Stock up on water, canned goods and the works. Fill up your gas tank. Have your flashlights ready. Load up on sandbags. It’s hurricane season and if there is one out there, people are in a frenzy.

ULM seemed to be well prepared for Isaac’s arrival. However, I feel like they called the shots on the weather a little early, canceling classes Wednesday evening until after the holiday. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for the free days. But we only received around two and a half inches of rain and experienced a pretty windy day and a half.

We all know Isaac swept through the Gulf and the state this past week. The damage caused down south is unfortunate, and my heart truly does go out to them. But did the Monroe-West Monroe area really need to basically shut down?

As much as I enjoyed school being canceled, and I’m sure people enjoyed their days off from work or whatever else closed for them, I couldn’t help but to think we went a little overboard. A little rain on Wednesday morning and someone said, “Here’s the beginning of Isaac. Everyone be safe!!!”

It was sprinkling, then sunny again 10 minutes later.

I appreciate how prepared ULM, the state and other facilities were, but isn’t there another way to go about handling these things? Maybe wait until we know a little more or until it is at least raining in the area.

Two and a half days of classes were lost at ULM. Teachers will now have to rearrange their material and syllabi and cram more information into some days because we had some rain and wind. I know there’s no way to know for sure ahead of time how things will be, but I don’t think it was worth the hype that was put out.

On a normal rainy day, life goes on as normal, but if there’s a hurricane or tropical storm out there…I don’t know. Better safe than sorry, I suppose.