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Marywood Students Build Disaster Shelters

SCRANTON — While officials in Nepal ask for help housing half a million people who were forced from their homes by a deadly earthquake, architecture stude...

SCRANTON -- While officials in Nepal ask for help housing half a million people who were forced from their homes by a deadly earthquake, architecture students in Lackawanna County unveiled temporary disaster shelters of their own design.

The 28 architecture students are from Marywood University. Working in groups over the last semester, they made three different temporary shelters. The structures could be used in a disaster situation.

"It was a very great experience using different methods of disaster relief, how to house people, seeing how things go together to help people be not so worried after a disaster, not so scared, give them some enclosure," said student Chard Howley.

Each of the three shelters has room for two or more people to sleep and each cost about $1,000 to build. They are designed to be taken apart and put back together.

In fact, the Marywood students have to do just that on Friday on Courthouse Square in Scranton.

This is the first time professors at Marywood University have asked students to build disaster shelters.

"Being able to help out others in need is such a great feeling and if these were to be used for a disaster relief, I am very happy I am able to do my part as well as everyone here is," said Brianna Muller, another architecture student.

"It would be nice if these were implemented in something like that because it really gives you the feeling you're helping someone else out, but you know it's always in the back of your head. This could be out there to really help someone," agreed fellow student Nico Gramci.

As part of this project, the students and their professors met with Red Cross officials.

"Now they're really interested in working with us next year and the year after that and the year after that with the idea that we would generate structures that they can utilize in their efforts whether it's here at home in Scranton or whether it's something we would actually package and ship off to places like Haiti and Nepal," said Associate Architecture Professor Brian Laughlin.

One of the three Marywood structures is mostly waterproof, the other two are not. That was not a requirement of this year's projects, though professors said it may be in the future.

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