{
  "id": "2024-09-10-xavier-university-louisiana-hurricane-francine",
  "slug": "xavier-university-louisiana-hurricane-francine-2024-09-10",
  "institution": {
    "name": "Xavier University of Louisiana",
    "shortName": "XULA",
    "state": "LA",
    "type": "hbcu",
    "alertSystemName": "XULA Emergency Alert System",
    "enrollment": 3300
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2024-09-10",
    "endDate": "2024-09-12",
    "type": "other",
    "cleryCategory": "emergency-notification",
    "resolution": "weathered",
    "headline": "Campus alert, September 10, 2024",
    "summary": "On September 10, 2024, [Xavier University of Louisiana announced the campus would shift to remote operations](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2024/09/11/anticipating-hurricane-louisiana-campuses-close) starting at 5:00 PM CDT, with the campus physically closed except for essential personnel through Thursday, September 12. The decision came as [Tropical Storm Francine strengthened](https://lailluminator.com/2024/09/10/francine-college/) and was forecast to make landfall in Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane on September 11. Students living on campus were instructed to shelter in place, and shuttle services were suspended.",
    "outcome": "Francine made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane on September 11. The XULA campus experienced power disruption and rain damage but no injuries were reported. In-person instruction resumed Friday, September 13. The remote-operations protocol was widely cited as well-executed.",
    "casualties": {
      "killed": 0,
      "injured": 0
    },
    "responseTimeMinutes": null
  },
  "alerts": [
    {
      "sequence": 1,
      "type": "initial",
      "timestampApprox": "Tuesday morning, September 10, 2024 (Central Time)",
      "channel": "email",
      "verbatimText": "Tropical Storm Francine has formed over the western Gulf of Mexico.\n\nTropical Storm Francine will continue to gain wind intensity and organization through the middle of the week and is expected to become a hurricane by Wednesday . Current forecasts predict that Francine will make landfall between Lake Charles, LA and Lafayette, LA. There may be periods which causes street flooding which could result in transportation delays including, but not limited to, XULA shuttle services.\n\nThe XULA campus facilities will close on Tuesday September 10, 2024 at 5:00 PM and will remain closed Wednesday September 11, 2024 and Thursday September 12, 2024 . All essential personnel should report as normal.\n\nDue to Tropical Storm Francine, XULA will be moving any classes that begin at 5:00 PM or later on Tuesday September 10, 2024 to online. In addition, all classes on Wednesday September 11, 2024 and Thursday September 12, 2024 will be online.\n\nNon-essential staff will be expected to work remotely on Wednesday, September 11, 2024 and Thursday, September 12, 2024 .\n\nXULA Students living in campus housing should prepare to shelter in place.\n\nXULA faculty and staff should prepare any computers and weather sensitive equipment for storm conditions.\n\nUniversity Dining will operate on a weekend schedule beginning on Wednesday, September 11 and will resume with normal operations on Friday, September 13, 2024 . Shuttle services will be suspended on Wednesday, September 11 and operate on a weekend schedule on Thursday, September 12 . Thursday's schedule is contingent on road conditions.\n\nXULA is continuing to monitor Tropical Storm Francine and will provide updates as information becomes available.\n\nRemember to stay weather aware by monitoring local news outlets for updates in addition to visiting your XULA email and the XULA Safe app. For City of New Orleans alerts sign up for NOLA Ready emergency alerts. Text NOLAREADY to 77295 or go to ready.nola.gov.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceDescription": "XULA weather preparedness guide — Tropical Storm Francine Update 9/9/24",
      "annotations": [
        "Verbatim XULA Tropical Storm Francine Update 9/9/24 (initial campus closure / remote operations) from official weather-preparedness guide.",
        "Preserves page spacing quirks (e.g., \"by Wednesday \", trailing spaces before periods)."
      ],
      "characterCount": 1959,
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.xula.edu/campussafetyandsecurity/weather-preparedness-guide.html"
    },
    {
      "sequence": 2,
      "type": "update",
      "timestampApprox": "Tuesday afternoon, September 10, 2024 (Central Time)",
      "channel": "email",
      "verbatimText": "Xavier University of Louisiana is continuing to monitor Tropical Storm Francine and will provide updates as information on Francine’s development and trajectory becomes available.\n\nTropical Storm Francine continues to gain wind intensity and organization and is now expected to become a hurricane sometime Today . Current forecasts predict that Francine will make landfall along the central Louisiana coast. There may be periods of street flooding subsequently impacting transportation delays including, but not limited to, XULA shuttle services.\n\nClasses that begin at 5:00 PM today will be held remotely and classes on Wednesday, September 11 are cancelled. Classes on Thursday, September 12 will be remote instruction and are expected to return to in-person instruction on Friday, September 13 .\n\nThe Campus will shift to remote operations and will be physically closed, except for essential personnel, starting at 5:00 PM today through Thursday September 12, 2024 . All essential personnel should report as normal.\n\nNon-essential staff are expected to work remotely on Wednesday, September 11 and Thursday, September 12 . XULA will assess Francine’s impact after it has moved past our area and provide an update on Friday operations, if necessary.\n\nStudents living in on-campus housing should prepare to shelter in place. Faculty and staff should prepare any computers and weather sensitive equipment for storm conditions.\n\nUniversity Dining will operate on a weekend schedule beginning on Wednesday, September 11 and will resume normal operations on Friday, September 13 . Shuttle services will be suspended on Wednesday, September 11 and operate on a weekend schedule on Thursday, September 12 , pending road conditions. Starting at 3:00 PM today , XUPD will be located in the University Center, room 205C. In the event of power outage on campus, XUPD can still be reached by phone at (504) 442-2952 .\n\nRemember to stay weather aware by monitoring local news outlets for updates in addition to checking your XULA email, XULA Safe app, and @XULA1925 on social media. For City of New Orleans alerts, sign up for NOLA Ready emergency alerts. Text NOLAREADY to 77295 or go to ready.nola.gov .",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.xula.edu/campussafetyandsecurity/weather-preparedness-guide.html",
      "sourceDescription": "XULA weather preparedness guide — Tropical Storm Francine Update 9/10/24",
      "annotations": [
        "Verbatim XULA Tropical Storm Francine Update 9/10/24 from official weather-preparedness guide.",
        "Follow-up to 9/9/24 initial message; preserves official page spacing artifacts."
