<p>Anyone else out there with kids in colleges in the path of the hurricane? Talked to my kid today and checked the school's web site which has no mention of the storm. S doesn't seem too concerned yet and says school sent an email that says as of now classes are still on for Monday. This is concerning to me considering they are in the direct path. I have no idea what the plan is if they lose power.</p>
<p>Have any of you heard whether east schools are providing action plans in case the storm hits hard?</p>
<p>My kiddo went to college in Boston. There were several times the school lost power OR there was a huge snowstorm and classes were canceled. My guess is the northeast schools will handle this well. Plus after the storms last fall, the utility companies are much better prepared, and are making plans in advance…just in case.</p>
<p>I would guess the colleges have plans for blizzards, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes etc. depending on location. I recall sitting in the basement of the dorm a few times during tornadoes and having almost a week off from school during a huge blizzard. Most businesses have a crisis plan so I would assume colleges would. Power is more problematic since that could impact food service depending on how the configuration is for back-up generators and what is determined to be critical services. You could do a search on the college website for “emergency preparedness” and see what turns up. For students at a university with a hospital system, undoubtedly the hospital will have a full array of back-up generators.</p>
<p>I’m just imagining these kids sitting in cold, dark dorms for two or three days (or more) living on nothing but junk food. Then again they’ll probably think it’s fun.</p>
<p>I would be concerned primarily if your student lives off-campus and/or is not on a meal plan.</p>
<p>Colleges have some degree of responsibility for housing their resident students and feeding those who are on contract meal plans. But colleges don’t have the same responsibilities to students who are obtaining their housing and/or food from other sources. </p>
<p>Your off-campus student (or student who lives in the dorm but is not on the meal plan) should be stocking up on nonperishable food, batteries, and other things that may be needed but difficult to obtain during a prolonged storm with a power outage.</p>
<p>My kid’s school sent out an email suggesting everyone get flashlights, batteries and some non perishable food and almost everyone at his school is residential and on the meal plan.</p>
<p>Tell them if there’s no power there’s no way to recharge cell phones and laptops! We were snowbound last winter with no power (and no heat, no toilets, no water etc. yuck) for 3 days during a blizzard before we could get the vehicles out and my kids kept thinking they could surf on their phones for a report on when the power would come back on, surf to pass the time. I was yelllng Nooooo conserve your phones! Turn them off! So if they have no power for a few days…they have no way to recharge cell phones. So in addition to flashlights and food, they should charge up their electronics before storms hit.</p>
<p>D3’s school is in communication with both students and parents but no definite plans have yet been made. They had a weeklong shutdown after the big storm last year (with students who couldn’t go home staying in sleeping bags in the one building that still had power), so they unfortunately have experience with it.</p>
<p>Last year, W&M had the campus evacuated before the hurricane arrived. However, they haven’t given the evac. order for Sandy yet. They’re waiting to see what it’s actually going to do first. If we don’t evacuate, then we have a set of protocols to follow (if and when the power goes out). The college has already sent several emails regarding what to do in case of high wind, flooding, etc. They have action plans for pretty much every disaster…</p>
<p>stradmom, our kids go to the same school, don’t they? The website says the freshman dorms all have generators and that the school has a week’s supply of food on hand. It implies that there are generators in commons too-- maybe after last year they are more prepared. </p>
<p>I told D to keep her laptop and cell phone charged and get batteries for her flashlight. These storms always have an inverse relation to the hype so I’m hoping this one will just shrink away to nothing.</p>