The Varsitarian

June 24, 1:54 a.m. - TROPICAL storm “Falcon” not only cancelled the yearly Thomasian Welcome Walk, but also left hundreds of students stranded inside the campus tonight.

As of 12 midnight, around 480 students took refuge in the Tan Yan Kee Student Center and will be allowed to leave at around six this morning.

Student Organizations Coordinating Council president Rolando Vittorio Gatmaitan Jr. earlier said that the building will be closed at 10 p.m., but will still accommodate those students who are yet to come.

“The rooms and some offices in the first and second floors will be used as sleeping quarters by the students,” he said.

Flood preparedness

Public Affairs chief Giovanna Fontanilla said that the UST security office had deployed the University’s amphibious and military trucks to safely transport stranded students to the Tan Yan Kee building.

“The Rescue 1611 truck and campus security jeepney are still doing rounds inside the University. [Whoever] student they manage to [pick up] will be immediately brought to the Tan Yan Kee,” said Gatmaitan.

Fontanilla said that unlike the rapture of typhoon Ondoy in 2009, this year’s preparations were “well-coordinated.”

“Unlike Ondoy when more than 3,000 students were stranded in different buildings, we are now in control of the situation, and fortunately, no other problems have occurred during the rescue operations to the students except for the food delivery since floods also slowed down the workers of the restaurants,” said Fontanilla.

Central Student Council president Lorraine Taguiam said they have already coordinated with the security guards of every building in the campus so they could inform other trapped students to go to the Tan Yan Kee building for more convenient accommodation.

“We informed the security guards around the University to tell other stranded students that Tan Yan Kee is open for them,” said Taguiam, adding that food and sleeping garments are already prepared for the students. Jan Edward B. Ballesteros and Rodolfo Serafin Jerome T. Lozada