David McRaney  |  Journalist

Students ride out storm on campus

Most of the students who attend USM spent the days following Hurricane Katrina with friends and family, but a handful of students who live oncampus chose to ride out the storm together.

Julie Indest, residential assistant for Bolton Hall, spent six hours in the hallway of the dormitory with approximately 20 others as the storm passed overhead. Indest said most of the female dorms had between 10 and 20 residents to stay during the storm.The residents returned to their rooms to check on their belongings once a tornado watch was lifted and found a fourthfloor window had been sucked out of its frame. Soon, all but five womenleft for home. The rest stayed behind to deal with the aftermath.

"It was a miserable yet bonding experience," said Indest. "It didn't matter what you looked like, which was good because we looked bad and smelledbad. Girls like to groom, so, in that sense it was awful."

Indest said they played cards and talked in between watching movies on their laptops to pass the time. Eventually all the female residents whereconsolidated into Pulley Hall.

"We had no contact with the outside world," said Indest. "We depended on newspapers for the littleinformation about what was going on outside of campus."

By the timepower was restored, Indest said everyone knew each other by name and had established strong bonds.

Bradley Warfhauer left Hattiesburg Hall to be with his family in Picayune the day before the storm. His roommate, Eric Wood, stayed one day before returning to Columbus. "It was a good decision in retrospect," said Warfhauer. "I-59 between Picayune and Hattiesburg was impassable for a week, so I wouldhave been unable to get home."

According to Owen Nelson Parker, theaftermath was little more than a nuisance to the residents who stayedbehind in Hattiesburg Hall.

"We were able to get water and food at the Commons," said Parker, who is a residential adviser for his dorm. "We also had generators that provided power to outlets on each end of the second floor, so we had two televisions, two X-Boxes and two fans thateventually migrated down into the lobby."

The residents of HattiesburgHall gathered in the lobby to ride out the storm, opening doors occasionally to check on the wind and rain. The male dorms eventually consolidated in the days following, and, despite the heat and lack of comfort, Parker said everyone managed to get along till running water and electricity were restored.

Originally published in The Student Printz on September 15, 2005