Hurricane Irene causes trouble for student’s homes near and far from Durham

Hurricane Irene causes trouble for student’s homes near and far from Durham

Plenty of students were forced to handle Hurricane Irene’s effects on their homes

By Drew Obston

                Durham- As citizens of Durham and students moved into their dorm’s many of their homes near and far dealt with the damage that Hurricane Irene inflicted.

                In areas as close as Lee and as far as northern Vermont the effects of Hurricane Irene caused students to take a step back from preparing for the start of the year and deal with their homes.  UNH’s campus experienced minimal damage consisting of slight flooding in select locations.

                However, in neighboring Lee, while little damage was sustained, large areas of houses experienced loss of power.

                “There wasn’t really any property damage, we just lost power right off the bat,” said Mike Quinlan, a Sophomore at UNH from Massachusetts whose lived in Lee since the beginning of the summer.

                “For three days we didn’t have running water or electricity,” Quinlan said.  He wasn’t alone “Some had generators and were living better than we were, but for many they were out of power as long as we were,” Referring to his neighbors “They were not too happy with the electric company”

                Despite losing power Quinlan does maintain the belief shared by many students that the storm was overhyped. “We packed so much stuff away that would have been fine,”

                But, when looking at the storm’s effect on other students’ homes the story was much different.

                “My town had never seen anything like this,” said Justin Veysey a Sophomore from Chester, Vermont. Veysey describes the scene shown above, “We had lots of paved roads destroyed, basements flooded, even a historical bridge collapsed,”

                Veysey was at UNH when the storm hit, but had to return home to help his family and friends deal with the damage. “My friends and I thought it was kind of cool, but a lot of older freaked out,”

                While Veysey corroborated Quinlan’s statement that the thought the storm was over hyped in Durham, the story was different in his home town. “Some people were prepared collecting food and gas and clearing tree, and others evacuated.  But for the most part we were unprepared.”  In contrast to Lee most homes were out of power for a week and a half in Veysey’s home town.