Despite Hurricane Ivan’s minimal effects in Thibodaux, Mike Naquin, assistant vice president for business affairs and Nicholls’ emergency planning committee chairman, said if the storm had shifted a little more to the west, everyone would have been thankful for the way Nicholls implemented its emergency plans.”What made it seem a little odd for this past storm was that we had very little wind, no rain and at some times it seemed like the sun wanted to shine,” Naquin said. “Students who were moved into this evacuation center probably were thinking why they were even in there. However, when you’re dealing with a hurricane, the path of it is so uncertain.”

Stephen Hulbert, University president, closed the University from Sept. 14, beginning at noon, through Sept. 16. According to Carroll Falcon, provost and vice president for academic affairs, additional days will not be added to the academic calendar to compensate for the closure; however, professors of night classes will be asked to extend class time as they see fit since they only meet once a week.

“Our system policy right now is flexible as long as the content that would have been covered is taught, so I don’t think it’s necessary to add days to the calendar,” Falcon said.

The emergency planning committee initiated its response to Hurricane Ivan by moving the University into phases one and two at the Sept. 10 meeting, Naquin said.

Phase one of the plan includes securing the physical facilities, insuring that all University vehicles are ready for emergency use and securing the Nicholls farm at Lafourche Crossing as well as the Greenhouse.

According to Naquin, phase two of the plan provides for the University’s security from a University Police standpoint. The telecommunications specialist is also alerted to install phones in the Student Union Ballroom in the event that it would be opened as an evacuation center.

At its Sept. 13 meeting, the Nicholls emergency planning committee scheduled another meeting for the morning of Sept. 14 to finalize plans since the Lafourche Parish emergency planning committee had not met yet.

Naquin said he was expecting the parish meeting to be early Monday morning, but it was rescheduled to a later time due to difficulties getting everyone in the parish together.

“From that meeting is where we gathered a lot of information of what was to be expected in Lafourche Parish,” Naquin said. “The earliest we (the University committee members) were able to get together and make a decision was Tuesday morning.”

“We decided to cancel classes Tuesday at noon, which I thought worked out real well because it gave students an opportunity to leave as soon as they could and gave us an opportunity to move those students who had no place to go into the shelter without having to move things in the wind and rain,” Naquin said.

At this point, the University moved into phase three which includes preparing an emergency control center and an evacuation center for student, faculty, staff and their families in the Student Union Ballroom. Naquin said Nicholls has employees who have agreed to accept the responsibility of manning the shelter.

“When a hurricane is approaching, we encourage all students to evacuate if they can,” Eugene Dial, vice president for student affairs, said. “When we determine that we won’t be able to properly staff and operate the residence halls, it is not a safe environment at that point, and the Student Union Ballroom is made accessible for students to evacuate to.”

Dial said the residence halls and La Maison du Bayou closed Wednesday morning giving students time to move.

Gabriel Burton, a marine biology sophomore from Dover, Ohio, was one student who did stay at the University for the duration of the hurricane threat. The ballroom, though not offering the comfort of his room in Millet Residence Hall, was not as unpleasant as he expected.

“(Moving into the ballroom) was presented to us as a choice between staying on campus or going home,” Burton said. “For an out-of-state student, that isn’t really a choice, (but there were) three square meals, snacks in between, drinks and plenty of games and activities to participate in while we were there.”

Sodexho provided meals for students who had meal plans and had meals for sale for those without a meal plan.

According to Dial, 144 people checked in to the Student Union Ballroom, including 102 students. The remaining evacuees there were faculty and staff members, their family members and family members of students.
Other students, faculty and staff members decided to evacuate South Louisiana when the order to close the University was issued.

Elisa Ledet, pre-medicine senior from Cutoff, said she made the decision to evacuate to Houston, Texas, Monday night before the closure order was even issued. Ledet made the decision because she was responsible for evacuating her three younger sisters who do not have transportation.

“It was hard to decide whether or not to leave before Nicholls ended classes,” Ledet said. “(But) I didn’t want to put myself or my family in harm’s way when I could be safe somewhere else.”

Though the area many Nicholls students call home sustained little if any damage, some students from southeastern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida took the brunt of the storm.

Brandi Fontenot, family and consumer science senior from Boothville, La., said her family’s home did not sustain any damage from flooding, but from other dangers associated with hurricanes. Electricity was not working in lower Plaquemines Parish for a few days after the hurricane because of downed power lines in tornados and strong winds, hindering any immediate clean-up efforts.

“My family’s home (sustained) minor damages – busted out windows and bad roof damage,” Fontenot said. The damage to other homes was not so minimal.

“There were trailers that were completely demolished,” Fontenot said. “It looked like someone picked them up and threw them down.”

Fontenot, who usually visits Boothville twice a month, will be returning this weekend to see the extent of the damage and try to restore her family’s interests to normal.

Hurricane Ivan also led to the decision Tuesday afternoon to cancel the Nicholls football game against Texas A&M-Kingsville, which was scheduled for Sept. 18.

“When you review where the hurricane was located in relation to Thibodaux and New Orleans when we made the decision and where the National Hurricane Center was projecting Ivan’s likely paths, you can see that we were making a timely decision on the basis of safety for our student-athletes,” David Boudreaux, vice president for institutional advancement, said.

Robert Bernardi, athletic director, said since it was not a conference game and there is no common open date this year, the game will not be rescheduled. He said there is a possibility of rescheduling for next year.
Bernardi said the decision to cancel was affected by a variety of factors including the safety of Nicholls athletes, concerns from parents of student-
athletes and safety of the visiting team.

Boudreaux said: “Furthermore, our opponent was scheduled to fly into New Orleans and stay in New Orleans over the weekend. The New Orleans airport was closed and much of the city evacuated.