Life at Lamar University after Hurricane Harvey
Hurricane Harvey continues to impact students, faculty and staff at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.
Part of the Texas State university system, Lamar was one of many institutions that was forced to close because of damage to university infrastructure and the lack of clean drinking water.
“We had to get going because of students’ financial aid packages, and because we hadn’t actually started the semester, that would put that in jeopardy for all those students that had financial aid,” said Brian Sattler, director of public relations at Lamar. “So, that was a real driver in getting going and the only way to do that was literally to go online 100 percent that first week.”
Tyler Hargraves ’19, a communications major with a focus in film studies, returned to school for face-to-face classes all while trying to fix the damage to his home.
“It’s been difficult the past three or so weeks,” Hargraves said. “Going from school to working on the home, making repairs, making it back, [trying to] sleep, go to work, go back to school. Going back to school was actually rather pleasant. Getting back into the routine of things, a routine that didn’t involve dealing with the hurricane and damages.”
The university has created a new fall semester schedule to accommodate those who were unable to return to school right away because of damages to their homes. Many Lamar students are from important oil and gas producing communities the southeast Texas region. Cities like Beaumont, Port Arthur, Orange, and Bridge City, were hit hard by the hurricane.
“The reality is, some students’ houses were literally flooded out and they may not be able to start right now but in a couple weeks when their house is cleared out they can [return]. We’re cognizant [that] everyone’s situation is a little bit different,” Sattler said.
Sattler is unsure as to how many students will not be able to come back to classes this semester.
“We don’t actually know ultimately what our enrollment is going to be,” Sattler said. “We do expect some loss for this semester.”
Lamar has a large first generation population and Sattler stressed that it is important that they are able to come back so they can continue their education.
“If they don’t complete that first semester, studies show that the propensity is that they don’t finish college,” Sattler said. “It’s very important that the first-generation students get back to it as quickly as possible so that they could become accustomed to being in college.”
Students were not the only ones affected by the damage caused by the hurricane. Faculty and staff also had difficulty returning to campus right when classes started up again.
“I was not as directly impacted by things, but most of my coworkers weren’t even at work,” said Jonathan Tippett, equipment office coordinator and television studio assistant at the campus television studio. “Work had officially begun again and we were officially supposed to report back in if we were able. Still about 75 percent of the department just wasn’t there and the whole campus was pretty vacant for the most part.”
Tippett said that school didn’t feel like school normally would, but more of a lag period between the summer and the fall semester.
“Students are still coming in and it hasn’t even felt like a real semester starting,” Tippett said. “It’s been difficult to say the least.”
Lamar had a group of staff stay on campus during the hurricane to help prevent any damage.
“The campus itself didn’t see any major flooding, but we did have areas of concern and some water intrusion in buildings and so forth,” Sattler said. “Something that’s wet in this climate will grow mold quickly, so the faster you get onto it the better.”
Some challenges for Beaumont officials included the high level of the Neches river, the lack of water pressure and damaged water system pumps. This caused the water in the city to be undrinkable.
“We had some students on campus [during the storm],” Sattler said. “We were able to get a semi tanker load of potable water for use in the dining hall, [and] we had to get portable outdoor toilets.”
Another obstacle the university had to face was the challenge of finding water to help with the chillers in all the school buildings.
“Ninety percent or so of our buildings are cooled using chillers, basically huge water cooler systems,” Sattler said. “By losing the water pressure in the city, we didn’t have water to run the chillers. If we didn’t run the chillers, the buildings get hot and humidity goes up.”
The university had to take water from the swimming pool and a decorative pond they had on the campus in order to keep the buildings cool in an attempt to prevent mold from growing.
“The city was able to get its water pressure thanks to ExxonMobil here in town, it’s one of the largest refineries here in Beaumont,” Sattler said. “They diverted some pumps they already had on order and were able to pressurize the city, which is still what they’re using right now, but they haven’t gotten the city system repaired yet.”
Sattler said that things are difficult but it is inspiring to see the community come together and help those who need it.
“It affects everybody whether you got water in your house or not, it affects the entire community, the campus community and the community where you live,” Sattler said. “It’s such an extensive impact on the region and the state for that matter, it’s just incredible.”
