The King's College Responds to Hurricane Sandy

Continuing updates and where to find out more about Hurricane Sandy

NEW YORK, NY, OCTOBER November 1, 2012—In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, announcements from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office, and inoperable transportation and power conditions in the New York area, The King's College is communicating via email and social networks to keep students safe and parents informed.

The effort to respond to Hurricane Sandy is being led by the Emergency Operations Team. Students are being kept out of harms way as the team follows an emergency strategy that is well rehearsed after Hurricane Irene last year.

Thus far, the College has announced the following:

1. Classes closed from October 29th - November 2nd.
2. Closed access to the College campus at 50 and 52 Broadway.

President of The King's College Andy Mills wrote to students via Facebook:

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Dear students,

When you came to King's, we promised to give you real life experiences in New York City. Little did we imagine this would include experiencing the largest natural storm in NY recorded history!

As I spoke with Eric Bennett last night and this morning, the good news is that the entire community is safe. I thank God for this. So congratulations - you now have something to tell friends and family for the rest of your lives - "I was there!"

Now we move on to the work of getting back to normal. Realistically this might take some time. We'll know more in the coming hours as we learn about the expected timing of restoring power and transportation. We'll obviously be keeping you in the loop as we know more and make decisions.

In the meantime, I want to challenge us all to embrace this experience. Think of this as part of your education experience. I would suggest three ways to do so:

1) Observe and critique leadership models. This is a major exercise in public leadership. In the same way that Mayor Guiliani made such a name for himself leading New York in 2001, how are the Governors, Mayors and other leaders doing? How do you lead in times of crisis? What would you do differently? What principles can you discern?

2) King's won't restart as if nothing happened. We will reopen with a great deal of change. In a way, this is like a start-up. There will be a lot of changes in location, schedules and classes. This will require flexibility and patience on your part. Can you all help by being flexible, maintaining a great attitude and supporting all those working so hard to continue to provide you with a continuing quality education? This is a great opportunity to pull together as a community. I believe that by the time we are "back to normal" the College will be an even more special place. By your attitudes and activities, you can make this a reality.

3) Are there ways that our community can begin to help people in New York that need help? Are there people in our churches that need help? How about in our buildings? The elderly? The infirm? Can we do physical clean-up work for folks, or how about just sitting and chatting with those who are afraid and discouraged? On September 11, 2001, our students joined Faculty and staff in standing in the streets around the ESB and handing bottles of water, and talking with those people who were walking up from Wall Street, dirty and shaken, on that fateful day. We can be the hands and feet of Christ.

We might lose some days in the classroom, but we can use these days to learn and grow. After all, isn't that a huge part of the King's education?

I look forward to hearing the stories in the days and weeks to come and I have great confidence that the students of The King's College will be part of the solution for New York City and its people.


Blessings,
Andy
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For up-to-date information regarding Hurricane Sandy, we recommend the following sites:

· New York State emergency response information: http://www.dhses.ny.gov/oem/
· New York City emergency response information: http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/html/home/home.shtml

You can also follow the official Twitter feed of the NYC Mayors Office at @NYCMayorsOffice. And you can follow the NYC Office of Emergency Mangaement at @nycoem.

To keep up to date on the latest announcements at King's, please follow us on Facebook, or email the College at mclock@tkc.edu.

This page will also be updated as announcements are made.

For more information about The King's College please contact: Matthias Clock
Communications Coordinator
917.558.5646