Vol. 59 Issue 2
The voice of the Spartan community
09. 14. 11
Earthquakes, Hurricanes & Fires! Oh My!
Hurricane Irene swept through Hampton Road with unexpected force, leaving in its wake limbs snapping, power outages, and flooded roads.
PHOTO ANTHONY GORDON | SPARTAN ECHO
By Keona Prude-News Editor The month of August has been a very busy one in terms of weather. From earthquakes, to hurricanes and even fires, the area of southeast Virginia has seen it all. On Aug. 4, it was reported that a fire started by lightening was burning in the Great Dismal Swamp area. The fire has spread persistently because of dry conditions, wind and a large quantity of fuel left on the land from Hurricane Isabel in 2003 and from the 2008 fire. This fire has burned rampant since then. Barb Stewart, a U.S. National Park Service information officer, said the fire is the swamp’s largest in recent history, exceeding the 2008 fire that burned almost 4,900 acres. About a week after the fire began, it spread into North Carolina. The swamp fire has burned more than 6,000 acres in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. Thick fumes of smoke have tormented Hampton Roads and northeastern North Carolina residents for weeks. Some NSU students strug-
gled to deal with the smoke and fog. Mary Wilson, junior sociology major and commuter student from Suffolk, found the smoke from the fire to slow down her every day schedule. “It smelled like smoke everywhere. It was very hard to breathe. The smoke and fog made it hard to drive some places,” said Wilson. Many hoped the passing of the Category 2 Hurricane Irene would put the fire out. Ten to 15 inches of rain landed on the fire site, but it has not put the fire out completely. Fire officials spotted a minimum of 30 acres where smoke was still prevalent. John Bearer, a spokesman for the Southern Area Type 2 Incident Team, who is also in charge of the fire said that there was no visible flames spotted and the fire did not seem to have widen. To the surprise of many people, an earthquake rocked the eastern coast of the United States on Tuesday, August 23 at 1:51 p.m. The 5.8 magnitude, 15- sec tremor originated in Louisa County, Virginia. The quake was felt from Georgia to Canada. Following the quake, approximately four
aftershocks were felt. The aftershocks ranged from 2.2 to 4.2 in magnitude, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. NSU students were busy going through their daily routines when the earthquake was felt at various locations on the campus. Junior building construction technology major LaToyya Carter was in class when the earthquake happened. “I was in my English class in Madison Hall when I felt the rumble. I had never felt one before, so I didn’t know what it was at first. After a few seconds, reality set in… an earthquake had just occurred. ,” said Carter. “I was really scared because I didn’t know what to expect.” Although there was minimal damage, the earthquake did disturb the everyday life of east coasters. The federal government had to send some workers. Here at NSU, all buildings were evacuated until the safety of the building was sure and no aftershocks were felt. This was the biggest earthquake on the east coast in years. Almost six years after Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans and
other parts of Louisiana, another Hurricane threatened to do damage to the U.S. Hurricane Irene originated in the Bahamas and made its way up the east coast. Irene was expected to cause severe damage to the east coast. However, the more it traveled up coast, the weaker it became. Irene had caused damage in North Carolina, but as it made its way to Virginia, less damage was caused. With the threat of Irene being a treacherous hurricane, NSU officials decided to cancel classes for Friday, August 26 through Monday, August 29 in preparation for expecting the worse. Not only did they cancel classes, but campus residents were forced to evacuate the dorm residence halls. Emails and phone calls went out to NSU students saying, “Due to Hurricane Irene, N-S-U will close residence halls at 2 p.m. Friday, August 26 and will remain closed until 4 p.m. on Monday, August 29.” For those residents that did not have anywhere to retreat to, they were housed in Joseph G. Echols Memorial Hall. Several
tweets were tweeted during the Hurricane to keep NSU’s followers updated on the status of the students housed in Echols. “Staying in Echols was a blast! It wasn’t your normal evacuation. We watched movies, played board games, basketball, etc. It was a positive environment,” said senior mass communications major Steve Austin. “Hot meals were served periodically. Housing staff made sure everyone was comfortable for everyone during the Hurricane.” The Hampton Roads area was of great concern because it is known to flood, especially the independent city of Norfolk. The lowlying areas of Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Poquoson and Sandbridge had evacuation orders. Although Irene was not as bad as officials predicted, she did cause some damage. The Virginia Department of Transportation closed the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and the Midtown tunnel due to fear of flooding. Motorists were encouraged to stay off of - Story continued on p. 3