The Summer Storm of 2012
Every summer my husband and I take a road trip out west to see my parents. Two years ago after being on the road just a couple hours we received a phone call that a homicide had occurred just a few houses down from ours and only a block away from the college. This summer we were traveling when the now infamous Derecho of 2012 wreaked havoc in the neighborhood and left our house without power for nine days. Our friends across the street say we can’t leave ever again – it’s bad luck!
We were fortunate that our daughter was around to pick up the pieces – literally and figuratively- so by the time we finally returned home this week some semblance of normalcy had returned. However we were able to follow the events of the past week online and realize that our campus and surrounding community indeed sustained an incredible amount of damage. We also know that it took an amazing amount of unbelievably hard work on the part of countless individuals to restore the college and neighborhood to functionality once again.
A crisis management team made up of key players from across campus met every day to assess the damages and strategically plan an appropriate response that would ensure the safety and well-being of students, faculty, and staff as well as visitors to the college. Although I wasn’t here in person to see for myself, I know this community well enough to imagine the concerted effort and coordinated collaboration that resulted in countless individuals going “above and beyond” once again.
According to a letter sent out from President Garren, the following list describes just some of the contributions made by our always generous and selfless LC Hornets:
“Special thanks to Dr. Neal Sumerlin for accepting a boatload of our students in his home after their stay at LU ended, to Drs. George Schuppin and Steve Elam for managing the DPT building which was used as an oasis by the CMT, to Dr. Danny Cline and Carol Martin for reworking the Governor’s School operations, to Rhonda Johnson (who also raked leaves with her daughter Carmen) assisted by Amanda McGovern for being the Student Affairs Division, to Chef Michial Neal for sawing downed trees with one hand and cooking with the other, to Rob Smith and Bob Driskill for serving as the “Incident Commanders” on Friday and Saturday, to Curtis Layne and his crew plus a number of staff and student volunteers for changing gigantic broken limbs and downed trees to kindling for several days, to Boyce Hamlet and his crew for doing more than I can describe, to an invisible crew who spent considerable time in dark attics where the temperature soared well over the 100-degree mark, and to a host of others who went so far and above the usual workload.
It has been a team effort, for sure, but it has been the members of the Building & Grounds, Dining Services, Security, and individual heroes in Student Affairs and College Communications and Marketing that have carried this institution through the raging wind storm and carried it safely through to the other side. God bless them all.”
Let me add my own thanks to those of Dr. Garren in expressing my deepest appreciation to all those who gave 110% while some of us were enjoying time away from the work place. Hopefully we will never again have to face a crisis like this. However, if and when it does happen, I hope I’ll be around to return the favor to all those who took care of our campus home during a most difficult and challenging time.
Peace,
Anne