Students respond to Hurricane Matthew flooding

They turned the car around after they saw pictures of the flooding. The trip to Charlotte could wait — their house and belongings could not.

Jane Violette, a senior media and journalism major from Fayetteville, said the first floor of her house was ruined.

“We didn’t expect it to be inside once we got there, but we got as much up as quickly as we could and then had to get out before it got too high,” she said. “We only had probably, I think, eight or nine inches was the height inside, but it still ruins everything. And then our garage was four to six feet inside so everything was submerged there, like my refrigerator was going up and down.”

Violette had traveled home to meet her family and drive to a wedding in Charlotte, but after neighbors sent them pictures of the flooding from Hurricane Matthew, they decided to cancel their plans and return home.

She said, when they got back, her family rushed inside and tried to save their furniture and personal belongings.

“I was looking around the living room and the dining room and I was like ‘this is where all of the memories I have from any holiday — like this is where I opened presents as a child, this is where we share our Thanksgiving meal’,” she said.

“That’s when it hit me; like it’s never going to be the same again.”

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Nicole Vandiford, a junior majoring in journalism, said Hurricane Matthew damaged her hometown of New Bern, North Carolina.

“That area got a bit of pounding from Hurricane Matthew, the surrounding area more so,” she said. “My house was not affected from the hurricane, thankfully, but I know a lot of places in my area that were. One area near me, Kinston, they got extensive flooding.”

She said being in Chapel Hill while the storm hit her hometown was a strange experience.

“It was just, being here, while my family was there, was really strange, because I just keep hearing about, you know, all this damage that was happening,” she said. “It’s like I’m happy I’m here, because I’m safe, but I feel bad for my family because they’re experiencing it.”

She said watching a hurricane damage her community away from home was a new experience.

“It was just really strange because I just wasn’t there,” she said. “And it was the first time I wasn’t there for a big storm like that.”

Vandiford said the flooding in New Bern forced the city to postpone her favorite annual event — Mumfest, the town’s celebration of the blooming chrysanthemums.

“The entire community comes together for this every single year,” she said. “It’s my favorite time of the year, and the hurricane postponed it to a weekend that I can’t go home. And it’s the first time not being able to go to Mumfest.”

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Rachael Purvis, a junior biology major, used her fall break to serve communities in Robeson County damaged by the storm.

“My co-leader, Beth Clifford, we had, you know, all these plans to meet with community partners, and we had all this stuff planned out, and then of course Hurricane Matthew hit, so it kind of changed the scope of our trip a lot in terms of who we talked to and what the focus of our trip was going to be,” Purvis said.

Purvis and Clifford led a fall break trip to Robeson County through the APPLES Service-Learning program.

“We went and helped some families — the water had just receded that week, and it had been five feet in their houses,” she said. “So they were just trying to get all their stuff out before the mold got really bad.”

Purvis said APPLES is returning to Robeson Country on Saturday for a service-day project.

“Efforts shouldn’t stop after the water recedes,” she said. “Effort and, like, encouragement’s going to be needed for the time to come.”

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