As Syracuse braced for Hurricane-turned Superstorm Sandy on Monday evening, students located elsewhere in the Northeast had already begun to experience the heavy winds and rainfall.

The 77 students enrolled in Syracuse University’s Washington, D.C., semester appeared out of harms way. Classes that operate through Maxwell’s Washington semester were canceled both Monday and Tuesday, said Ryan Williams, director of the international relations major in Washington, D.C.

Williams corresponded with students via email throughout the day, and no one had indicated any trouble, he said.

“No one’s told me they’re in any kind of danger,” he said.

The public transportation system and federal government, which many students in the program intern for, had also shut down, said Jack Donisch, a junior international relations and public policy major enrolled in the program.

Donisch said he went to the local drug store and all the bottled water was cleared from the shelves. In addition to bottled water, Donisch stocked up on canned goods and filled pots with water as a precautionary measure.

Undergraduate students enrolled in the Washington, D.C., semester are housed in the same apartment building, located about a block from the university’s Greenberg House.

Though electricity was currently running on Monday, students enrolled in the Washington, D.C., semester were anticipating outages later in the evening.

“My lights just flickered, so hopefully that’s not a bad sign,” Donisch said.

Kristen Donnelly, a senior international relations and economics major, said the brunt of what had been forecast had yet to hit the D.C. area as of Monday afternoon. Donnelly said she hadn’t seen any flash flooding or severe damage, but said rainwater began to accumulate at about 5:30 p.m. Monday.

In Maryland, Courtney Haupt, a graduate student studying magazine, newspaper and online journalism, was left stranded at home after visiting for the weekend. She realized Sunday that it would be unsafe to weather the conditions and make the drive back to Syracuse.

While Haupt hasn’t been ordered to evacuate like residents in Ocean City, Md., weather forecasters have anticipated Hurricane Sandy to bear down hard in areas north of Baltimore, where Haupt lives, she said.

Haupt described Hurricane-turned Superstorm Sandy as “more intense” than the two previous hurricanes she has experienced.

Said Haupt: “The wind is really bad. There’s a bunch of trees in front of my house and they’re bending over.”

 

Published on October 30, 2012 at 12:27 am

Contact Debbie: dbtruong@syr.edu | @debbietruong