This slightly off-topic…but not lol. We are from California and don’t really “experience weather”. DH is very concerned about D having schools on her list that are in areas where hurricanes and tornadoes occur. How do schools prepare the students for these weather issues? Do they evacuate the schools? Are there any parents out there whose kids are at schools in the path of Matthew right now? I would love some words of wisdom to share with hubby. 
There’s a thread in the Parents Cafe called Emergency Preparedness at College that addresses this. You might find it helpful.
In general, schools in hurricane zones are very experienced with these things.
Y’all do realize that millions of people live in places where hurricanes and tornadoes occur? And that in the US, it is exceedingly rare for people to die or even be seriously injured. Yes, the unfamiliar is always scarier (like earthquakes to me–I’m sure you don’t spend much time worrying aobut them) but no place is safe from natural disaster.
My D is at Coastal Carolina and was evacuated due to Matthew. She was able to find MT friends to go home with thankfully (we are also West Coasters). All the MT kids were offering their vehicles and homes to the other theatre kids. There were less than 50 residential kids (out of about 4,000) left at the school (international, etc), so the school bussed them all to Clemson University to wait out the storm. Clemson gave the kids rooms to stay in and are feeding them, entertaining them, etc. We are very thankful they made the decision to close the University early giving all the kids plenty of time to drive or fly out of the area. We are waiting now to see when they will be allowed to return, which will be based upon damage, roads, etc. It is my understanding that storms this large that require evacuation are not super common. She has already weathered a Tropical Storm/Hurricane Cat. 1 at the school with no problems at all.
We are also from the west coast where we deal with things like earthquakes which come with no warning. So consider that. Hurricanes with days of warning?? Earthquakes that are just a “hello and surprise.”
But with that said let me tell you the story of my own MT daughter who was a freshman at NYU the year Sandy hit and took out the power and transportation in lower Manhattan for a week the month after she got to New York City. NYU was on it and prepared for it. Maybe this was a consequence of them already having lived through 9/11 but they truly had the systems in place to keep the kids safe and the broader community informed. We really didn’t have family in the NYC area that she could have escaped to so she had to make it work. Yes… I actually looked at my T-mobile activity report to see if she was doing something… anything to make me know she was still alive when I didn’t hear from her. And I had anxiety when I imagined her walking out of lower Manhattan in the dark (as there was no power and no transport) to get beyond 31st to the part of NYC that had power just to eat… but in the greater scheme of things it probably wasn’t all that different from camping in Yosemite and worrying about bears. You couldn’t have convinced me of that analogy at the time but in hindsight… probably a fair analysis.
So seriously… not a thing. Schools are good at it.
I don’t know if Wright State has ever had to deal with a tornado close call, but they have an extensive underground tunnel system. I also don’t know if this is true, but just last week I “heard” that the tunnels were installed because the campus is so close to a military air base - Wright-Patterson. So I guess schools should even have a plan for “unnatural” disasters. There’s that.
I evacuated my son from College of Charleston Tues night. The school was extremely prepared . They requested students complete their evacuation plan on Monday. Once our governor announced mandatory evacuation for Wed at 3, the school activated the evac plan. Cancelled all classes. I drove to get my son and a classmate on Tues night. Everyone was helping each other out. Out of a school with over 10,000 students only 50 students needed to be evacuated to University of SC on Wed morning. The president of the College met with the students and assisted in the evac. It went so well. I’m truly impressed with how well everything was executed . As @stagedoormama said earlier, these schools are experienced and equipped to deal with this.
Thank you all so much! I think part of the issue is that we can’t imagine our first born a thousand miles away from us to begin with and then to worry about weather, health, safety on top of that is making things even more difficult. I think the concerns are DH’s way of trying to keep her close to home. 
It is so wonderful to have a place like this with such wise and caring parents. It really helps to put a worrying dad’s (and mom’s) mind at ease.
Wishing all of those kiddos affected by the storm a safe return to school!
These are real and fair concerns. In freshman year there was a ride to the ER in an ambulance, mono, hurricane, bad break up and all of that before spring semester. But what doesn’t kill them makes them stronger. Also I was helped by people I met here on CC who gave me tips like which ER to send her to. Who was a good ENT in NYC, suggestions for an after-hours clinic. That was just freshman year. Later years included friends I met here that pulled my kid off a NJ train platform in the middle of the night when the last train was missed. Gave us great tips on places to look for apartments. Shared tips on where to find work both in and out of the theatre, how to make a website, etc… In parallel they will find their own network of friends that they will sort many things out with that you will never hear about. It’s all good.
Schools are prepared and know that they are responsibility for the wellness and safety of all their students. You just can’t over think all the disasters that can befall them. If it’s not weather, it can be shootings, crime, rioting, plane crashes, auto accidents etc. You will never sleep again.
With that said, some schools may impress you more than others in terms of their ability to communicate and their access to students and parents when you try to get information. What health, security and housing services do they provide? Will student’s stay in housing or be living independently and commuting? All of these things will go into your overall feeling of how well a school will support your student in an emergency.
Like @halflokum D was a freshman at NYU when Sandy hit. The school communicated well with parents and when they asked local parents to come and get students, we knew that we needed to do this so that resources could be better used to help students who did not have parents nearby. The local community pulled together even though we were dealing with the disaster ourselves. (We had no electric for 3 weeks and a hole in our roof from a tree.) But were able to take our D to our hotel room (lucky we had that!), but we also knew that had we not gotten our daughter to our she would have been provided for by NYU. The school had generators and was in contact with the city for information and services. (One advantage of a big school.)
I attend the University of Miami, and though we were incredibly lucky to be missed by Matthew, the school was completely prepared. All of the dorms here are legitimate hurricane shelters built to withstand the strong winds and storms. The school kept all of the students updated on procedures leading up to the storm and eventually cancelled classes and asked us to go into semi-lock down from Wednesday night to Friday morning. They kept us well fed, safe, dry, and had the power gone out, generators would have put us back on in no time. I’ve never felt safer!