By Steven Rodas —
One year after Superstorm Sandy, the NJCU community seems much more prepared than last year, should a Category 3 hurricane make landfall
Students, faculty and staff appear more receptive towards weather alerts and have stocked up on generators and emergency supplies.
“I’m prepared more mentally than anything,” said Hugo Borski, 22, economics major from Elizabeth.
Like most NJCU students and staff, Borski was ill prepared for Superstorm Sandy and afterwards was faced with power-failure, flooding, and nearly a month without pay.
“[The Hurricane] affected me because I wasn’t able to go to different places like work for a few weeks, I didn’t get my monthly salary. My backyard was flooded for three days [after Hurricane Sandy] and it took a while to clean that up,” said Borski. “[This year] I’m more proactive in case I see anything on the news.”
Others agree that paying attention to the news alerts during potential storms is vital.
“I don’t want to go through [any more] destruction. If I see something on the news then I think I would be more prepared, more receptive [especially] when I feel it [can] affect many lives,” said Pooja Pandejee, 25, biology major from Jersey City. “This is nature, [disasters] tend to happen, no one can stop [them],”
Other students have also made preparations since last year.
“I bought a generator in the summer,” said Amelia De Castro, 25, hospitality management major from Union City. “I worked for a hotel [the Hilton at Newark Airport] so it was very hard for me. I couldn’t go home. We lost power at the hotel for two weeks. We had no food and 500 hundred people staying so we started barbecuing in the parking lot to feed all these people. It was horrible for the staff.”
NJCU campus residents were also amongst those stranded somewhere during the storm.
“My experience as a resident student during Hurricane Sandy was very annoying. I thought Res Life did an excellent job [during an] unplanned situation by providing for the residents and making sure [everyone] was safe,” said Amarachi Azu, 20, marketing major from Sicklerville.
Hurricanes are often unpredictable storms, which can grow into monstrous powerhouses that cause hazards such as flooding and power failures.
“During Sandy I couldn’t go out at all. My advice to people is not to go off during or after a hurricane. Be prepared and be safe,” said Borski.
According to WHYY and Newsworks, on the morning following super storm Sandy New Jersey faced 2.4 million households without power, 346,000 damaged homes and the deaths of thirty-seven people. As reported in the January 2013 issue of the Rutgers Regional Report titled “The Economic and Fiscal Impacts of Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey”, economic losses amounted to $30 billion dollars.
Students expect NJCU has taken steps since last year in the event of future natural emergencies.
“I hope from [last year’s] experience Res Life is much more prepared with situations like [Hurricane] Sandy” said Azu.
In fact, NJCU’s Residence Life assigned a team to respond to such concerns.
“Following the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy the Critical Incident Team, followed up to complete an after action report that was submitted to Public Safety and to our University President,” said Director of the Office of Residence Life Tamar Lawson-McPherson.
Everything was addressed in the report from large-scale factors like evacuations to small things like making sure the campus has an emergency supply of food.
“From our various lessons learned, we have identified several alternatives such as employing a shelter in place procedure as opposed to immediate relocation. Additionally, a mandatory building evacuation when there is a state of emergency called by the Governor’s office will take effect. We have also followed up to make small purchases for necessary items within our respective departments that serve to address some of our immediate needs and can be used in case of emergencies,” said Lawson. “Our Dining vendor is also on task to continue to support our students during emergencies on campus.”
On Tuesday January 29 of this year, President Barack Obama signed the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013, which provided $5.4 billion in funding to the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, in efforts to assist area afflicted by super storm Sandy. In addition the most recent aid to New Jersey was on October 29th 2013 in the form of eight grants to The Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund, totaling $3 million.
“Many parts of [New Jersey] have recovered but not totally. There are people and families that are still living away from their home for instance. It takes effort and time to reconcile with the disaster that Sandy caused, and is still causing,” said biology major Pooja Pandejee.