Story by Cynde Puckett
Photos by Robin Banks & Cynde Puckett
Hurricane Matthew left a path of damages, flooding and power outages as it pushed along the eastern coast of Florida. Some residents chose to ride it out, while others heeded warnings to evacuate and shelters filled up quickly.
Daytona State College cancelled three days of classes and other events to give students, faculty and staff time to prepare for and recover from the storm’s devastation. With widespread power outages, water under boil notices and closed pumps at gas stations, many found returning to routines and obligations difficult. Downed trees and power lines made traveling on some roads impossible.
The College provided shelter for students during the storm and afterward offered use of the Lemerand Center’s showers and food from the Falcon Fuel Food Pantry.
DSC’s Facebook page shared the following after the storm: “We cannot stress enough the flexibility we will have for students this week and beyond to help those who need it.”
Forming off the coast of Africa as a tropical wave, Invest 97L, later named Hurricane Matthew, began a western trek across the Atlantic in late September. The system became more organized and strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane with 160 mph winds, weakening slightly to Category 4 status when it made landfall in Haiti and eastern Cuba on Oct. 4.
The storm lingered in the Atlantic building strength and then skirted the eastern coast of the U.S., affecting Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. Rather than making landfall in Florida, as predicted by meteorologists, it moved east in the Atlantic, slightly, and didn’t bring Category 4 destruction to the area. The storm finally made landfall in McClellan, S.C. as a Category 1 hurricane with 75 mph winds on Oct. 8.
In Haiti, the death toll has risen to over 1,000 and approximately 1.4 million people are in need of food. In Florida, five deaths were blamed on the storm and over 1 million customers left without power for several days and some for more than a week.