Hurricane Matthew, the threatening storm that has spread devastation from Haiti to the Bahamas to Florida, has since passed, but people, including Lipscomb students, are still reeling from its aftermath.
Despite the brutal storm hitting parts of Florida, Lipscomb Athletics’ Senior Publisher and Media Relations Director Mark McGee said it didn’t affect any of the team’s traveling to play Lipscomb this weekend.
“As far as I know we’re going strong,” McGee said. Lipscomb had seven events this weekend, but none were cancelled. However, McGee said there was a soccer match in Florida that was canceled.
Lipscomb Missions affiliates at Manna Global Ministries in the Dominican Republic reported that so far, they have remained safely in the shadow of the storm.
Paul Wert, co-director of the Manna Children’s Home in the northeastern countryside of the DR said he had mixed feelings about Hurricane Matthew.
“We were happy to have missed the brunt of the storm,” Wert said. “We did receive some much needed rain and a little bit of wind, but our area of the island of Hispaniola really had little damage.”
Glenn Weaver, head of Manna’s college program in Santiago, said that he and his students experienced light rain and ominous clouds over the last few days.
“The only way it really affected us was that our students were out for three days,” he said. “It meant we had a lot more time to spend together than we normally do which got us thinking of other communities and how we can help Christians not just in our neighborhood [during this time].”
Several Lipscomb students hail from places that were severely affected by the hurricane.
Sophomore Savannah Obregon is from the Bahamas and currently has family there. Obregon said Thursday was especially difficult for her since her parents lost power and internet on Wednesday night before the hurricane hit Nassau on Thursday, so many methods of communication were unavailable. Obregon said she was able to text her mother using her data plan, but her brother in Ireland was unable to directly communicate with her parents.
“It was extremely hard to be away from my parents during this,” Obregon said. “I felt stressed on Thursday attempting to go about my normal routine knowing what my family and friends were about to go through.
I had an outpouring of love and support from friends and faculty here. However, I felt alone because a lot of people didn’t understand what my country was going through, and what I was going through. It wasn’t easy to focus when I didn’t know what was happening and couldn’t get a response from my family. I wanted so badly to be home with them.”
Obregon said her family is safe, but she was able to view pictures and videos of the town’s damage on Facebook.
“My friend’s aunt’s had to run out of her house during the hurricane because the 140 mph winds ripped off her roof,” Obregon said. “Some rooftops were stripped bare of shingles and trees had fallen or blown across others. Pictures of places that I frequently go when I am home — the stables I used to ride at and my old high school look completely different. Hurricane Matthew changed the landscape in Nassau.”
Obregon said the damage is significant, and it will take some time for her home to recover.
“My people have a lot of work to do to clean up the island,” she said. “Power was not on for three days; there is still no internet or cable so communication is still tricky, but I know that my family is safe. I thank God that we suffered more property damage than causalities, unlike our neighbours in Haiti who have a significant loss of life.”
Junior Diana Poena is another Lipscomb student who had family in the hurricane’s dangerous path. She currently has family in Florida.
“I live only 15 minutes from the Atlantic, and I have seen a lot of hurricanes in my life so I wasn’t surprised that my parents did not want to evacuate,” Poena said. “A lot of my friends and family actually have not evacuated, and they seem to be doing all right.”
Poena said her family is safe as well.
“Every time I ask my dad how it’s been going he keeps telling me that they are just fine and that God is always good!”
“I can also see that a lot of my friends actually went to the beach to ring in the hurricane,” Poena noted. “When you live in Florida you definitely are not as afraid as some people make it out to be when they aren’t from Florida.”
According to CNN, Hurricane Matthew is no longer a hurricane, but it is still a serious storm, posing a threat to places on the coast, especially North Carolina.
Additional reporting by Becca Risley, Katie Bianchini and KJ Lauck
Photo courtesy of Savannah Obregon