Students unfazed by Hurricane Irene on Saturday

Hurricane Irene has come and gone, leaving some students with serious headaches and others unimpressed.

The storm hit the Richmond area on Saturday evening bringing a day full of heavy rain and high winds. The Heilman Dining Center provided bagged meals, ETC sold students many non-perishables and the university updated students on the storm's status throughout the day.

Patrick Traulsen, a freshman from Switzerland, had never been in a hurricane before, but prepared by buying food from a nearby Wal-Mart and picking up a bagged meal from the Heilman Dining Center.

"I wasn't really scared at first... I find it funny that I come here and then all the natural disasters start happening," Traulsen said. Hurricanes and earthquakes are foreign to Switzerland, a country that may only deal with regular rain storms.

Traulsen witnessed a tree fall right outside of his room in Marsh Hall when Irene hit. "The tree was unexpected," he said. "It was around 7 p.m. and it rocked left to right, and then eventually just tipped to the right."

He said while he was generally satisfied with the university's handling of the hurricane, he had one issue.

"They should've taken a bit more precaution with the people going out at night to the apartments and stuff," he said. "Just check around and see that everything's right... better to be safe than sorry."

Unlike Traulsen, junior LaShonda Hanna -- who is from the Bahamas -- said Irene was not her first hurricane. She said she was left feeling there was a lot of hype for no reason.

"I've definitely seen worse," she said. "It was a punk hurricane. I was standing outside waiting for it to come, but it was more of just a rainy day that was a little windy."

Sophomore Amanda Lineberry, a Mechanicsville native, still remembers Hurricane Isabel, a category-two hurricane that hit in September 2003. Isabel caused local power outages for up to two weeks, so Irene was not as bad she had expected, Lineberry said.

Lineberry followed her mom's instructions to prepare for Isabel. "My mom told me to fill the car up and have cash in case we lost power," she said.

She was in her room doing homework when the hurricane hit campus.

"There's a huge tree down on the Westhampton Green, but that was the most damage that I saw," Lineberry said. "Other than that, it was just kind of messy."

Payton Parr, a freshman from Dallas, thinks that people make too big of a deal about weather before it happens.

Parr prepared for the storm by picking up a bagged lunch from the dining hall. Then, he continued his day by doing the opposite of most students.

"I was walking outside all day, going to people's places and stuff," Parr said. He said he did not think staying safe during a hurricane was as complex as it was made out to be. "If you see a tree falling, just run away... I don't think it's that hard to avoid it."

That almost lackadaisical approach by some students was noticed by others. Cheyenne Varner, a resident assistant for Lora Robins Court, said she also felt most of the students she saw were calm and not worried about Irene. Some even ordered Chinese food, she said.

As an RA, Varner said her day was not as stressful as she had expected. "I called facilities for leaks on the first and second floor, but other than that nothing was a problem," she said.

Hurricanes are merely wind and rain and tornadoes pose a greater threat, Parr said. He watched as a tree was uprooted near Lakeview.

"I'm glad it didn't hit the building," he said.

Parr gave some advice just in case another hurricane strikes this season: "Don't panic. People usually overrate stuff, so it's not going to be a big deal. This is just wind and rain."

Part of why Irene did not seem as much of a storm as Isabel was that campus as a whole never lost power, said Beth Simonds, captain of the university police department. "Overall the University fared well," she said. "We were very fortunate to have no injuries and just lots of big trees that were down."

An emergency team was assembled and on call all day Saturday, Simonds said. "There were extra EMTs on both sides of campus ready for the entire event and fortunately they weren't needed," she said.

Simonds described the storm as hit or miss. "Some people have trees in their house and others only have some debris," she said.

One such unlucky student was Junior Jordyn Pickell. "I walked into the parking lot to go somewhere and I found a tree where my car used to be," Pickell said. Pickell's Honda Accord was totaled when a tree fell and a branch went through her window.

Pickell's car was cut out from under the tree and relocated, but the damage was done, she said. "I'm not sure what to do right now," she said. "The police told me to call my insurance company and get a quote, but I think the damages may cost more than the actual car does."

For most of the student body nothing changed because of Irene, but for a select group of males living in Atlantic House, their troubles have yet to be solved.

The Atlantic House, Pacific House and Law Dorm Three all lost power during Irene. But the power lines maintaining those buildings are not operated by the school, but by the city of Henrico, Simonds said. The University has one mobile generator, which has been hooked up to the Pacific House and Law Dorm Three, but cannot be used for Atlantic House as well, she said.

Harry Lee Daniel is a senior living in Atlantic House who said he felt the impact of Irene more than most students. "It's hard," he said. "We don't have water or lights or air conditioning so it's really hot. Some of us have been staying with friends."

Students were given the option to relocate on campus to Keller or Whitehurst, but no one chose to do so, Simonds said.

Although the school has given students another option, Daniel said it was hard to understand how the university could not do more to help out.

"It's like we are refugees on our own campus," he said.

Contact reporters Laila Hart and Rachael Bilney at laila.hart@richmond.edu and rachael.bilney@richmond.edu.