When Reda El Alami heard that an earthquake hit his home country, he said he immediately thought of the safety of his family. The moments before he spoke with his parents, he said, will stay with him forever.
No matter how far his home is El Alami, junior computer science major and Moroccan international student, said he always carries some of his home with him.
“I’d say Morocco is a place that, when you grow up and leave it, you always call it home and always relate to in one way or another,” El Alami said.
Thousands of people died and many more were left to deal with the reality of earthquake aftershocks and damage after a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck the Atlas Mountains of western Morocco on Sept. 8, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
“I sometimes like, just have this expectation that everything is going to be good while I’m not there,” El Alami said. ”The moment where you find out and you still didn’t talk to your parents yet about it. I still remember how I felt in that very moment.”
As of the fall 2023 semester, UCF has students from 155 countries outside of the United States. Twenty-seven of these students’ nation of citizenship is Morocco, according to data from UCF’s Institutional Knowledge Management database.
Salma Slaoui, biotechnology junior and founder of the new Moroccan Student Association, said she finds comfort in the UCF Moroccan population who has banded together during these hard times.
“It was really nice to see how, like, other Moroccans in UCF kind of reached out,” Slaoui said, “And it felt like even though we’re away from home, there’s like a small community here at UCF. That we kind of, we supported each other.”
Another group on campus, the Muslim Student Association, has also banded together to raise money and awareness for the Moroccan earthquake.
Salma Bechar, political science junior and Muslim Student Association marketing director, said she sat outside the Student Union on Wednesday to raise money for Morocco.
“We’re just here to do our part and help out our fellow Muslim brothers and sisters,” Bechar said.
Bechar said that while a lot of people, even non-Moroccans and non-Muslims, have heard about the earthquake, a good percentage of the people have no idea about an event that has devastated a whole country and people group.
“I would say people have been, a lot of people have been turning out,” Bechar said. “We’re just very appreciative of anyone who comes out and checks us out.”
Zack Salloum, director of international student and scholar services at UCF Global, said he has been working hard to provide the resources to support affected students.
“We sympathize with those students that come from those countries and have family and friends that are affected, or they themselves are affected,” Salloum said. “Our ability to fix the problem is limited, but we do what we can which is reach out to the students and offer our support.”
Salloum said that UCF Global works to aid students in any way possible, often creating bonds that feel like a second family. In order to understand the issue, he said the UCF community needs to put themselves in the shoes of those affected.
“Imagine if you were studying abroad in China, and a hurricane came through and flooded your apartment, and you didn’t have a flight, you didn’t have money to fly home back to the United States. What would you do?” Salloum said. “You would be relying entirely on the institution that you’re studying for to go ‘Is somebody here to help?’”
Students do not have to be thousands of miles from home to be affected by natural disasters while living at UCF.
Luke Middaugh, junior psychology major and Fort Myers, Florida native, said he has seen the impacts of natural disasters on his hometown when he was only a few hours away in Orlando.
“Watching the news while the hurricane was blowing through, I saw some really horrific scenes of houses getting up and floating down the street, or whole buildings were just wiped like they’d never been there before,” Middaugh said.
Hurricane Ian hit southwestern Florida in September 2022 as a Category 4 hurricane and developed 15-foot storm surge in Fort Myers Beach, according to the National Hurricane Center.
In fall of 2022, when Hurricane Ian hit, UCF had 897 students enrolled from Lee County where Fort Myers is located, according to UCF’s Institutional Knowledge Management database.
Middaugh struggled with his decision to go home to his family in Fort Myers or stay in Orlando, but he knew that staying in Orlando was the safer choice.
“Physically, the storm had no effect. I was fine by myself. But psychologically, it had a very heavy effect,” Middaugh said. “We didn’t know if our friends were okay, if our families were okay even, because of course we didn’t have contact with them during the storm. So you just have to hope and pray and it was a scary time.”
Vanessa Stein, assistant director of outreach and prevention at UCF’s Counseling and Psychological Services, said she works with students through many different types of services to target their needs.
“We definitely see climate anxiety and people just understanding that climate is impacting natural disasters,” Stein said. “But there’s also specific populations, for example Moroccan students, where UCF Global or another department identifies a set of students who need support.”
In addition to UCF’s 5,625 students whose nation of citizenship is not the United States, there are 5,062 students from U.S. states and territories outside of Florida, according to the UCF Institutional Knowledge Management database. Some students in this population of students may not be as familiar with Florida hurricane season.
“I mean, a lot of students are not familiar with what a hurricane is and how severe they can be around this time of year,” Salloum said. “So it’s just that familiarity, and providing messaging for students preemptively to help prepare them for some of these things.”
CAPS has worked to develop many resources to help students with many counseling needs, including responses to a natural disaster, Stein said.
One program, Therapy Assistance Online, is recommended by Stein to help students learn daily coping mechanisms. After Hurricane Ian, a module for coping through storms was created as a response to the many students affected by the natural disaster.
Departments such as UCF Global are proud of the resources that students have to support them during their toughest times, Salloum said.
“I’m glad to work at UCF because we have UCF Global, we have International Students and Scholar Services, we have Care Services and we have Counseling and Psychological Services,” Salloum said. “UCF does a really good job of providing that support network for all students and specifically international students.”
Dr. Claire Knox, professor in the UCF School of Public Administration and program director for the Master of Emergency and Crisis Management, said she stressed the importance of information that local officials and emergency management professionals provide to prepare for natural disasters.
“I know everyone’s on a tight budget, but have a plan,” Knox said. “Know what you’re going to do, who you know if you need to evacuate.”
UCF has students located all over the world and hazards impact each student individually, Knox said.
“Recovery takes so long. There are parts of New Orleans that, almost 20 years later, still have not recovered from Hurricane Katrina,” Knox said.
Students, such as Middaugh, have seen how long recovery after a natural disaster can take.
“I went down to Fort Myers about a month ago and it still looks like a hurricane just hit in some parts. Street signs are torn to pieces, like neighborhoods are just trashed,” Middaugh said. “People need to understand that, even though your home may have been fine, your family may have been fine, you still need to be empathetic towards the people who lost maybe almost everything.”
While students may struggle with the impacts of natural disasters, some like El Alami said he relies on his community here at UCF to encourage him.
“Headlines often disconnect us from the reality of what’s happening,” El Alami said. “But when it comes to the compassion and the good feelings, and the selflessness that the people have shown, it’s very easy to feel that community even thousands of miles away.”
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