<p>Remember Tulane and LSU after Katrina? The same thing is happening to the students at Texas A&M Galveston, one of whom is my nephew, who was a freshman there for about 3 weeks before Ike hit.</p>
<p>They are moving the students to the main Texas A&M campus in College Station, where they are to start classes Monday. There are only 1,200 students in all, thankfully. A&M still hasn't moved all their own students from temporary to permanent housing yet, so it's going to be tough to find places for the Galveston students to live. Also, they still have a large number of special needs evacuees in beds on the floor of their coliseum. Crazy times.</p>
<p>My sister is in a panic. She is thinking of sending my nephew up there to try to rent an apartment. She can't afford that though, as she has already paid room & board to A&M Galveston. I told her that surely they will reimburse that, but of course everything is in chaos right now, and it's hard to find out anything.</p>
<p>I thought some of you who had kids go through the Katrina evacuation from their colleges could share how the housing thing was handled, both financially and practically, i.e., where did they put the evacuee students? I am sure that when A&M Galveston made their hurricane plan, they used the Katrina experience as a guide.</p>
<p>I dated a guy whose dorm burned down one cold February night. Members of the community (many of whom were alums) opened their homes to the dorm residents. I don't know how the financial part was handled. Maybe the good folks of College Station will do the same.</p>
<p>I hope so! They are encouraging the students who have friends or family there to see if they can stay for a month or possibly the semester.</p>
<p>We could have an interesting situation in our family. S1 goes to A&M (main campus) and is in the Corps of Cadets (ROTC, but very hard core, very short hair, they all live in the same dorms, wear uniforms every day, etc.). Since S1 is a senior and is the equivalent of an RA, he has a private room. So, he checked to see if his cousin from Galveston could move in with him. It was approved. </p>
<p>There are NEVER "non-regs" (non-Corps members) living among the Corps. It's not done. My nephew has longish hair, a full beard and a piercing under his lip. So, things could get weird, but I expect this semester will create stories that will be told for years at our family gatherings. :-)</p>