NEW ORLEANS (BP)–New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary President
Chuck Kelley called for a mandatory evacuation of the main campus due
to Tropical Storm Gustav. The evacuation began Aug. 29 and
was to continue through Aug. 30.
This
is the first evacuation of New Orleans Seminary since the approach of
Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall on Aug. 29, 2005 -– three years
ago to the day of the evacuation announcement.
Seminary offices
were to close at 3 p.m. on Aug. 29. All seminary residents are expected
to evacuate the main campus by noon Aug. 30. Students are encouraged to
frequently check the seminary’s website, www.nobts.edu, for changes or
updates to the evacuation and return schedule.
Kelley cited the
unpredictable nature of Gustav as the primary reason he called for the
early evacuation. Safety of the seminary family, Kelley said, is his
first priority.
“The movements of Tropical Storm Gustav are
still undefined, and the forecasters do not know where it’s going to
make landfall,” Kelley said. “However, indications are that it could be
somewhere in the New Orleans area, so we are moving ahead with plans to
evacuate our campus and keep our campus family safe.
“We do not anticipate a major disruption of classes. We believe that by Thursday we will be back to normal.”
While the campus is closed, classes will continue via the seminary’s Blackboard system (an online learning tool).
“I
want to emphasize that we are going to keep teaching. We learned in our
Hurricane Katrina experience that we are able to continue teaching our
classes even without our campus if we need to,” Kelley said. “We will
be shifting our students onto our Blackboard and Internet system and
will continue to teach.”