Students closely watch storm damage

Many University students and faculty have turned their attention to weather updates as Hurricane Georges made its way through the Caribbean this week.

Now it has continued into the Gulf Coast of the United States, and students and faculty are wondering if the powerful storm will affect their friends and loved ones who may be in Georges's path.

Elizabeth Kievit, a research fellow in the radiation-oncology division of the University's Medical School, planned to marry Eric Dunkers, a post-doctorate fellow of internal medicine at the University, in Key West, Fla. this past Saturday.

"No one really knows where they are or if they even actually got married," said Mary Davis, a radiology-oncology research assistant.

Many of Kievit's relatives traveled from her native county of Holland in the Netherlands to Key West to attend the wedding, Davis said.

The couple may be now enjoying their honeymoon in Jamaica, but "we haven't heard from them since before they left," Davis said.

Though most of South Florida escaped the full force of Georges, LSA first-year student Josh Juran called his family back home in Boca Raton last week.

"I was paying attention," Juran said. "But when they put Broward and Dade County on warning, I knew there was no real danger," since his family lives north of the warning area.

When the storm threatened Florida, areas from Deerfield Beach south to Key West were put under a hurricane warning.

As the storm moved over the Gulf of Mexico, Georges took aim at the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coasts. Rackham student Pamela Bennett, originally from Baton Rouge, La., is accustomed to dealing with storms like Georges.

"Hurricane season comes every year," Bennett said. Not every storm bears close watching, she said, but "every now and then you have to stop and pay attention to these atypical storms."

Bennett said her family in Louisiana prepared for the storm by purchasing supplies, but "it is hitting closer to New Orleans," where more than one million people were evacuated from low-lying areas.

Rackham student Amy Lawson is also keeping a close eye on Georges. Her family was one of those who had to evacuate New Orleans.

My family "went about four hours north, so they're fine," Lawson said.

New Orleans is a "dangerous place" to be during a hurricane since much of the city is below sea-level and is prone to flooding, she said.

"The storm was projected to hit New Orleans," said Lawson, but the eye of the storm struck Mississippi yesterday.

09-29-98