BHS Grad Escapes Hurricane Isaac With Classmates

Though Hurricane Isaac is far away from the Chesapeake Bay, its effects are still felt locally.

Ben Greenhouse, a 2012 graduate of , was among the students at the University of New Orleans who escaped the incoming storm with his classmates. The school is right on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain, and university officials took no chances.

Two busloads of out-of-state students made the trek from New Orleans to Millsaps College in Jackson, MS, to be sure they were out of harm's way. However, they had to leave most of their belongings back at their dorms.

Greenhouse contacted Patch about his experience leaving New Orleans behind in his first week of classes. Now comfortably 180 miles away from the storm, here's what he had to say about the situation:

Everyone here is aware of the situation, but no one is really freaking out or anything. We have the news running on a TV in the lobby so we just watch the storm progress. The campus in New Orleans isn't in any immediate danger yet, so we aren't that concerned.

We were told just to bring a small bag with a few changes of clothes, some toiletries (enough to shower, including a towel), and some bedding (most just brought a blanket and a pillow), so most of just have that. We were only expecting to stay till Thursday, but with the way the storm is moving right now its looking more like Saturday. I think some people will run out of clean clothes before then though.

We left most of our things in New Orleans, most of our clothes, most or our books and other school supplies. Then things like refrigerators, printers, microwaves, cars, and really most of our stuff. We brought very little with us.

When I chose New Orleans for school I was aware that something like this could happen, but I really wasn't expecting it. That said, I'm not surprised that it did, and it doesn't make me want to re-think my choice at all.

That all said, we are very comfortable here. We are currently staying at Millsaps College here in Jackson. They had an entire dorm closed for renovations, so that is where we are staying. The rooms are doubles but there are three people to a room, so one person gets a fold up cot. The students here very nice and are aware of us. We are eating in the dinning hall and they let us use their gym. There isn't a lot for us to do, so we just sort of roam around. There are about 90-100 of us here from UNO, out of a student body of about 10,000, so a lot of students were local and evacuated with their families. The ones that ended up here were all of the foreign students and out of state students. I just though that that was interesting how it worked out like that. 

But all in all we are just hoping to get back soon and that the campus and all of our thing are still there when we get there.