The Traveler

Issue date: 9/5/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Veronica Pucci Umbrellas have been a necessary accessory this week due to rains coming from Hurricane Gustav.

Many students huddled under umbrellas Wednesday, while some strutted in flashy rain boots. Still others braved the elements and just walked through the wind and rain to class, depressed and drenched. The ensuing cloudburst of Hurricane Gustav's remnants left students struggling to stay dry and afloat as an onslaught of rain began hitting the University of Arkansas campus Tuesday.

Ifte Naim, a 21-year-old student from Fayetteville, expressed disdain at the prospect of heavy rains continuing through the week.

"I'm not happy because I have three classes on Friday," he said. Naim also predicted that "math students with tests on Friday will be heavily affected."

Ramsay Fulbright, a student from Chattanooga, Tenn., said he felt like he had "taken a shower with clothes on" when walking to class.

Others offered a more blunt opinion of Gustav. Nicole Nichols, an international economics major, was put out by the continual rainfall. "It sucks," Nichols said.

"It took so long to drive in it, I don't like walking in it and it puts a damper on my mood," she said.

Nicole's classmate, Holly Giblin, echoed Nicole's attitude because the rain "makes me cold," Giblin said.

About 2 million people were evacuated along the Gulf Coast in a span of 2 ½ days in preparation for Hurricane Gustav, with the hurricane making landfall as a Category 2 storm. Damage is still being assessed, and as many as 80,000 homes are without electricity in New Orleans.

However, the brunt of the storm side-swiped New Orleans as levees and flood walls held up, and the city allowed residents to begin their return Wednesday.

Gustav is now classified as a tropical depression. Heavy rains were predicted through Thursday as the depression tracked further north to the Oklahoma/Arkansas border by late Wednesday, but a silver lining of drier weather is expected going into Friday as Gustav dissipates. Fayetteville received about four inches of rain since Tuesday.

Steve Voorhies of University Relations said that since the university "is on top of the hill" there wasn't a need for an emergency plan for flooding.

"The only problem sometimes is the graduate education building," Voorhies said. "The creek by the new softball field has overflowed, but that hasn't happened in 20 years," he said.

Pre-med student John Kim welcomed the prospect of a rain-soaked week.

"I love the rain so I don't mind it," Kim said. "It will suck for traffic though since it's always slow when it's raining," he said.

Paige Breech, a senior from Bryant, also welcomed the rain.

"It's always fun to chill out and watch a movie or something," she said. However, Breech called the news of three new tropical storms brewing in the Atlantic Ocean "Gross."

Following Hurricane Gustav are tropical storms Hanna, Ike and Josephine, respectively, as they pick up speed across the Atlantic Ocean throughout the week, with Hanna set to make landfall in the United States by this weekend.

Tropical Storm Karina continued to weaken into Tuesday behind Tropical Storm Josephine and was expected to falter in the days ahead.

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