Last week, buildings across the campus had issues with heat, electricity and hot water due to recent inclement weather. Here’s a list of university buildings that lost heat and/or hot water:
Bel Air Hall Caroline Hall Carroll Hall Easton Hall Elkton Hall Ellicott Hall Lefrak Hall Preinkert Field House Satellite Central Utility Building South Campus Dining Hall Van Munching Hall Wicomico HallLast week, on-campus residents started their own Winter Olympics event: Jumping in and out of a cold shower.
Heat, hot water and electricity failed in dorms and other buildings across the campus last week as the university remained closed to give facilities workers time to clean up after record snowfalls.
“I got back at like 2 in the morning [Thursday] and was like, ‘It’s freezing in here. Where’s my heat?'” said Elkton Hall resident Jason Nixon, a sophomore mechanical engineering major.
Several South Campus buildings lost heat and power Wednesday when heavy wind and snow knocked out the electric cable that supplies them, said Jack Baker, the operations and maintenance director for Facilities Management.
Although Baker said he was unsure what caused the North Campus problems, he suggested a “power blip” might have disrupted a water heater.
Other officials were unavailable for comment while the campus was closed and over the weekend.
In order to cope with the lack of heat or warm water, students invented a slew of unique means of performing daily tasks.
Some took their shampoo, shower shoes and favorite loofah with them as they marched through the snow to take their showers at friends’ homes. Others skipped showering outright.
“People didn’t even bother taking showers,” said Elisabeth Fox, a sophomore animal science major who lives in Elkton Hall. “[The shower] was cold for a long time, but I think the pipes were frozen.”
Sophomore general biology major Alyssa Bitzel said her need for hot water forced her to move out of her Hagerstown Hall room altogether.
“I went to South Campus where there were warm showers. I camped out there for a few days,” she said.
Response times by Facilities Management varied. Although some North Campus dorms were left without heat for hours on end, when the South Campus Dining Hall was among the buildings to lose power Wednesday, it was fixed within an hour, Baker said.
“It was immediate notification: Some of our electrical guys were eating at that diner,” Baker said. “As soon as we got calls, we knew what feeder it was so it took only a half hour to figure out what was wrong and how to isolate it.”
Baker said he wasn’t familiar enough with the North Campus issues to say why fixes there took longer.
In some dorms, the hot water flowed from shower heads off and on, which left some students jumping into them any chance they could get.
“Last night, someone was like ‘the shower’s hot, everyone go!'” Easton Hall resident Jessica Macklin, a freshman criminology and criminal justice and psychology major said Thursday. “But it was still pretty cold.”
korkut@umdbk.com
