Students respond to Isaac’s threat

Seven years ago to the day, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. Now, current and former UNC students with ties to the Big Easy are preparing for the aftermath of another assault.

Hurricane Isaac was predicted to make landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on Tuesday night, but the storm is not expected to be as strong as Katrina in 2005.

Although the city of New Orleans did not issue a mandatory evacuation for Isaac, some UNC alumni said they have decided to be safe rather than sorry.

Former Senior Class President Dean Drescher, a 2012 graduate involved with Teach for America in New Orleans, left the area on Monday for Dallas.

“I was so unfamiliar with the city, and because of Katrina, I was pretty sure it was the best option for me to leave,” Drescher said.

“Most locals, I think, are staying and are prepared, but they also know how to handle it.”

Drescher said she thought most evacuees were young adults who didn’t know what to expect from the storm and might be unprepared.

Maggie Riddell, another 2012 UNC graduate in the Teach for America program, also chose to temporarily leave the city.

“We decided to beat traffic and get out of town on Sunday night,” she said.

Riddell said she and a few fellow teachers evacuated to Hattiesburg, Miss., in anticipation of Isaac.

Because her school cancelled classes Monday through Thursday this week, she said she probably won’t return to New Orleans until the weekend.

While Riddell said most people she knows evacuated, she’s worried that her students and their families don’t have the means to leave in the face of the storm.

“Many don’t have cars or relatives to stay with outside of the city, so they’ll be hunkering down and staying in place,” she said.

Alex Urquhart, a 2011 UNC graduate attending law school at Tulane University, plans to ride out the storm when it hits New Orleans.

“Our location in the city is uptown, so it’s not subject to a lot of flooding,” Urquhart said.

He said that his classes, which were cancelled Tuesday, will resume on Thursday unless the city experiences massive power outages and street flooding.

One student on campus said she will still feel the effects of Hurricane Isaac, even though it’s touching down a 14-hour drive away.

Sophomore Malaika Hankins, who is from New Orleans, said she’s spooked by Isaac’s projected landfall on the anniversary of Katrina.

She said flooding caused by Katrina lifted her family’s home from its foundation, cracking several walls.

“The overlap with Hurricane Katrina is definitely scary,” Hankins said.

“My family is staying in the city, and they‘ll be keeping me in the loop, so I don’t worry too much.”

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