As Western North Carolina continues to grapple with the destruction and devastation left by Hurricane Helene, classes at one of the region’s universities won’t resume for almost a month.
UNC Asheville Chancellor Kimberly van Noort announced Tuesday that classes will be suspended at least until Oct. 28 as a result of the storm and its lingering impacts.
The university first canceled classes on the morning of Thursday, Sept. 26, as Helene approached the area, and the university has remained closed since then. The university had initially planned to remain closed until Oct. 9, but the closure will now last weeks longer.
The university will remain in Condition 3, or closed, until at least Oct. 14. Under Condition 3, campus operations are suspended and only essential employees are permitted on campus. If the university moves to another, less-severe condition level after Oct. 14, some operations may resume and additional employees may be permitted on campus, but classes will remain canceled until Oct. 28.
The campus “sustained minimal structural damage” from the storm, but has been without power, running water or internet since Friday, Sept. 27, van Noort said.
“Communication with our campus and the broader community has been extremely limited due to impaired communications infrastructure, but slowly, we are gradually regaining our ability to connect,” she said.
All on-campus students were located within 72 hours of the storm hitting Asheville, van Noort said. The university assisted students in finding safe travel routes off campus and providing them with gas for their cars, she said. “A very small number of students” were relocated to another UNC System campus.
The university was housing about 1,600 students on-campus prior to the storm, and about 1,300 students remained during the storm, a total that was confirmed “through a coordinated door-to-door and room-to-room effort” led by the university’s student affairs division. Students that remained during the storm “were provided daily with drinking water, three meals and support services” until they relocated.
“Throughout the last few days, we’ve worked diligently to ensure we knew where every student was on campus and to meet their needs,” van Noort said.
Though students are not on the Asheville campus, they can continue to access mental health care through all other UNC System schools.
“Bulldogs, you are resilient and we look forward to when we can welcome you home,” van Noort said.
Disaster relief, additional updates
The university has established a disaster relief fund, available online at giving.unca.edu.
Further updates from UNC Asheville regarding Helene’s impacts are available at new.unca.edu/bulldogalert.
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