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THE APPALACHIAN TheAppalachianOnline.com
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Vol. 87, No. 17
App Loft clears out, Mountaineers stay calm as Sandy rages by ANNE BUIE
Managing Editor
O
n Sunday morning before then-Hurricane Sandy hit, there were 18 people staying in the App Loft in Manhattan, N.Y. By Sunday night, there were only two people left – Howard Gisking, the fall faculty director for the loft, and his wife. “It’s lucky they got out,” Gisking said. “It would have been difficult to have 18 people here, especially with no electricity and no water. It would have been a really big, big problem.” The loft lost electricity and water, but Gisking said he and his wife had enough supplies to last five to six days.
But despite the lack of electricity and water in the neighborhood, Gisking said the overall atmosphere was “calm, peaceful and friendly.” “One thing I noticed is that New Yorkers, probably because of 9/11 and having gone though that, is that people seem to be very calm,” he said. “We were on the street for an hour and a half walk. There’s no electricity, the subways and busses aren’t running. No mass transit or anything like that. No street lights. But people seem to be going about their business.” And as for Gisking, he said he was staying positive despite the situation. “We have the opportunity to make the best of a situation without electricity, or
Unfamiliarity with snow causes car accidents, but not for this snow
internet or television,” he said. “No distractions or restaurants open around here... we’re realizing this is probably what is was like before the days of electricity.” Gisking and his wife were not the only people who lost power. Tuesday afternoon, The New York Times reported that 2.3 million people were out of power in New York. Luckily for junior music industries studies major Conor McClure, that number didn’t include his sister, who currently resides in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Since she didn’t lose power, she was able to post Facebook statuses and tweets, which helped McClure stay in contact with her. “The ability to basically live-tweet the inside [of ] these disasters really helps
with news and staying upto-date, but also communcate and whatnot as well,” McClure said. “It was cool seeing her update frequently with a first-hand experience of it all.” Although McClure said he was confident his sister would be fine, he was reassured by her constant updates. “She tweeted this morning, I think saying, ‘Nothing really looks different except for a tree or two,’” McClure said. “She’s described it as, ‘Basically fine, just rainy.’” Her reaction to the storm seems to be a common one. Appalachian alumnus Tyler Thomas currently lives in Bushwick, N.Y. Similarly, Thomas said the general mood of his area was calm, and could almost be
considered relaxed. “I saw my neighbors out talking to each other cleaning things up, the kids had the day off from school so they played outside a little while,” Thomas said. “It was actually kind of a nice change of pace. After moving straight from Boone to New York City, I think people move too fast up here and don’t relax enough, I’m still kind of getting acclimated to the pace. Mayor Bloomberg told people in a press conference Sunday night to take advantage of the situation and catch up on some sleep, and I think a lot of people did.” But despite the current calm conditions, Thomas did not fool around with the Sunday’s impeding storm. “When I read an article
that compared Sandy to the storm in the movie “The Perfect Storm,” but worse, I knew it was serious,” he said. “I saw that movie. It was a really bad storm. George Clooney and Mark Wahlburg even had a hard time riding it out and I’m nor George Clooney nor Mark Walhburg. The point is: I kept my ass safely inside.” Thomas said he had been impressed with the way people were handing the storm. “We know the damage that was dealt and we’re going to deal with it as we can get to it,” he said. “People are already overwhelming New York volunteer services to help clean up... folks keep up that kind of attitude, we’ll all be fine a lot sooner than we expected. This place is resilient. I’m optimistic.”
Kidd Brewer Stadium fence knocked down due to high winds, gusts
by KELLI STRAKA News Reporter
This week’s snow has not caused more traffic accidents in Boone, Boone Police Department Cpt. Jim Wilson said. On average, there are 100 traffic accidents a month in Boone, Wilson said. “Living here as long as I have, this was just not that big of a deal of a snow,” he said. The roads were also kept in good driving condition, Wilson said. More traffic accidents happen when the snow is unexpected, Wilson said, due to lack of planning. “I’ve seen that a lot of times, especially in the Boone area,” Wilson said. Forecasts for this snow were well announced and shared, he said, which allowed Boone residents to prepare in advance. “It didn’t catch anybody off-guard,” Wilson said. “The roads weren’t even near as full as normal for “But we do utilize a Tuesday and WednesASU Police to help day.” For the university, us with how to there are more traffic acmake sure tires are cidents during the first OK, how to drive in snow of the year due the show, how to to unfamiliarity of how check anti-freeze to drive in the snow, and anything that University Police Cpt. deals with winter Douglas Dugger said. driving and safety.” “Usually people are caught off guard,” DugVickie Hawkins, Associate Director for University Housing ger said. Another reason people tend to get in traffic accidents during the first snow of the year, Dugger said, is from cars not being properly geared for the snowy conditions. “Especially in our case, sometimes with the university, some of the students aren’t familiar with winter driving,” he said. Wilson said that to help avoid traffic accidents during snow, reduce speed “tremendously” and increase following distance “by double.” “Brakes are not your friend,” Wilson said. Once you apply brakes, all steering is gone, he said. It’s best to keep the wheels rolling a little bit. Even with four-wheel drive vehicles, the cars don’t stop any faster, only accelerate faster in the snow, Wilson said. The University Police offer safety programs presented in the residence halls for winter driving tips, Dugger said. At this point of the semester, University Housing has not had University Police present the program, Associate Director for University Housing Vickie Hawkins said. Typically the programs are late fall semester and early spring semester when there is more snow, Hawkins said. “But we do utilize ASU Police to help us with how to make sure tires are OK, how to drive in the snow, how to check anti-freeze and anything that deals with winter driving and safety,” she said.
Matt Abele | The Appalachian
High winds toppled the fences surrounding Kidd Brewer Stadium Tuesday, due to the landfall of Hurricane Sandy. The storm dropped over six inches of snow on Boone and brought gusts of wind up to 50 mph to the area.
Jump Start goes from pilot to permanent by STEPHANIE SANSOUCY Senior News Reporter
The university has hired a full-time coordinator for Jump Start Appalachian, turning the pilot program into a permanent program, said Director of Transfer Articulation Jane Rex. The newly appointed coordinator of Jump Start, Phil Lewis, said the Jump Start program began in February 2012 as a pilot program funded by a grant. Jump Start was created to help transfer students from the three biggest “feeder” schools – Caldwell, Central Piedmont and Wilkes Community Colleges – with their transition to the university, Lewis said. Lewis said Jump Start was picked up as a permanent program because there are an increasing number of transfer students, along with an increasing recognition of their need for support. “Supporting students to be successful has important implications for future funding,” Lewis said. Lewis said he hopes that as a permanent program, Jump Start will build bridges with other student organizations to help transfers become involved on campus. “It would be great if we had the space and time to create a Transfer Student Center on campus,” Lewis said. As of now there is no place for transfer students to meet, since many commute. Senior public relations major Lindsey Shaw is one of seven current student mentors in the Jump Start program.
Photo Courtesy | Phil Lewis
Some of the original mentors from the recently formed Jump Start Appalachian program for transfer students helped transfer students with their transition to Appalachian State.
Her role as a mentor is not only to promote the program at the three “feeder schools,” but to be there to support transfer students and to be someone to meet up with or ask questions, Shaw said. “I really love to hear them say how much we have helped them,” she said. “It’s gratifying that we are actually making a difference.”
Shaw said she hopes that as a permanent program, Jump Start can reach out to more students from schools other than the three target schools they work with now. Jump Start has a Facebook page as well as ‘First-Wednesday’ events where transfer students can meet and socialize with other students on the first Wednesday of every month.
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