RALEIGH, N.C. — This weekend was "move-in" weekend for many college students.

Usually, the moving is done in blazing August heat. But, this time, moving day offered a soggy, dreary start to the school year.

Moving containers, boxes and refrigerators into a college dorm is hard enough. But doing it in the rain is even worse.

"I'm just moving everything as fast as I can before it starts pouring down," Meredith College junior Whitney Picard said Sunday.

Although students and parents at both Meredith and North Carolina State University had a rainy move-in day Sunday. they felt prepared with their tarps, umbrellas and carts.

"I hate it," said Wayne Pendergrass, father of an N.C. State student. "But I got prepared this time and got a set of hand trucks."

Instead of moving in on Saturday, when Hurricane Charley made his arrival, a lot of local college students and their parents decided to move Sunday. Some of them said that was a mistake.

"We were going to come yesterday, " said NCSU parent Carter Jones. "But we were watching the news the whole time about Charley, and I figured it was going to be horizontal rain yesterday. So, we decided to wait and come today. We probably would have missed the rain yesterday."

NCSU student Mitali Patel moved in Friday. But Sunday's rain still caused problems.

"It's slippery in the halls," Patel said. "It's definitely slippery. I kind of, like, slipped and sprained my ankle."

On those slippery halls, hundreds of freshmen were ready to start new lives with high expectations from their parents.

"Go to church, work hard, and we just want the best for him," said NCSU parent Linda Cannon.

Students could not wait much longer for the weather to clear up. Classes start on Wednesday.