The storm that’s been pummeling Southern California has led to city-wide road closures, flooding, traffic collisions and other adverse effects in the greater Los Angeles area, causing some USC students to miss class.
On Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency for eight counties in Southern California. The next day, Mayor Karen Bass signed a declaration of a local emergency due to the severe weather conditions.
This prompted President Joe Biden to call Mayor Bass, offering additional resources to remedy the negative effects of the storm. “We will get any help on the way as soon as you guys request it,” Biden said.
Over the past two days, downtown L.A. has received roughly half of its 30-year average seasonal rainfall. This has resulted in additional road closures, significant damages caused by mudslides and drops in student attendance.
LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said that on Monday student attendance dropped to 63% while 90% of district teachers, bus drivers and classified employees reported for work.
USC students have also faced additional troubles getting to class due to the storm. Freshman psychology student C.J. Punzalun said the attendance dropped in his classes on Monday.
“I have a Japanese 3 class…I think like 25% of the class showed up, even though…in-person class was scheduled,” Punzalun said. “My two other classes were online or asynchronous, and the only other class that stayed in person besides Japanese was stats. I think about 75% still showed up…so attendance definitely took a bit of a hit.”
Some professors changed classes to an online format to accommodate students and ensure safety.
Similar to the students in Punzalun’s Japanese class, senior environmental studies major Emily Peng did not attend her 8 a.m. Monday morning.
When asked what her reasoning behind skipping was, Peng said the weather was too severe to walk to class even though she lives near campus.
“Well, at 8 a.m…I didn’t think it was worth the trouble of going there with the rain,” Peng said.
Junior business administration major Cindy Nguyen also noticed a significant decline in attendance during one of her 8 a.m. classes on Monday.
“I went to one of my 8 a.m. [classes], granted it is an 8 a.m. so some people can be absent,” Nguyen said. “I think only about like a third of the class was there.”
Nguyen also shared that she skipped a class for the first time this semester, citing the storm as her reasoning.
“The weather condition was kind of bad and I didn’t want to place myself in that type of circumstance,” Nguyen said.
The rain is forecasted to come to a stop by Thursday, according to a forecast from the National Weather Service. The university has not announced any changes for students attending in-person classes.