Valentina Palm and Joshua Ceballos/PantherNOW Staff
On Friday Aug. 30, students filled backpacks with a change of clothes, toiletries and snacks to either stay in the hallways of Parkview Hall or go home despite clear skies and good weather.
Hurricane Dorian is projected to hit South Florida late Sunday night or Monday morning, and in light of the storm some students are choosing to tough it out on campus while others are heading home.
For all housing students who don’t have a place to stay nearby, Parkview Hall is the University’s hurricane shelter where they will be accompanied by resident assistants throughout the stormy weekend ahead.
After living at FIU for less than one week, freshman Biology major Haley Nathaniel already had to pack up and get ready to go.
“It’s annoying because we are just trying to adjust and now, we have to change and move our things,” said Nathaniel, who moved into Panther Hall last Saturday and is now preparing for the possible move to Parkview during the storm.
Any students staying on campus will be moved to Parkview where they will sleep in the hallways, when the Housing Department makes the call for shelter operations.
Students living in Bayview on the Biscayne Bay Campus will be transported to MMC on Sunday and all students will be sheltered together in Parkview.
Although students have been asked by the University to bring three days worth of food to Parkview, Chartwells, the food service company that runs FIU Dining, will provide food for sheltered students.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be served for up to 10 days in a worst case scenario according to Paul Johnson, resident district manager for Chartwells at FIU.
Johnson says they are expecting up to 500 occupants in Parkview during the storm.
For some students, staying on campus is an uncomfortable idea.
“I prefer to go home than stay here in Parkview because they don’t let us shower or go in our rooms and we sleep in the hallways,” said Nayeli Torres, a Criminal justice freshman.
Others, like Panther Hall Residential Assistant Nick Snow, say there’s no safer place to be than a university.
“I think a university is where students are going to be safe, but not the most comfortable,” said Snow.
As an RA, Snow thinks it’s his and his co-workers responsibility to stick around for students, saying, “of course we’re staying, they’re are our kids and we are not abandoning them.”
After the storm, students can visit the food pantry on the third floor of the Graham Center on MMC if they’re in need of food, according to Joanna Garcia, the associate director of the Center for Leadership and Service.
“Our role as the food pantry comes into play after the storm. With us, students have a place to come to for food while the grocery stores are still stocking up,” Garcia said.
MMC will also shelter residents of the Florida Keys if from Monroe county is evacuated.
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