On Sept. 17, 2019, shortly after forming in the Gulf Coast, Tropical Storm Imelda made landfall near Freeport, Texas before making the journey to the Greater Houston area.
Five deaths, $3 million in damages and 43.15 inches of rainfall later, Imelda was gone — just another storm in an ever-growing list of once-in-a-lifetime floods to hit the region including 2015’s Memorial Day floods, 2016’s Tax Day floods, Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and, now, Tropical Storm Imelda.
Tropical Storm Imelda is the fourth-wettest cyclone in Texas’ history, and yet, UHCL chose to remain open while the city was tormented with unyielding rain and overflowing bayous. It felt as if UHCL closed only when there was no possible way to get to the university safely. With Bay Area Boulevard flooded, along with numerous other streets immediately surrounding the campus, and the George & Cynthia Mitchell Memorial Causeway (also known as the Galveston Causeway) unnavigable, the university’s Facebook page announced the closure at 12:04 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 19.
After Imelda made landfall in Texas, UHCL sent a few emails and texts telling students, faculty and staff to “prioritize your safety and use your best judgment when deciding to commute.” This level of communication is the bare minimum and helpful tips about weather safety should be included when messages of this caliber are sent out. While there has since been a marked improvement in communication efforts from the university ー most recently with the severe storms on Nov. 7 ー that does not mean more work cannot be done.
The call for clear communication
Though UHCL administrators were in constant communication with one another through Imelda with early meetings and late-night conversations, the real problem was that UHCL did not effectively communicate with its community about what was happening behind the scenes. While certainly not every conversation between the Senior Leadership Team, Core Crisis Management team and the Incident Coordinator (who, in most weather cases, is Albert Black, director for EHS and emergency management) needed to be broadcasted, more consistent updates should have been posted.
The messages should have been sent through texts and emails and shared through social media and local news outlets so that members of the UHCL community would not have to make snap decisions after last-minute UHCL updates. This could have included hourly updates from the various vice presidents, directors and deans throughout the university that would keep the UHCL community updated, even if that meant receiving multiple messages conveying the same information.
Students might, and often do, choose to risk their safety in order to attend class if professors have a strict attendance policy or if a test, quiz or presentation is scheduled. UHCL should implement a policy that for classes not canceled by the instructor, students should not be penalized for not attending class if they were unable to safely make it to campus in an extreme weather situation.
In future situations, UHCL can open a telephone helpline and an online chatroom that could provide information to those who are not sure of what to do or what their options are. Additionally, a message sent via email, text and social media from President Ira K. Blake would go a long way to increase morale and help to clear any residual confusion.
One of the best-handled communication efforts throughout Imelda was the shuttle service. An email was sent out to students that informed them the shuttle would be running non-stop for an hour after the closure in order to ensure all students on campus could safely get back to their apartments. While there could have been additionals posts on the university’s social media sites, simple communications like this are a necessity for the university to provide.
The preparation of a plan specifically for weather emergencies
On the UHCL website, the Emergency Management Plan (EMP) lays out how the university should proceed in an emergency. At first, the EMP, in theory, seems comprehensive, but when put into practice, something happens. While the EMP needs to be flexible to accommodate rapidly changing situations, guidelines for communication during emergencies need to be strict and detailed. Currently, the EMP explains how to communicate and who will be responsible for communication, but it also needs a plan for what kind of information is released and how often.
The current EMP covers a large variety of emergencies that include, but are not limited to: “Chemical/Bio/Radiation/Spill,” “Bomb Threat, Campus Violence” and “Hurricane in Gulf of Mexico.” Instead of lumping weather-related incidents with an array of emergencies, UHCL should implement a plan specifically on weather emergencies and natural disasters and have separate, comprehensive plans for each of the potential emergencies.
In addition to the EMP, a Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) is available on the UHCL website for UHCL employees, including students who work on campus. All other students and community members cannot access the 36-page guideline for ensuring UHCL is committed to its essential functions and missions in an emergency. Of course, not all information should be easily accessed by students or the community, but separating students from each other ー whether on purpose or not ー is not in the university’s best interest.
The hidden trauma
While the EMP is updated every two years, perhaps new updates should include a section on how events that warrant emergency management might affect the UHCL community.
Following Harvey, during the 2017-2018 school year, UHCL Counseling Services conducted in-house research on how the hurricane affected students on campus, discovering that over 70% of students who completed initial consultation paperwork were dealing with hurricane-related stress.
Living through something as intense and surreal as Hurricane Harvey has the potential to evolve into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While PTSD from a natural disaster like a hurricane might not be apparent at first, when dealing with a sudden tropical storm like Imelda, symptoms can abruptly manifest, causing massive panic and feelings of helplessness.
Additionally, the research article “Surviving the Storm: Avoidant Coping, Helping Behavior, Resilience and Affective Symptoms Around a Major Hurricane-Flood,” developed by Steven Bistricky, associate professor of clinical psychology and health service psychology; Mary Short, professor of clinical psychology and health service psychology; Heather Kanenberg, associate professor of social work; and Sara Elkins, assistant professor of clinical psychology and health service psychology; found many individuals experienced some level of depressive or PTSD symptoms post-Harvey with up to 25% of these individuals at a level where mental health services would be recommended.
The team also found that the major hurricane/ flood PTSD experience is different than that of interpersonal trauma and that while most people have symptoms subside after the first month following the event, there are still those who will continue to experience stable and significantly impairing symptoms.
The research concluded that people can prepare for future storms by fostering social relationships in times of need, trying to consider ways they can incite hope and resilience in circumstances, and seeking and giving social support.
UHCL does offer a variety of helpful resources for those affected by hurricanes, tropical storms and heavy rainfall like the services offered by the Counseling Center and the Dean of Students’ Hurricane Evacuation Transportation and food pantry, but there is not enough widespread communication about these resources.
Sending out regular emails about storm preparation during the hurricane season and having students attend a session about emergency preparedness and post-incident resources during orientation would give students a physical reminder of these resources. This information could also easily be shared throughout the duration of an emergency in addition to messages about campus closures.
Students should bear the responsibility of making an effort to stay informed, but UHCL should be aware that beyond orientation, most of the detailed information can only be found after a thorough search on the university’s website ー and a webpage is not always easy to navigate. Flyers and UCT slides would allow struggling students to be aware of these resources. The news section on the website could offer spotlight profiles on these programs as well.
Messaging should not only come from the university’s Marketing and Communications department but also through departments, administration, faculty and staff who have gone through training on how to communicate effectively to students during emergency situations. The university can send out messages that are then echoed by all levels ー from individual faculty members to organization advisers to offices that employ student workers. One message does not fit all, but a more comprehensive communication plan for emergency situations that goes beyond just university closures does help most.