Fordham Survives Hurricane Sandy

A hurricane was the last thing I was expecting to have to worry about as a student at Fordham, and yet, I have lived through two category-1 storms in the past year: Hurricane Irene (which hit the New York area late last August), and Hurricane Sandy, which touched down on campus this past Monday. I stood in a long line at Fine Fare, a local grocery store, for 30 minutes on Sunday afternoon, to buy one of the last loaves of bread on the shelf, wondering if Sandy would bring more than the heavy rain that accompanied Irene.

[Fordham prepares for Sandy: Photo courtesy of The Ram online]

Sandy was by far the more serious storm, but Fordham kept its students safe, urging everyone to stay inside after 7 p.m. on Monday, and waiting at the ready to evacuate students to the Lombardi Field House if there was need. Students were constantly updated with text messages and emails, and campus had access to electricity for the entirety of the storm. My dorm did lose Internet and cable for about 24 hours, however, and many trees were felled by powerful winds.

[A fallen tree on Fordham's campus: Photo courtesy of The Ram online]

On campus, students are recovering from multiple days indoors, stretching their legs and drinking in fresh air. News slowly trickles in about the damage that has been done. Queens, Long Island, and lower Manhattan, as well as parts of New Jersey, weathered the brunt of the storm. In a town in Queens, more than 100 homes burned to the ground in Sandy's wake. The Jersey shore remains submerged, and many houses there were destroyed. Power is gradually being restored to Long Island and lower Manhattan. In total, the storm claimed about 18 lives in NYC according to The New York Times. Subway and train service remains suspended.

[A flooded subway station: Photo courtesy of yahoo.com]

After three days of cancelled classes, things are expected to return to a normal operating schedule tomorrow. In the end, Fordham was probably one of the safest places to be over the course of the past four days; unlike NYU, we never lost power on campus, and all dining locations (and the new gym!) remained open...yet another great reason to attend Fordham!

[A parking lot of taxis in NJ: Photo courtesy of The New York Times]