Campus Alert Archive
Duke

Duke 'Will Not Advise Students to Leave Campus' as Hurricane Florence Bears Down on the Carolinas — Classes Cancelled Through Saturday, Severe Weather Policy at Noon Thursday

NChurricaneemergency notificationmedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

On Tuesday, September 11, 2018, Duke University announced via DukeALERT that all classes would be cancelled after 5:00 PM EDT Wednesday, September 12 through Saturday, September 15, as Hurricane Florence — at the time a Category 4 storm with sustained 140-mph winds — approached the North Carolina coast. Duke's VP for Public Affairs Michael Schoenfeld explicitly stated Duke was 'not advising students to leave campus,' citing the fact that most Duke students come from outside North Carolina and around the world and would have nowhere safer to evacuate to. The university's severe weather and emergency conditions policy was activated at noon EDT Thursday, September 13. All scheduled athletic events on campus from Thursday through Sunday were cancelled or postponed.

Alerts
3
Response
—
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
Duke University
Private R1 · NC
~16,700 studentsRave Mobile SafetyDukeALERT
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

3 messages in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTmulti-channel
Approximate reconstruction260 chars
DukeALERT: Due to Hurricane Florence, all classes are cancelled after 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 12, through Saturday, Sept. 15. Severe weather and emergency conditions policy is in effect at noon Thursday, Sept. 13. Duke is not advising students to leave campus.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Reconstructed: Duke Today and Duke HR confirm class cancellations and the severe weather and emergency conditions policy effective noon Thursday, but verbatim DukeALERT SMS text was not preserved in publicly available archives
VP Michael Schoenfeld's quote 'We are not advising students to leave campus... We're advising them to be safe' was widely reported as institutional rationale
Most Duke students come from out of state or internationally; evacuating to home would mean traveling toward the storm path for many
Severe weather and emergency conditions policy at Duke designates only Essential 1 and Essential 2 personnel as required to report to work during the closure window
UPDATEmulti-channel
Approximate reconstruction269 chars
DukeALERT: Hurricane Florence has been downgraded to Category 2. Duke remains closed through Saturday with severe weather policy effective at noon Thursday. All home athletic events Thursday-Sunday are cancelled or postponed. Students should shelter in place on campus.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Reconstructed: Florence was downgraded from Category 4 to Category 2 to Category 1 over the Tuesday-Friday window as it weakened approaching landfall but stalled to produce record rainfall
Athletic events cancelled included the September 15 football game against Northwestern and several Olympic-sport home contests
ALL CLEARmulti-channel+5d
Approximate reconstruction254 chars
DukeALERT: Duke University will resume normal operations Monday morning, Sept. 17. The severe weather policy is lifted as of 5 p.m. today. Classes will resume on regular schedule Monday. Visit emergency.duke.edu for updates and student support resources.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Reconstructed: Duke officially returned to normal operations Sunday evening with full resumption Monday morning
The emergency.duke.edu landing page remained the canonical source for Florence-related communications throughout the storm window
Context

Background

Duke University is a private R1 research university in Durham, North Carolina, with approximately 16,700 students — a majority of whom come from out of state or internationally. On Tuesday, September 11, 2018, Duke announced that all classes would be cancelled after 5 PM EDT Wednesday, September 12 through Saturday, September 15, as Hurricane Florence approached the North Carolina coast as a Category 4 storm. Duke VP for Public Affairs Michael Schoenfeld's institutional message was distinctive: 'We are not advising students to leave campus... We're advising them to be safe.' Most Duke students would have had to travel toward the storm path to reach home, making sheltering on campus the safer option. The severe weather and emergency conditions policy was activated at noon EDT Thursday, September 13, requiring only Essential 1 and Essential 2 personnel to report. All home athletic events Thursday through Sunday — including the September 15 football game against Northwestern — were cancelled or postponed. Florence ultimately made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane near Wrightsville Beach, NC, but stalled over the Carolinas and produced record-breaking rainfall — up to 36 inches in some North Carolina locations, the highest single-storm total ever recorded for the state. Duke's inland Durham campus sustained primarily wind and rain damage rather than flooding. The case is significant in the archive as a counter-example to coastal-campus evacuation orders: Duke's calculus was that sheltering in place with its 800-acre footprint and emergency-services capacity was safer than mass evacuation, despite the storm's severity.
Analysis

Key Findings

Duke explicitly chose shelter-in-place over evacuation despite Hurricane Florence's Category 4 strength — institutional rationale was that most students would have had to travel toward the storm path to reach home
Classes were cancelled for 96 hours from 5 PM EDT Wednesday September 12 through Saturday September 15, with severe weather and emergency conditions policy active from noon Thursday
All home athletic events Thursday through Sunday were cancelled or postponed, including the September 15 football game against Northwestern
VP Michael Schoenfeld's institutional message — 'We are not advising students to leave campus' — captured Duke's distinctive shelter-in-place stance for a major storm
Duke's inland Durham campus sustained primarily wind and rain damage; Florence ultimately weakened to Category 1 at landfall but stalled and dumped 36 inches of rain in some NC locations
Outcome
Duke University cancelled all classes from 5 PM EDT Wednesday September 12 through Saturday September 15. The severe weather and emergency conditions policy was effective from noon Thursday September 13, requiring only essential personnel to report. Duke advised students to remain on campus rather than evacuate. All home athletic events from Thursday through Sunday were cancelled or postponed and rescheduled. Hurricane Florence ultimately made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane near Wrightsville Beach, NC, but stalled and dumped record rainfall across the state. Duke's Durham campus, located inland, sustained primarily wind and rain damage without flooding.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Official
    Officials Monitoring Path of Hurricane Florence: Classes Canceled After 5 P.M. Wednesday (Duke Today)
    today.duke.edu
  2. Official
    Classes Canceled After 5 p.m. Wednesday, Severe Weather Policy Effective at Noon Thursday (Duke HR)
    hr.duke.edu
  3. Official
    Message from President Price Concerning Hurricane Florence (Duke Today)
    today.duke.edu
  4. Official
    Message to parents/families: Hurricane Florence (Duke Student Affairs)
    studentaffairs.duke.edu
  5. News
    Universities cancel classes, sporting events ahead of Hurricane Florence (ABC11)
    abc11.com
  6. Official
    Historical Hurricane Florence, September 12-15, 2018 (National Weather Service)
    weather.gov
Tags
hurricaneflorencenorth-carolinaprivate-r1duke-alertshelter-in-placeweatherathletic-event-cancellationno-evacuation
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion