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The news of Hurricane Ike swept the nation’s headlines, but for some Pepperdine students the matter hit closer to home.
Ike debuted off the coast of Florida as an inconvenient storm. Two weeks later, it became an undeniable force. In the 10 states affected by the storm, Ike claimed at least 47 lives, and emergency response groups are still searching for bodies.
With winds up to 100 mph, the hurricane ravaged through the Houston and Galveston, Texas areas, leaving neighborhoods flooded or damaged.
Junior Jennifer Jones lives in Clear Lake, Texas, near the Gulf of Mexico, and her family evacuated just hours before Ike reached the shore. When they returned home after the storm to survey the damage, they saw shattered fences, cluttered yards and two trees slicing through their roof, Jones said.
“Only one lane was open because of all the debris,” Jones said. “There are boats from the marina in the middle of the road, trees, signs, billboards — everything. It looks like a war zone — that’s what my mom keeps saying.”
Junior Adrianne Fore of Houston said, compared to many others in her area, she knows the damage to her home was minimal.
“We have a huge tree that was uprooted and fell 3 inches from our house, and we no longer have a fence, so we were definitely one of the lucky ones,” she said.
As residents evacuated, the need for basic supplies grew exponentially. As of Tuesday, 60 distribution centers were operating for storm refugees.
According to MSNBC, more than 30,000 evacuees have settled into the roughly 300 shelters available.
“My parents are still sleeping in sleeping bags at my church, because it’s one of the only places that has power,” Jones said.
Restoring power to the nearly two million people in the region will take time. Officials told Jones’ family that, in their town, it would take as long as three weeks.
Even after the storm, officials urged residents to stay put where they are so emergency crews can restore electricity, access running water and assess the health conditions of the affected areas.
Though life on campus is “business as usual,” students who live in the storm’s path have an additional burden to bear.
“Just watching the places I go to every day and seeing them destroyed really got to me,” Jones said. “It’s going to be weird going back for Thanksgiving break because I know nothing is going to be the same.”
Submitted 09-18-2008
MALIBU, CA
