Campus survives hurricane with minor damage

The storm that brought heavy rain and high winds to the East Coast two weeks ago — Hurricane Irene — caused only minor damage to University property, the administration reported. The University is currently in the process of assessing estimates and costs regarding the loss incurred.

“There were no windows broken, no roofs damaged and no structural damage to buildings,” University spokesperson Martin Mbugua said in an Aug. 31 email.

Mbugua said that damage to campus had been kept to a minimum largely due to extensive pre-storm preparations taken by the University’s team of 200 facilities support staff, whose work included checking whether trees and limbs could be damaged by high winds, fastening scaffolding and construction site equipment and ensuring that the apartment-style housing situated far from central campus had access to generators and electricity during the storm.

“During the storm ... these staff members handled hundreds of calls, including requests for back-up power, building-safety inspections, emergency repairs, tree limb removal and follow up work,” Mbugua said. Their work, he explained, continued after the storm had left.

Paul Popescu ‘14, who lives approximately a mile from campus, said in an email that he felt the “the only real problems” caused by the hurricane were the road closures and power outages.

“My house lost power for about 12 hours,” he said. By the Tuesday after the storm, electricity had been restored to approximately 95 percent of houses in Princeton Borough.

Ricardo Brown ’13, who moved to campus from Philadelphia by car on Aug. 30, said in an email that he had no trouble driving to campus. “Based on the news reports, it seemed as if Irene did more damage to New Jersey than it did to Pennsylvania, so I figured the University was probably hit hard,” he said.

“There were no fallen trees or damaged buildings, and the most cleaning up I saw was the normal grass maintenance.”

Mbugua noted, however, that at least eight trees fell along several roads near the University due to the storms, including Faculty Road, Washington Road, College Road, Springdale Road, West Drive, University Place and Edwards Place — and that many tree limbs were cleared from various locations around the campus.

Meanwhile, the boathouse was the site of the “worst flooding” on campus, according to Mbugua. It received four feet of water, he said, though the water has since drained.

Students such as Popescu described the boathouse, lakeside roads and canal as “quite badly” flooded after the onset of the hurricane.

“The bridge that goes over the canal on Alexander was completely underwater, and the water from the lake had risen up over the dam and met up with the water from the canal,” he said.

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In addition, the University’s freshman pre-orientation Outdoor Action program was affected by Hurricane Irene, with all the trips forced to return to the University from various locations around Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia by Sept. 8.

New Jersey Transit also took action during the hurricane by shutting down all rail service, with the exception of the Atlantic City Rail Line, on Monday, Aug. 29.

Service on the Northeast Corridor had been halted on Saturday in advance of the storm and was restored that Tuesday. The Dinky resumed operation on Wednesday morning.

“There was severe flooding in Trenton, which was why it was necessary,” an NJ Transit representative explained. The Princeton Junction station suffered extensive flooding as well.

The flooding in the area also affected the work of local emergency responders. Michael Kenwood, a Princeton First Aid & Rescue Squad member, died Aug. 29 after an injury incurred while approaching a vehicle caught in the water.