I’ve been getting a lot of emails from readers all over the country and even around the world, worried about the dismal weather situation here in Houston. I’m personally fine but things are quite bad all around the city. I can’t get out to see what’s going on at Rice (or anywhere else for that matter) but it’s clear that the campus leadership is, as expected, doing an outstanding job of keeping everyone safe, dry and fed. Here’s the latest email:

The Crisis Management Team continues to meet regularly. As always, your safety is our first priority. We expect storms to resume and will remain in regular contact.

In light of the extensive flooding in the Houston area, Rice will remain closed through 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. We have heard from a number of faculty, staff and off-campus students whose homes have taken on water. We realize how devastating that must be as you try to keep your families safe and protect your property. Discussions are already underway about how we can be supportive of the Rice community in the challenging weeks ahead.

Although most of the buildings on campus have remained dry during the weekend’s repeated downpours, some have experienced leaks and minor flooding. Our Facilities Engineering and Planning crew is checking all buildings regularly and is making repairs as quickly as possible. We have posted a list of the buildings on campus that have experienced weather-related issues, and you can view it at https://emergency.rice.edu/news/key-issues-happening-around-campus. Because we may not be able to respond promptly to individual emails asking about the status of buildings, we encourage you to check the list. If your building is not listed, that means no problems have been observed in that location.

Deans Matsuda and Hutchinson will be working with us as we reach out to faculty to see if there are ways to engage students with online class material. We will provide an update on that later.

While we are physically here on campus, our thoughts are with the entire Rice community.

As usual, if you have comments or questions, send an email to cmtcomment@rice.edu.

Marie Lynn Miranda
Provost

Kevin Kirby
Vice President for Administration
Chair of the Crisis Management Team

Bonus: This sort of thing has happened before and as always Houston will put things back together after the storm passes.