{"id":34430,"date":"2024-10-08T16:53:26","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T20:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=34430"},"modified":"2024-10-09T09:23:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T13:23:59","slug":"furman-responds-to-hurricane-helene-with-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/furman-responds-to-hurricane-helene-with-collaboration\/","title":{"rendered":"Furman responds to Hurricane Helene with collaboration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hurricane Helene stormed ashore in Florida as a category 4 storm, but it was still blowing with tropical storm winds when it hit Greenville, South Carolina, on Friday, Sept. 27. It didn\u2019t spare Furman University<\/a>, with hundreds of trees blown over, many landing on vehicles belonging to students, faculty and staff. Building were flooded and power lines were downed, many blocking walk- and roadways. Power went out on that day and wasn\u2019t returned until Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Furman\u2019s Chief of Police John Milby, who leads the university\u2019s emergency response team orchestrated activities long before Helene hit, and his officers responded with care and attention for campus safety. Milby said that a small group of Furman police officers and staff from Facilities Services were asked to put themselves in harm\u2019s way while the storm was most intense to monitor conditions, keep roadways clear for first responders and to be available for the students who remained on campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so impressed with our students and how supportive they were of officers, facilities crew and the Dining Hall staff,\u201d Milby said.<\/p>\n

Jason Cassidy, dean of students, and others in Student Life, including student resident assistants, made sure students were taken care of. Jeff Redderson, associate vice president for Facilities Services, and Rick Schosky, director of Facilities Services, and their crews, were out as soon as possible clearing campus, assessing and repairing damage, and communicating with Duke Energy to restore power. And Tony McGuirt, director of auxiliary services, was making sure the DH was open, and students had meals.<\/p>\n

Redderson said between 30-40 employees were on campus for cleanup and restoration efforts throughout the week that Furman was closed. He knew immediately upon the drive to campus the morning of the storm that it was something the university had never dealt with before and that immediate action would be necessary. Among the efforts Redderson was most impressed with was in the dining hall where McGuirt and the Bon Appetit staff came up with creative ways to feed the students.<\/p>\n

“If the DH does not have domestic water above a certain temperature, they are not allowed to operate,” Redderson said. “But Tony and mechanical supervisor Gary Rogers came up with a solution to get generator power to the boilers so they could operate successfully.”<\/p>\n

Of course, that was not the only instance of coming together for the good of the Furman community. Redderson recognized all the staff, students and faculty who came together to help where they could, especially when many were dealing with their own challenges at home.<\/p>\n

“Our staff worked tirelessly for the entire week with debris removal, responding to roof leaks, fueling generators, checking out building systems, and doing all the little things needed to get the campus ready to reopen,” he said.<\/p>\n

There were early indications that Hurricane Helene could be a historic weather event, but no one was prepared for the extent of the damage, downed trees and flooding that might occur. Thankfully, no injuries or employees were injured during the storms and flood waters around Furman Lake receded considerably within three to four hours, according to Milby. However, it took days for the university to completely comprehend the storm\u2019s impact on campus, and it remains a work in progress for the region as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so impressed to see our officers, dispatchers and entire campus rise to the challenge this storm presented,\u201d Milby said. \u201cWhile nearly all of them were impacted at home, they left those homes and came to fulfill the public safety needs of our campus community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Power is now on at Furman and classes have resumed. And while the entire Furman Family celebrates that, the joy is tempered by the loss of life throughout the Southeast and the utter devastation as close as 30 miles north.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we are educators, we look for lessons in downed power lines and toppled trees. In the landscape of our lives, we know that storms like Helene, be they weather events or personal catastrophes, can teach us the value of having people who help and support us. They can teach us patience and empathy. And by making it through these storms we learn we are resilient, so that the next time skies turn dark and winds swirl, we know blue skies are ahead,\u201d Elizabeth Davis, president of Furman University, said in a letter to the university<\/a> on October 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Furman University staff, faculty and students came together in the aftermath of Helene to ensure that the Furman community was safe and the campus could open when able. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":389,"featured_media":34292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[1733,3045,3041,2412,881],"class_list":["post-34430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-uncategorized","tag-collaboration","tag-furman-university-police-department","tag-hurricane-helene","tag-natural-disaster-readiness","tag-recovery"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34430"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34444,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34430\/revisions\/34444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}