On Sunday, September 10th Hurricane Irma hit Key West, Florida with winds over 160 miles per hour and made its way through the state to Jacksonville, according to the Miami Herald. Irma caused damage to Florida after coming from Cuba as a category five hurricane, the highest hurricane classification.

The Floridians were alarmed when the National Hurricane Center reported that there would be life-threatening surges and winds. Mandatory evacuations were issued to over five million residents in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Local news announced advice about how to evacuate and which roads to take. Despite the warnings, about 10,000 people decided to stay in their homes—witnessing destructions of trees, buildings, and cities—and now live without electricity or water.

Updates from CNN showed that Irma became category four when it reached Florida, thus weakening to a tropical storm the next day. Hurricane Irma was said to be bigger than Hurricane Andrew of 1992, the most destructive hurricane that Florida had seen. There were over twenty deaths in the Caribbean islands and the United States, and the inhabitants of Florida are heartbroken.

Although the state of Florida is across the country from Webb, faculty and students have contributed to raising money for the hurricane. Dean Farrell had donation collections, and Mr. Duque sold beef jerky to fundraise for hurricane disaster. Emily Stepanian (‘19) decided to make a change with the help of the Webb community after being inspired during her Foundations of Virtue class. She placed several boxes to collect clothing across campus in the dorms and send back to people who had lost their personal belongings in the disasters. Along with boxes, a jar was introduced to collect change from students to donate and send to areas affected by hurricanes, including Texas.

Emily Stepanian (‘19) said, “{that if she} could start a small reaction here at Webb, it could turn into something bigger and get more people to become involved.” Support makes significant differences in the lives of those who are in desperate times, and this collection is one example of the Webb community showing generosity to those in need.