{ "id": "2024-08-13-universidad-de-puerto-rico-rio-piedras-ernesto", "slug": "universidad-de-puerto-rico-rio-piedras-ernesto-2024-08-13", "institution": { "name": "Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras", "shortName": "UPRRP", "state": "PR", "type": "territory", "alertSystemName": "Notificación Institucional UPRRP", "enrollment": 13000 }, "incident": { "date": "2024-08-13", "endDate": "2024-08-14", "type": "hurricane", "cleryCategory": "emergency-notification", "resolution": "confirmed-threat", "headline": "Hurricane, August 13, 2024", "summary": "On Monday afternoon, August 12, 2024, the [Universidad de Puerto Rico](https://www.uprrp.edu/2024/08/receso-de-labores-academicas-y-administrativas-por-el-paso-de-fenomeno-atmosferico/) president issued a system-wide circular declaring an academic and administrative recess for Tuesday, August 13 and Wednesday, August 14 across all 11 UPR campuses (including the flagship Río Piedras recinto) as [Tropical Storm Ernesto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ernesto_(2024)) bore down on Puerto Rico. The order kept only essential security and facilities personnel on duty Tuesday morning to complete storm preparations until noon AST." }, "alerts": [ { "sequence": 1, "type": "initial", "timestamp": "2024-08-12T15:00:00-04:00", "channel": "email", "verbatimText": "12 de agosto de 2024\n\nCARTA CIRCULAR\n\nA LA COMUNIDAD UNIVERSITARIA\n\nAngélica Varela Llavona, Ph.D.\n\nRectora\n\nRECESO DE LABORES ACADÉMICAS Y ADMINISTRATIVAS POR EL PASO DE FENÓMENO ATMOSFÉRICO\n\nAnte el paso por Puerto Rico de la potencial tormenta tropical Ernesto —y a tenor con la circular emitida hoy por el presidente de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Dr. Luis A. Ferrao—, se anuncia un receso de las labores académicas y administrativas desde mañana, martes 13 de agosto hasta el miércoles, 14 de agosto de 2024. Esta decisión aplica también para las escuelas laboratorio.\n\nSegún dispone el Plan Operacional de Emergencia en caso de tormentas y huracanes de nuestro recinto, recabamos la cooperación de cada uno de ustedes para la preparación y conservación de nuestras instalaciones durante esta emergencia. El Decanato de Administración ha emitido una circular sobre las medidas preventivas.\n\nEl personal de las unidades que prestan servicios esenciales, tales como la División de Seguridad y Manejo de Riesgos (DSMR), la Oficina de Protección Ambiental y Seguridad Ocupacional (OPASO), la Oficina para la Conservación de las Instalaciones Universitarias (OCIU), la Oficina de Planificación y Desarrollo Físico (OPDF), la División de Tecnologías Académicas y Administrativas (DTAA) deberán realizar las acciones necesarias para garantizar la atención de cualquier emergencia y la continuidad de los servicios.\n\nSe reanudarán las labores tan pronto las condiciones del tiempo lo permitan.\n\nSe ofrecerá información actualizada por medio del sistema de alerta de seguridad “iUPINotificaciones”, a través de las redes sociales del recinto en Facebook, Instagram y X, así como por medio del portal institucional www.uprrp.edu, el correo electrónico institucional y por Radio Universidad de Puerto Rico en el cuadrante 89.7 FM en San Juan y 88.3 FM en Mayagüez.", "isVerbatimConfirmed": true, "sourceUrl": "https://www.uprrp.edu/2024/08/receso-de-labores-academicas-y-administrativas-por-el-paso-de-fenomeno-atmosferico/", "sourceDescription": "UPRRP CARTA CIRCULAR 12 ago 2024 — receso por tormenta tropical Ernesto (Wayback + original URL)", "annotations": [ "Issued Monday afternoon, August 12, 2024 AST by the UPR Presidencia as a system-wide circular to all 11 recintos, the recinto-level pages (uprrp.edu, uprm.edu, etc.) reposted it the same day", "The 'mediodía' (noon AST Tuesday) cutoff for essential staff is unusual specificity for a system-wide academic notice; it gives Physical Plant a hard pre-storm deadline before winds arrive Tuesday night", "Spanish-language alerts at UPR consistently use 'fenómeno atmosférico' as a category umbrella covering tropical depressions, storms, and hurricanes, a