Clemson criticized for holding football game after Helene | Hurricane Wire

“Do I love that we have tens of thousands of people descending on our city as we were trying to assess and repairs the damage from the storm? No, of course not,” Halfacre said via text. “However, a lot goes behind those decisions, and I’m not going to pretend to understand what the university had to consider.

“Once our community has recovered, we begin the process of reassessing and planning ways to better manage these rate and disastrous situations.”

Clemson University spokesman Joe Gailbraith said the decision to hold the game “came after a detailed evaluation of the impacts of the storm, with a primary focus on the ability to safely host our opponents and fans on campus.”

The university, largely powered by Duke Energy, said it did not request priority service restoration. Its main service lines are largely underground, reducing issues if the substations that serve campus have power.

“After the storm, we assessed lines to our substation were still active, but two main breakers at the Duke substation had tripped. We notified the substation manager and power was restored shortly,” Gailbraith said.

The university has since decided to cancel all classes on Sept. 30 at its main campus and elsewhere.

Allison Wells, a Clemson alumna who lives about a mile from campus in a neighborhood with one access road, was dumbfounded by the university’s choice.

“The fact that they’re having a football game when we don’t have access to power or food is baffling,” she said via text message on Sept. 28. “But by all means, let’s bring tens of thousands of people in to use up what few resources are available — ice, gas, hot food, electricity — to play football.

“I never thought the university would do something so callous and rude to the people who have supported it so ardently.”

Messages to Duke Energy, the city and the mayor went without response until late Sept. 28, she said. Crews showed up and told neighbors they were hopeful the road would be cleared Sept. 29, even if power wasn’t restored for days after.

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