As Hurricane-turned Superstorm Sandy headed toward Syracuse on Monday, Syracuse University students living off campus and area residents prepared for the storm.

Landlords renting to SU students had been contacting their renters about storm preparation and Tops Friendly Markets, a local supermarket, had seen an increase in business as students and residents stocked up in advance of the storm.

The university sent a campus wide email informing students that all classes would be canceled beginning after 1:40 p.m. Monday and all day Tuesday.

Many area landlords said they were emailing renters on Monday with advice on preparing and dealing with the storm, such as stocking up on water and nonperishable food items, and removing objects from front yards that may become loose and cause damage.

Erin Kane, associate vice president of public relations, said the SU Office of Housing, Meal Plans and I.D. Card Services is encouraging students to stay inside and use common sense as the storm looms, and resident advisers will still be in direct contact with students.

Kane said SU’s Emergency Preparedness Committee met early Monday and would speak again by phone later in the day.

Campus Hill Apartments, which has more than 250 units in more than 50 buildings in the area, sent out a basic email reminding tenants of utility and emergency numbers.

Shaun Janis, communications assistant at Campus Hill, said Monday that he had heard people mention the storm in the office, but had not heard tenants express extreme concern. Janis said the email is something that would be sent out when any weather-related risk to property comes up.

An employee at O.P.R. Developers, which rents houses along Livingston, Comstock and Euclid avenues, among other places, said the company had a full maintenance staff on call checking beforehand for tree branches and outside property that could cause damage.

In an email, O.P.R. Developers also encouraged tenants to move items out of their basements to prepare for the possibility of flooding.

Melissa Woycechowsky, property manager for Responsible Property Management, said she spoke with tenants and advised them to stock up on supplies and keep animals indoors.

She said when the warnings became more serious on Monday morning, people were given a short time to prepare.

“I don’t expect we will need to board up windows, but you never know,” Woycechowsky said.

Many students and residents used the short time to prepare to stock up on supplies at the Tops Friendly Markets, located at 620 Nottingham Road in Syracuse.

On Monday morning, the parking lot was nearly full, shoppers were hustling around the store with their carts and lines stretched into the aisles.

Several shoppers described the scene inside the store as chaotic. Groups of shoppers decided to divide and conquer the store, shouting to one another what they’d picked up.

Questions like, “Could we just live off of cheese?” and “Are we going to get enough Vitamin C?” could be heard throughout the store.

Carol Dwyre, a Tops employee, said that on Sunday, the store did the most business it had ever done in its entire history.

“Any kind of snow storm is crazy, but not as bad as this,” she said.

Dwyre said the store is stocking up on ice and also contacted manufacturers of several different brands to get extra shipments of water.

Joe Vanhorn, produce manager at Tops, said the water bottle aisle was somewhat empty on Monday, but a delivery came in that day as scheduled.

After SU announced it would cancel its classes, Vanhorn said, Tops began to fill up with shoppers. Most were buying 24 packs of water, but he also said some were stocking up on alcohol.

“Everybody is grabbing everything,” he said. “It’s worse than when a snowstorm is forecast.”

Danielle Croft, a senior history major, and Ryan McKennan, a senior psychology major, said they wanted to come to the store to stock up on food in case they lost power. The two both live off campus and said they were somewhat worried about a power outage since the houses are older and there are a lot of trees near the power lines.

But some Syracuse residents thought rushing to Tops to stock up for the storm was an overreaction.

“At first I thought they were making too much of it, but my husband talked me into coming for some basics, like snacks and things,” said Barbara Richards, a Syracuse resident.

After seeing the crowds at the store, Richards said she began to rethink whether everyone was overreacting, as she originally had thought.

“I’ve never experienced anything like this,” she said.

Richards said she was buying about twice as many groceries as she normally would and was buying extra ice to fill up coolers in case her family lost power.

When many shoppers entered the store, they were shocked to see just how many people were in the store.

Ilyse Shapiro, a junior marketing major, said she waited in line for about 10 minutes, which “wasn’t bad,” but was longer than she usually waits at Tops.

But Shapiro said she was surprised by SU’s decision to cancel classes.

Said Shapiro: “They’ll cancel for wind and rain, but not for blizzards?”

 

Published on October 30, 2012 at 12:28 am