Hurricane Sandy’s Impact on Rutgers

The days leading up to and after October 29, 2012, when Hurricane Sandy made landfall in New Jersey, were a time of intense preparation and coordination with Rutgers staff teams and surrounding communities on the Camden, New Brunswick and Newark campuses.  The aftermath led to developing strategies to mitigate future major weather events impact not only on Rutgers properties but throughout the New York City metro area.

Antonio Calcado, now the executive vice president and chief operating officer for Rutgers, had left with his wife on a long-planned cruise a week before the path of Sandy was termed a major threat to New Jersey.  Calcado coordinated arrangements with the Rutgers Facilities team to prepare for the storm’s impact on university property and on-campus students and staff.  The Livingston and Busch campuses were the first to lose power, with major damage taking place to the Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (RBHS) building in Newark, according to Calcado, who noted that the University is still receiving funds from FEMA to cover the costs of Sandy repairs and upgrades to RBHS.  Further complicating the impact on Rutgers were the roads and bridges in towns around Rutgers’ campuses losing power and damage to their roads, causing a transportation nightmare. 

Prior to Sandy hitting New Jersey, the University advised students to leave campus and canceled classes.  In some cases, students who were not able to leave campus were offered temporary shelter, sometimes from university staff who were impacted by the storm.  The Livingston campus was the first to have power restored, and the Livingston Gym became a shelter first for area residents displaced by Sandy, then for people from Atlantic City and other parts of New Jersey.  Power shortly returned to the College Avenue campus and students were invited to return to their dorms, only to find out that classes were canceled for a week, which, according to Danielle Stovall, then an emergency medical technician for Rutgers Emergency Services, who were already stretched thin helping the nearly 300 people who were sheltered at the Livingston Gym, in addition to providing services for the students back on campus without classes to attend. 

The university is continuing to institute learnings from Sandy into their daily operations.  “Sandy was a learning experience for the entire Rutgers team and the towns surrounding our campuses and beyond,” Calcado said.  “Since Sandy, we’ve increased our collaboration with the area towns around our campuses.  With the installation of more solar panels, we’re more self-reliant on power for campus buildings.  We’ve also worked out an arrangement with PSE&G where they can use the Livingston Campus as a staging area for major storms and position their equipment for deployment in area towns that need help in exchange for Rutgers getting a higher priority for power restoration.”

Danielle Bechta SAS ‘11 was working at the SAS Dean’s office at the time Sandy hit New Jersey.  She was living in a second-floor apartment in Sayreville and initially ignored warnings to evacuate.  Bechta then saw flood waters come up to the first floor of the building the night Sandy made landfall.  With the help of her roommate who had a jeep, Bechta left her apartment and stayed with co-worker Vanessa Ortiz for two days.  Upon returning to her apartment, Bechta saw that her car was flooded out and the Red Cross was providing help to people on her block.  Bechta’s learnings from Sandy: “When they tell you to evacuate, leave!” and “Rutgers taught me to be resourceful not only in our careers but also in navigating the curves that life throws you.

Two Rutgers graduates are among many whose studies and career trajectories changed as a result of Sandy.  Jessica Sumner was a sophomore at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS) when Sandy hit New Jersey, and was familiar with the impact of flooding, having lived in Wayne, NJ’s flood zone near Pompton Lakes.  After seeing the impact that Sandy had on New Jersey – particularly a photo of a house in Union Beach that had been split in two by the hurricane –  Sumner decided to become a landscape architect.  She has subsequently worked on projects to mitigate flood damage caused by Tropical Storm Ida in 2021 to Liberty State Park in Jersey City and parks in Passaic County.  She returns to SEBS regularly to serve as a mentor to students interested in pursuing careers in landscape architecture.  Rebecca (Julien) Cook, who graduated SEBS in 2014, also pursued a career in landscape architecture in the area of climate change resiliency, and has worked on projects supporting green infrastructures.