found herself on a bus bound for Jackson State University.</p>
<p>She was among 515 students-mostly freshmen and international students-and 150 athletes from Tulane who sought shelter from Hurricane Katrina at Jackson State.</p>
<p>Tulane has canceled classes until at least Sept. 7, and students are encouraged to return home if possible, said Tulane spokeswoman Rachel Hoormann."</p>