To see a video looking back at Hurricane Gustav, click here.Hurricane Gustav made landfall in Louisiana one year ago today, wreaking havoc on the University and leaving its picturesque campus in shambles.After 12 months of work, the University continues recovery efforts from the $10 million worth of damages the storm dealt.  Ten buildings — including the International Cultural Center, School of Music facilities, Kirby-Smith Hall and  the Chemical Engineering Building — had damages to an extent that required the state to manage repair efforts, said Facility Services Director Paul Favaloro.Those 10 buildings are classified as “pending” — they are recently repaired or in the process of being repaired, Favaloro said.”Funding has nothing to do with this; funding has been allocated from day one,” Favaloro said, explaining $4.4 million in repairs remain.The process for making University repairs begins with a visit from insurance adjusters to assess the damages and approve the necessary repairs. FEMA reimburses the state for the cost of construction after repairs are made, Favaloro said. Elahe Russell, Accounting Services associate director, is responsible for submitting the paperwork that will be turned in to FEMA. The University has not yet received all reimbursements, mainly because reimbursements for repairs cannot be made until construction is complete, Russell said.”They’re handling statewide claims — we still have not received all our reimbursements from [Hurricane Katrina],” Russell said. “On a statewide basis, Katrina was much more devastating than Gustav. In sheer volume and dollars, Gustav wasn’t as big of a storm.”Though reimbursements may come before then, all clues indicate FEMA will definitely be done issuing reimbursements for Katrina by 2015, Russell said. UNIVERSITY REFLECTIONSUniversity administrators, volunteers and staff were left managing the special needs shelter, keeping the University operating and securing facilities in Gustav’s wake.D’Ann Morris, interim director of the Emergency Operations Center and executive assistant to the chancellor, said communications with the students, faculty and staff who resided on campus proved to be the most difficult to navigate.Information released by the EOC would be more forceful, Morris said.”It doesn’t matter how well you communicate, some people are just not going to listen,” Morris said. “We’ve got to provide better and stronger guidelines for the safety and welfare of the people we are responsible for … We had several students who chose not to heed any advice.”One major judgement call for Morris came when the EOC became aware of students who tied themselves to a stake shoved in the ground on the levee at the edge of the Mississippi River, donned lifejackets and jumped into the river in the midst of Gustav. “It becomes a question of prioritization,” Morris said. “Do we put those employees [whose responsibility it would be to stop them] in danger? Those are judgment calls that need to be made; those are the kinds of things that you have to be willing to do in that role.”The EOC chose to wait until the waters had calmed before sending employees out to retrieve the students, Morris said.Facility Services learned to navigate FEMA requirements while working to secure facilities in the last year, Favaloro said. “We learned how to better synchronize our efforts with FEMA requirements,” Favaloro said. “[Through] our responses, we certainly learned a lot of valuable lessons … I would like to think that we’re better prepared.”Morris said the University would not have been able to continue operations without the aid of Chancellor Michael Martin and volunteer efforts coordinated by Campus Life, Volunteer LSU and the Louisiana Volunteers in Action.”Fortunately, the campus fully embraced the concept of the EOC becoming a clearinghouse for information,” Morris said. “Had we not had a chancellor like Michael Martin who allowed people [in the field] to make decisions, I don’t think we would have recovered as quickly as we did.”Colorado Robertson, Student Government president when Gustav made landfall, said he is proud of both the University’s efforts and the volunteer turnout.”The biggest thing I remember is just having so many volunteers — just so many stories about people helping out on campus and off,” Robertson said. “Helping coordinate and recruit volunteers, that’s not hard at LSU.”ALMOST IN THE CLEARSept. 10 — one year and nine days after Gustav made landfall — will mark the midway point for the 2009 hurricane season, according to Louisiana State Climatologist Barry Keim. An average hurricane season sees 10 storms of the intensity to merit naming, but Keim said the 2009 season has seen four thus far, including Tropical Storm Claudette — the only storm to pose a direct threat to the coast along the Gulf of Mexico. Gustav was the seventh of 16 named storms in the 2008 season. “We’re pretty much on track for an average season,” Keim said. “[But] some of these things can pop up pretty quick.”Louisiana residents can breathe a collective sigh of relief in the second week of October, Keim said.A small area located about 600 miles east of the Lesser Antilles, a cluster of islands in the Caribbean Sea,  is the only threat currently being monitored by meteorologists, Keim said. It has the potential to become a tropical depression, but he said it is still impossible to know how it will develop or the path it will take if it does develop. While Keim said Louisiana has fared well this season, he noted the state is “not immune from getting storms this year” and Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and Hurricane Audrey in 1957 all occurred during previouslyquiet seasons. He also noted that Hurricane Juan threatened the Gulf Coast for three days in 1985.A major factor in the destination of any developing storm is the location of the Bermuda High complex — a very large dome of high pressure located in the North Atlantic Ocean — Keim said.”Part of [the reason for the lack of storms in the Gulf] is the location of the Bermuda High complex,” Keim said, explaining the location of the Beruda High complex influences the direction a storm will move.—-Contact Lindsey Meaux at [email protected]