{
  "id": "2020-10-28-loyola-university-new-orleans-hurricane-zeta",
  "slug": "loyola-university-new-orleans-hurricane-zeta-2020-10-28",
  "institution": {
    "name": "Loyola University New Orleans",
    "shortName": "Loyola-NO",
    "state": "LA",
    "type": "private-masters",
    "alertSystemName": "Loyola Emergency Notification",
    "enrollment": 4200
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2020-10-28",
    "endDate": "2020-10-30",
    "type": "hurricane",
    "cleryCategory": "emergency-notification",
    "headline": "Hurricane, October 28, 2020",
    "summary": "[Hurricane Zeta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Zeta) made landfall near Cocodrie, Louisiana at 4 p.m. CDT October 28, 2020, as a high-end Category 2 storm with 110 mph winds. Loyola University New Orleans [canceled classes at noon on October 28](https://emergency.loyno.edu/situation-status/hurricane-zeta-update-0) and, due to widespread power outages across the city, closed the following day as well. Residence halls were maintained on the university's co-generation power system while more than [400,000 customers across Louisiana lost power](https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/orleans/400000-entergy-customers-without-power-and-it-could-take-several-days-to-get-it-back/289-c839d9b0-382f-42bc-a01b-a422a338391a/).",
    "outcome": "Classes canceled noon October 28 through Friday October 30. Residence halls maintained on cogeneration power. Campus sustained minor storm damage; Howard-Tilton facade panel loosened. Zeta was the 27th named storm of the 2020 season.",
    "resolution": "confirmed-threat",
    "casualties": {
      "killed": 0,
      "injured": 0
    }
  },
  "alerts": [
    {
      "sequence": 1,
      "type": "initial",
      "timestamp": "2020-10-28T09:00:00-05:00",
      "channel": "email",
      "verbatimText": "Hurricane Zeta is now forecast to hit southeast Louisiana this afternoon as a category 2 storm. We receive specific forecasting for our campus that shows we may get winds of about 75 mph between 4 and 6 pm. But the storm is moving very quickly and is not expected to be a major rain event or to last very long.\n\nPlease take this storm seriously. To state the obvious, stay inside and keep safe, and be prepared for power outages.\n\nWe are already home and teaching and working virtually today. Since the forecast timing and strength has changed, we will now cancel classes (and remote work) starting at noon. For anyone who needs more time, please just take it. And we are all very grateful to the essential staff who remain on campus to care for our students and community.\n\nWe will be in touch Thursday morning by 7 am to let you know how things stand.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceDescription": "Loyola Emergency Information situation status (Hurricane Zeta Update)",
      "annotations": [
        "Full official situation-status campus message from emergency.loyno.edu; replaces reconstruction.",
        "HTML non-breaking spaces normalized to ordinary spaces; paragraph structure preserved.",
        "Seq2–3 remain unconfirmed reconstructions (no character-perfect match found for closure/reopen SMS-style wording)."
      ],
      "characterCount": 853,
      "sourceUrl": "https://emergency.loyno.edu/situation-status/hurricane-zeta-update-0"
    },
    {
      "sequence": 2,
      "type": "update",
      "timestamp": "2020-10-29T08:00:00-05:00",
      "channel": "email",
      "verbatimText": "",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": false,
      "sourceDescription": "Reconstructed from Loyola University New Orleans Hurricane Zeta emergency page and news.tulane.edu reporting on New Orleans campus power outage closures following Zeta",
      "annotations": []
    },
    {
      "sequence": 3,
      "type": "all-clear",
      "timestampApprox": "Thursday afternoon, October 29, 2020, announcing Friday resumption",
      "channel": "email",
      "verbatimText": "",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": false,
      "sourceDescription": "Reconstructed from Loyola emergency page and standard New Orleans university all-clear pattern following Zeta",
      "annotations": []
    }
  ],
  "context": "[Hurricane Zeta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Zeta) was the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season's 27th named storm and the year's 11th hurricane -- part of a historic year that exhausted the regular Atlantic storm-name list for only the second time ever. Zeta [made landfall near Cocodrie, Louisiana at 4 p.m. CDT October 28](https://www.weather.gov/bmx/event_zeta2020) as a high-end Category 2 storm with 110 mph winds before rapidly moving northeast. The storm caused [400,000 power outages in Louisiana alone](https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/orleans/400000-entergy-customers-without-power-and-it-could-take-several-days-to-get-it-back/289-c839d9b0-382f-42bc-a01b-a422a338391a/) and over 1.5 million nationally. Loyola University New Orleans -- a private Jesuit institution on St. Charles Avenue in Uptown New Orleans -- [canceled classes at noon on October 28](https://emergency.loyno.edu/situation-status/hurricane-zeta-update-0) and remained closed on October 29 due to citywide power failures. Residence halls were powered by the university's cogeneration system throughout the event, providing critical shelter for students. Loyola's Tulane-adjacent campus neighbor also closed on October 29 due to power outages; a panel of the [Howard-Tilton Memorial Library facade loosened during the storm](https://news.tulane.edu/news/tulane-weathers-hurricane-zeta) but was quickly secured. Zeta was the fourth time in 2020 that Louisiana institutions issued hurricane closure advisories, following Laura, Sally, and Delta.",
  "keyFindings": [
    "Zeta was Louisiana's fourth hurricane response event of 2020 -- an historically unprecedented storm season",
    "Campus's cogeneration system kept residence halls online even as 400,000 Louisiana customers lost power",
    "Post-storm closure on October 29 was driven by citywide power outages rather than ongoing storm conditions",
    "75 mph winds on campus between 4 and 6 pm CDT October 28 were the peak conditions Loyola's alerts prepared for"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Hurricane Zeta Update -- Loyola University New Orleans Emergency",
      "url": "https://emergency.loyno.edu/situation-status/hurricane-zeta-update-0",
      "type": "official-archive"
    },
    {
      "title": "Tulane weathers Hurricane Zeta -- Tulane University News",
      "url": "https://news.tulane.edu/news/tulane-weathers-hurricane-zeta",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Hurricane Zeta -- Wikipedia",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Zeta",
      "type": "other"
    },
    {
      "title": "400,000 without power in Louisiana after Hurricane Zeta -- WWL-TV",
      "url": "https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/orleans/400000-entergy-customers-without-power-and-it-could-take-several-days-to-get-it-back/289-c839d9b0-382f-42bc-a01b-a422a338391a/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Hurricane Zeta -- October 28-29, 2020 -- NWS Birmingham",
      "url": "https://www.weather.gov/bmx/event_zeta2020",
      "type": "other"
    }
  ],
  "confidence": "high",
  "tags": [
    "hurricane",
    "zeta",
    "louisiana",
    "new-orleans",
    "power-outage",
    "cogeneration",
    "private-masters",
    "emergency-notification",
    "2020"
  ],
  "dateAdded": "2026-05-31",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-07-20",
  "addedBy": "ingestion"
}