The region's colleges and universities escaped major damage from Sandy

Tom King, safety czar at Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges, was ready for Hurricane Sandy, and it wasn't just because he knows his stuff.

King and his counterpart at Swarthmore College attended a Federal Emergency Management Agency seminar in New Jersey early last week before he knew the threat that Sandy posed to the Philadelphia region. The training exercise for their group just happened to be a hurricane.

"We had no idea that we'd then have to do it for real," King said. "Lucky us, in retrospect."

But coping with a hurricane for real is exactly what the region's colleges - homes to tens of thousands of students - had to do over the last few days.

Most area colleges emerged largely unscathed, with the exception of downed trees, some minor roof damage, and power outages.

One exception was Harcum College in Bryn Mawr, which lost the top layer of the roof on its main academic building to gusty winds. While the torn-off roof resulted in a lot of debris on the ground, the inside of the building sustained only minor leakage, said president Jon Jay DeTemple.

The 1,600-student college will remain closed at least until Monday. The majority of the college's classes are held in the building at 750 Montgomery Ave., across the street from Bryn Mawr College.

Most universities and colleges, including the University of Pennsylvania, Temple, Drexel, University of the Sciences, Philadelphia University, Villanova, Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, Cabrini, Ursinus, West Chester, Widener, and La Salle's main campus and Montgomery County center, announced that they would reopen on Wednesday on their regular schedules.

Camden County College and the Community College of Philadelphia also said they would reopen as scheduled. Burlington County College announced it would reopen most of its sites and programs on a regular schedule.

St. Joseph's University will reopen Wednesday as well, but two hours late.

Others, including the University of Delaware and Rowan University, plan to reopen for staff Wednesday but will not resume classes until Thursday.

"We're giving students a recovery day to take care of business at home," said Rowan spokesman Joe Cardona.

Rutgers University said it would not reopen its New Brunswick and Piscataway campuses until next week, as they were still without power. New Brunswick also is without water. As a result, the university relocated 3,500 students from New Brunswick to Piscataway, said spokesman Greg Trevor.

Rutgers' Camden campus, however, sustained only minor damage to an academic building roof and will reopen Thursday.

Swarthmore announced on Tuesday evening that it had regained power, stabilized all its systems, and could reopen.

The college sustained minor flooding in campus buildings. A tree hit the guesthouse, causing minor damage to the exterior.

Like Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr also had been without power most of Tuesday and got it back early in the evening, allowing it to operate classes on a normal schedule on Wednesday.

Still struggling with power problems, Montgomery County Community College's central campus in Blue Bell canceled for Wednesday classes that start before 3:30 p.m. The college will decide what to do about classes that begin after 3:30 by noon, said spokeswoman Alana Mauger. The college has power from a generator, which allowed it to stabilize its network system, but does not have its regular power source back yet.

At Arcadia University in Glenside, Internet service was down, and the school will remain closed Wednesday, spokeswoman Laura Baldwin said.

Gloucester County College said it would remain closed Wednesday.

Most area colleges reported only minor damage. At Widener, in Chester, a few basements were flooded, but nothing was serious, said spokesman Dan Hanson.

For even a longtime safety executive such as King, the FEMA training "was very helpful," he said. "It mainly confirmed that we were on the right track."

Preparation and communication are key, he said. "Communicate early and often with everyone - students, staff, faculty, and everyone internally who needs to be involved."