Campus Conversations

And the countdown begins...

December 4, 2011

The countdown to winter break begins now! The trouble with that is that the closer I get to the date I get to go home, the more work I have to do. I currently have a whole list of work I have to have done before finals week! But hopefully all that work will make time go faster? So of course I have to talk about the wind storm that swept through L.A. this past week…I have always lived in Los Angeles and I remember maybe once having strong winds, but never that strong! Unfortunately for us at Oxy the winds were so strong it knocked down several big branches, trees, and messed with power lines which caused an entire black out in the city. We thought that a power outage was the worst thing that can happen during the winds, but we were wrong. Apparently a fire started behind Keck Theater and because of the winds it began to spread. Some dorms were evacuated just to be on the safe side. I live in Rangeview, and we weren’t evacuated. That is until we heard that we were suppose to evacuate the building and soon. My roommates and I headed to the gym where everyone was taking refuge. On our way there we had to dodge falling branches and jump over the large branches blocking out path. We stayed in the gym for a while until they said it was ok for students to return to their dorms, except Rangeview. By this time it was around 2am and we were all tired so we headed to Bell-Young with my other friends. At around 3:30am we were told we could return to Rangeview.  We didn’t know why they kept us out of Rangeview for so long, until today. It so happens that a transformer behind Rangeview had exploded?! And so it was a danger zone. Luckily for students, due to the power outage classes were cancelled the next day. Classes resumed Friday, and the winds died down. After that windy day that made so much destruction the nights felt very calm and were very quiet (this was creepy). The weather is supposed to be very nice this week, which is the last week of school, so I am looking forward to that. Now to get back to all that work that is piling on my desk... until next time! -Marilyn