This morning it was tough to watch the coverage of the hurricane on TV. It’s hard to see what is happening near Wilmington, where Florence made landfall, and also in wonderful towns like New Bern, which is experiencing terrible flooding. We have many Deac families in these areas – and I am thinking especially of all the wonderful folks I met at the Wilmington New Student Reception just a month ago. Our hearts go out to everyone who is impacted.
I’m no meteorologist and not an expert, but this storm appears to be moving at what a friend of mine refers to as “the speed of evolution.” As of the time I drafted this blog post, Florence was moving at 3 miles an hour. Another friend of mine said (rightly) “I can walk faster than 3 miles an hour.”
As a testament to the slow speed of this storm, I got up around 6 am and saw that we had gray skies and there was a steady breeze with some gusts. It’s several hours later and things are essentially unchanged – still gray and still breezy with some gusts, no major changes. It actually feels really wonderful outside – it’s low 70s, great weather for having your windows open.
We sent out a message around 1 pm, but right now there is not a lot of news to report. We are still here. We are still attentive to the forecast and to supporting our students. There are still things happening – in addition to the movie marathon I mentioned yesterday, I found out today that the 35ish students involved the President’s Leadership Conference are still holding their conference tonight as planned.
So we are keeping an eye out, looking at the windows and the forecast to see what will come. And most of all, we are offering our prayers and thoughts for everyone who is being impacted by Florence. Be safe.