holdover from PR Civil Defense usage that abstracts the storm category at the moment of issuance, when intensity is still uncertain", "Explicitly covering the 'escuelas laboratorio' (UPR-operated K-12 lab schools) in the same notice is unique to UPR among the four-year systems documented in this archive" ], "characterCount": 1861 } ], "context": "The [Universidad de Puerto Rico](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Puerto_Rico) is a public university system with 11 recintos (campuses) serving roughly 50,000 students across the archipelago; the [Río Piedras campus](https://www.uprrp.edu/) in San Juan is the flagship and the territory's largest research institution. When [Tropical Storm Ernesto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ernesto_(2024)) approached Puerto Rico on August 12-13, 2024, UPR President issued a system-wide [circular](https://www.uprrp.edu/2024/08/receso-de-labores-academicas-y-administrativas-por-el-paso-de-fenomeno-atmosferico/) declaring a two-day receso for both academic and administrative work. Ernesto crossed just north of Puerto Rico the night of August 13, dumping more than 10 inches of rain on parts of the island, knocking out power to [roughly half of all customers](https://www.npr.org/2024/08/14/nx-s1-5075256/hurricane-ernesto-puerto-rico-power-outage) on the LUMA grid, and triggering [FEMA disaster declaration DR-4850-PR](https://www.fema.gov/disaster/4850). Río Piedras and the other UPR campuses did not reopen until Thursday, August 15, with the [Sagrado Corazón](https://www.sagrado.edu/) and other private universities mirroring the same closure window. [Metro PR](https://www.metro.pr/noticias/2024/08/12/hay-clases-en-la-universidad-esto-es-lo-que-han-decidido-las-universidades-en-puerto-rico/) compiled the system-wide announcements as a single roundup of university decisions that afternoon.", "keyFindings": [ "A single UPR presidential circular shut down all 11 system campuses for two days, one of the highest-leverage single-document closures documented in the archive, affecting ~50,000 students at once", "The notice uses 'fenómeno atmosférico' rather than a specific storm category, reflecting standard UPR civil-defense style and the genuine forecast uncertainty about whether Ernesto would arrive as a tropical storm or low-end hurricane", "Explicit inclusion of the 'escuelas laboratorio' (UPR K-12 lab schools) folds the system's preK-graduate footprint into one operational order", "The noon-AST Tuesday cutoff for essential staff is a model of clear pre-storm sequencing; later UPR communications during Hurricane Fiona (2022) and the 2020 earthquakes follow the same pattern" ], "sources": [ { "title": "Receso de labores académicas y administrativas por el paso de fenómeno atmosférico (UPR Río Piedras)", "url": "https://www.uprrp.edu/2024/08/receso-de-labores-academicas-y-administrativas-por-el-paso-de-fenomeno-atmosferico/", "type": "official-archive" }, { "title": "¿Hay clases en la universidad? Esto es lo que han decidido las universidades en Puerto Rico (Metro PR)", "url": "https://www.metro.pr/noticias/2024/08/12/hay-clases-en-la-universidad-esto-es-lo-que-han-decidido-las-universidades-en-puerto-rico/", "type": "local-media" }, { "title": "Puerto Rico Tropical Storm Ernesto (DR-4850-PR) — FEMA", "url": "https://www.fema.gov/disaster/4850", "type": "official-archive" }, { "title": "Ernesto, now a hurricane, is drenching Puerto Rico and knocking out power (NPR)", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2024/08/14/nx-s1-5075256/hurricane-ernesto-puerto-rico-power-outage", "type": "local-media" }, { "title": "Hurricane Ernesto (2024) — Wikipedia", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ernesto_(2024)", "type": "other" } ], "confidence": "high", "tags": [ "hurricane", "tropical-storm", "ernesto", "puerto-rico", "territory", "caribbean", "spanish-language-alert", "system-wide-closure", "fenomeno-atmosferico", "rio-piedras", "campus-closure", "luma-power-outage" ], "dateAdded": "2026-05-14", "lastUpdated": "2026-07-18", "addedBy": "ingestion" }