His racial comments 'kicked/whipped/stirred up a storm' in the newspapers. [=newspapers criticized his racial comments very strongly]
The college was quiet that morning, but it was 'the calm before the storm'. Thousands of students would arrive later.
Newspapers have 'weathered the storm' of online information by providing news online themselves.
(..) I was thinking about maybe going out, but, you know, I don't know. Leonard, we can't have that. Come with us. Hey, you know what, Doug? There's a fucking storm coming, man. Why don't you come with us? Yeah-- maybe, yeah. - All right. We're gonna leave in, like, minutes. (..)2008 Two Lovers