It came more subtly than the empty shelves of non-perishable food, the numerous flashlights and the sandbags predicted. Hurricane Isaac destroyed homes and lives in Plaquemines and Tangipahoa parishes, but its presence on campus was made up of nothing more than wind whisperings and rain pelts as it dispirited from a hurricane to a tropical storm.
Some students evacuated, some weathered the storm on campus and others took to local bars that were open, but their Hurricane Isaac freedom came with an academic price — students will have to make up missed classes over fall break and during one to-be-determined Saturday. While the rain has let up and the wind has died down, the University is not finished with Isaac. It’s currently housing two medical facilities.
Fallen trees comprised the main damage Isaac inflicted on campus, as well as knocked-down fencing and light poles, blown-out windows, water damage, leaks and floods. Despite many power outages around Baton Rouge, the University kept its power throughout the storm.
Wednesday — when the hurricane hit the city — was the most deserted day, with dining halls, the Student Union and the University Student Recreational Complex all closed. LSU Dining offered emergency meals to all students and essential personnel, filling up both dining halls Tuesday and Thursday.
Behind the scenes, a group of administrators and staff members who made up the Emergency Operations Committee, EOC, worked out of a small room in the Office of Public Safety. With computer screens in front of them and multiple televisions displaying different news channels mounted on the wall ahead of them, they worked to ensure every problem on campus was documented and fixed.
Members of the EOC, considered essential personnel on campus during the storm, monitored its effects on every segment of campus, from how students were delivered food to how a truck full of medical supplies would be unloaded at the PMAC. An issue they focused on at Thursday’s briefing was setting up a Hurricane Isaac Relief fund to help students and families affected by the storm, as they did for Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav.
According to their data, 359 students at the University are from areas heavily impacted by Isaac, including Plaquemines and St. John’s.
Spearheading the group were Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administrative Services and CFO Eric Monday and Interim Director of Emergency Operations D’Ann Morris. The two focused on surviving the hurricane “the LSU way” in a Thursday afternoon briefing.
“What have y’all achieved?” Monday asked the group of Facilities Services leaders, finance leaders, technology leaders, public information officers and more during the briefing. “Our students are safe, campus is safe and we’re serving the state.”
The serving the state aspect of the University has not been as visible as the debris peppering campus, but the University has two hospitals set up — one inside the Carl Maddox Field House and the other in the PMAC. The PMAC medical station, set up Thursday evening, is run by the federal government.
Dotted with white cots, the Field House held 65 patients Thursday afternoon, according to EOC Public Information Officer Ashley Berthelot. University students were among those helping the special-needs patients, many of whom said they volunteered to help because they were looking for something to pass the time.
Kathy Kliebert, the state’s deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals, visited the Field House on Thursday afternoon and said she was grateful for the volunteers, who ranged from students to nurses to doctors.
“It’s pretty amazing to think you’ve got employees who could be taking days off and they’re here always,” she said.
Angela Johnson, a doctor who was working in the Field House, praised the students’ volunteer efforts and said the doctors and nurses are attempting to make sure the patients know they’re trying to send them back home. But going home might not be an option for some of the patients from St. John or Tangipahoa parishes, she said.
No patients have become unstable, Johnson said, but she acknowledged that it is always a concern with special-needs patients.
“I work because it makes a difference,” said Madeline Monroe, a nurse in the Field House. “I’ve been a nurse for 48 years.”
The PMAC’s setup was mostly a government-run process, and a truck delivered bedding, toiletries and other medical supplies Thursday afternoon, Morris said.
Both the Field House and PMAC are set up as hospitals indefinitely.
“The event is not over. As long as we have people in those facilities, there will be some form of activation in those rooms,” Morris said about the EOC.
