My Hurricane Irma Evacuation Story

By: Autumn Hartshorn

 

On August 5th, 2017, SCAD announced that they would be evacuating any current students that had moved into the residential halls to the SCAD Atlanta Campus. I had just finished a five-day road trip from Milliken, Colorado, all to way to Savannah, Georgia. I already planned on evacuating with SCAD if the situation were to occur, so it looked like I was on my way to an impromptu vacation at SCAD Atlanta.

 

A lot of the evacuating students(we called ourselves the Evacubees) did not seem to be all the excited at first, but I did not let anything affect my optimism. I was honestly very excited for the adventure. I had never gotten to explore Atlanta. This was my chance to see what all the SCAD Atlanta campus had to offer.

 

After finishing the seven hour bus ride that left me with new acquaintances and a bit of a back ache, my bus had arrived at the ACA residential hall. I was assigned to a dorm room that nobody had moved into yet. I will be honest with you, when they told us we did not have to stay on cots like Hurricane Matthew, I was relieved. ACA is an amazing dorm hall. The rooms are so nice and spread out. I had a bedroom all to myself, and a shared kitchen and bathroom with one other person. I felt like we scored the jackpot on timing when it came to the hurricane. Not nearly as many student evacuated this time and the Atlanta campus had plenty of space for the Savannah students that were arriving.

I am a freshman, which meant that I was left by myself in the process of heading to Atlanta. I did not really have anyone to interact with until I brought up this issue in the Colony building group chat. Two girls, Maddie Mastras and Haili Brown, told me they were evacuating as well and would love to have me join them. Honestly, I was so thankful. I did not want to have to spend an entire week by myself in a city I’ve never visited. It turns out that these two people were absolutely amazing. Our personalities, interests, and humor automatically blended very well. Ironically, they going to be my next door neighbors back at Colony this fall. If it were not for Atlanta, I don’t even know if we would have become as close as we did in Atlanta.

 

One of the things I looked forward to the most was the food at The Hub, especially after the bus ride since I did not grab any lunch. Every time we went to dinner, I was always delighted by the quality of the food. The chefs were so nice and I tried so many different types of food in the span of one week. My friends and I became addicted to the cookies they made there and have yet to even find those kind of cookies in Savannah. We are still on the lookout though! The dining hall area had charging towers, ping pong, napping pods, and beautiful chandeliers hanging everywhere. It made me feel right at home.

 

The SCAD Atlanta campus may be small in comparison to Savannah, but it was really nice! I understood the area after just a day of navigating myself around and I never really felt unsafe when I walked around. Every morning, I’d play some Rolling Stones songs on my phone as I made my way to the main SCAD building, which helped me wake up and get in the groove of everything! Atlanta felt like a bigger and more spread out Denver, so I automatically felt welcome during my stay. I’m definitely a city person and I appreciate a city that utilizes art in a variety of ways. Because of this, Atlanta is a wonderful setting for an art college. 

 

Now here’s the best part of it all, the adventures around Atlanta. My group of friends and I got to go to a variety of places and had tons of fun. We went to the big indoor mall that was four stories tall(which is unheard of where I’m from)! I tried an amazing cupcake, bought really cute clothes, and even found the Snapchat Spectacles booth. The next day we went to the zoo and got to see adorable animals like Red Pandas, Sun Bears, Naked Mole Rats, Pandas, and lots of others. We also explored Atlantic Station and went on an epic Target adventure(we got free Starbucks, so naturally I’m going to think it was an epic adventure). One of my favorite parts was when we went to SCAD Show and watched Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. Even on the lock down day when the storm actually hit, my friends and I hid in one of SCAD’s computer labs and played Monopoly all day. Now Monopoly has become a tradition for us to play and one of my favorite board games!

 

Altogether, I feel that students’ opinions on the experience can be very skewed. However, I feel as if many are not looking at all of the positives. Sure, we did not get to start class on time, but at least nothing got destroyed  from Irma. Now, when I visit Atlanta for all of the amazing events they put on throughout the year, I’ll know my way around the area now. I know where to eat, where to stay, where to go, and everything else in between. While I wish I could say I would even consider going to the Atlanta Campus, I do believe Savannah is where I belong. Still, maybe someday I’ll find more time to visit the lovely city again.

 

Images Courtesy of Autumn Hartshorn