      ],
      "characterCount": 2194
    },
    {
      "sequence": 3,
      "type": "all-clear",
      "timestampApprox": "Thursday afternoon, September 12, 2024 (Central Time)",
      "channel": "email",
      "verbatimText": "",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": false,
      "sourceDescription": "Reconstructed from XULA university communications paraphrased by Inside Higher Ed reporting",
      "annotations": []
    }
  ],
  "context": "Xavier University of Louisiana ([the only Catholic HBCU in the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavier_University_of_Louisiana) and the nation's leading producer of Black medical school applicants) sits in New Orleans's Gert Town neighborhood, about 5 miles inland from the Mississippi River. On September 10, 2024, with [Tropical Storm Francine forecast to strengthen into a hurricane](https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/09/tropical-storm-francine-heads-for-louisiana/) and make landfall in Louisiana, XULA announced that [the campus would shift to remote operations starting at 5:00 PM CDT](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2024/09/11/anticipating-hurricane-louisiana-campuses-close) with the campus physically closed through Thursday, September 12. Francine made landfall on September 11 as a Category 2 hurricane near Morgan City, then weakened as it crossed the state. [XULA was one of multiple Louisiana campuses that closed](https://lailluminator.com/2024/09/10/francine-college/) in advance of the storm, alongside Tulane, Loyola, Southern University, and Dillard. XULA's response was notable for its detailed staff/student differentiation: essential personnel reported normally, non-essential staff worked remotely, dining shifted to weekend schedule, and shuttles operated on a modified schedule. The university [employs an enterprise emergency alert system](https://www.xula.edu/campussafetyandsecurity/emergency-alert-system.html) capable of personalized voice messages, text messages, email, and TTY/TDD receiving devices. Residence halls remained open and residential students were instructed to [shelter in place with a disaster supply kit](https://www.xula.edu/campussafetyandsecurity/weather-preparedness-guide.html). In-person instruction resumed on Friday, September 13. Francine's relatively gentle passage allowed for a faster recovery than the 2005 Hurricane Katrina experience, which had [closed the XULA campus for an entire semester](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavier_University_of_Louisiana).",
  "keyFindings": [
    "XULA's hurricane response demonstrated the value of pre-storm staged closures, with 8 hours' advance notice and a clearly differentiated remote-operations model",
    "Xavier is the nation's only Catholic HBCU and the leading producer of Black medical school applicants, its hurricane resilience is institutionally significant",
    "The closure window of approximately 64 hours was a fraction of the multi-month closure that followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005, reflecting both Francine's lighter impact and XULA's matured emergency operations",
    "XULA's emergency alert system supports voice, SMS, email, and TTY/TDD, a comprehensive accessibility profile relevant to its sizable healthcare-track student population"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Anticipating hurricane, Louisiana campuses close (Inside Higher Ed)",
      "url": "https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2024/09/11/anticipating-hurricane-louisiana-campuses-close",
      "type": "national-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Tropical Storm Francine: Louisiana college and university closures (Louisiana Illuminator)",
      "url": "https://lailluminator.com/2024/09/10/francine-college/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Tropical Storm Francine heads for Louisiana (Yale Climate Connections)",
      "url": "https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/09/tropical-storm-francine-heads-for-louisiana/",
      "type": "national-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Weather Preparedness Guide (Xavier University of Louisiana)",
      "url": "https://www.xula.edu/campussafetyandsecurity/weather-preparedness-guide.html",
      "type": "official-archive"
    },
    {
      "title": "Emergency Alert System (Xavier University of Louisiana)",
      "url": "https://www.xula.edu/campussafetyandsecurity/emergency-alert-system.html",
      "type": "official-archive"
    },
    {
      "title": "Hurricane Francine 2024 (National Weather Service Lake Charles)",
      "url": "https://www.weather.gov/lch/2024Francine",
      "type": "official"
    },
    {
      "title": "Xavier University of Louisiana (Wikipedia)",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavier_University_of_Louisiana",
      "type": "reference"
    }
  ],
  "confidence": "high",
  "tags": [
    "natural-disaster",
    "hurricane",
    "hbcu",
    "louisiana",
    "new-orleans",
    "remote-operations",
    "hurricane-francine",
    "catholic-hbcu",
    "shelter-in-place"
  ],
  "dateAdded": "2026-05-14",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-07-19",
  "addedBy": "ingestion"
}