Days after ice storm, some students still without power
Winter weather and lack of power strands UA students both on and off campus.
Jordain Carney
Issue date: 2/4/09 Section: News
The messy ice storm that hit Northwest Arkansas last week resulted in four days of cancelled classes, the longest the university has ever been closed because of weather, and left a majority of Fayetteville residents without power.
Most residence halls maintained power and a majority of the university kept it, as well, according to a university press release, except on Thursday, when the power was purposely shut off for half an hour to help restore power to parts of campus that had lost it.
"The lights were flickering some on Tuesday," said sophomore Mary Smith, a biophysical chemistry major who lives in one of the residence halls on campus.
With school canceled for four days and with power in her hall, Smith went out late Tuesday night to examine tree damage and caught a large number of students sledding down Dickson Street on various items like chairs, trash can lids and tables.
At this time, cars were still trying to make it up the street, with little success, despite the ice. Luckily for students who were stuck on campus because of the icy weather, dining halls like Brough Commons were open to make sure students still had a place to eat, and by Thursday, roads had cleared enough so they could get off campus if necessary.
Residence halls were not the only ones who were able to keep power; the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house also never lost power, said Jason Carter, SAE vice president. Not all of the sorority and fraternity houses were as lucky. Both the Kappa Delta sorority and Kappa Sigma fraternity houses lost power Tuesday and did not get it back until Thursday afternoon, the presidents of the respective chapters said.
"Most of the members who live in the house went home and the rest stayed with friends who still had power. A few also got hotel rooms," said Courtney Chandler, president of Kappa Delta.
The members of Kappa Sigma also stayed with friends or stayed in university housing, according to Alex Miron, president of Kappa Sigma.
Off-campus students were in an even tougher situation when the storm hit.
"We live at The Green off of Gregg and we only got it back yesterday," said Danny Meyer, who left on Thursday after finding it would be a few days before they got the power back.
"It was like 'Lord of the Flies,' at first," Meyer said. "No, I'm just kidding; it wasn't that bad."
While many people have gotten their power back by the start of the school week and classes have resumed, almost 38,000 people were still without power across Northwest Arkansas, according to the various electric companies including SWEPCO, Ozarks Electric and Carroll Electric at the beginning of the week.
Most residence halls maintained power and a majority of the university kept it, as well, according to a university press release, except on Thursday, when the power was purposely shut off for half an hour to help restore power to parts of campus that had lost it.
"The lights were flickering some on Tuesday," said sophomore Mary Smith, a biophysical chemistry major who lives in one of the residence halls on campus.
With school canceled for four days and with power in her hall, Smith went out late Tuesday night to examine tree damage and caught a large number of students sledding down Dickson Street on various items like chairs, trash can lids and tables.
At this time, cars were still trying to make it up the street, with little success, despite the ice. Luckily for students who were stuck on campus because of the icy weather, dining halls like Brough Commons were open to make sure students still had a place to eat, and by Thursday, roads had cleared enough so they could get off campus if necessary.
Residence halls were not the only ones who were able to keep power; the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house also never lost power, said Jason Carter, SAE vice president. Not all of the sorority and fraternity houses were as lucky. Both the Kappa Delta sorority and Kappa Sigma fraternity houses lost power Tuesday and did not get it back until Thursday afternoon, the presidents of the respective chapters said.
"Most of the members who live in the house went home and the rest stayed with friends who still had power. A few also got hotel rooms," said Courtney Chandler, president of Kappa Delta.
The members of Kappa Sigma also stayed with friends or stayed in university housing, according to Alex Miron, president of Kappa Sigma.
Off-campus students were in an even tougher situation when the storm hit.
"We live at The Green off of Gregg and we only got it back yesterday," said Danny Meyer, who left on Thursday after finding it would be a few days before they got the power back.
"It was like 'Lord of the Flies,' at first," Meyer said. "No, I'm just kidding; it wasn't that bad."
While many people have gotten their power back by the start of the school week and classes have resumed, almost 38,000 people were still without power across Northwest Arkansas, according to the various electric companies including SWEPCO, Ozarks Electric and Carroll Electric at the beginning of the week.
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