Ice Storm Heroes at the University of Arkansas: Parts V and VI

Editor’s Note: This is the final part of an ongoing series of stories about the university staff who worked through Ice Storm 2009. This and other installments may also be found at http://icestorm2009.uark.edu/.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas never really closes. After a historic ice storm, classes were cancelled and university offices and business operations were closed for an unprecedented four days.

But the University of Arkansas did not close.

Approximately 4,500 students live on campus. Their needs didn’t stop for inclement weather.

Essential members of the university staff didn’t stop either: They overcame challenges and worked through the week to make sure the students were safe, warm, fed and housed. These men and women are among the real heroes of the Ice Storm of 2009.

Information Technology Services

Anyone who had an Internet connection during the ice storm – either with their computer or cell phone – probably noticed something heartening. All of the university Web sites were up and running. Even better, campus e-mail was working. Most of the computer labs on campus were open, and the computers were online.

That didn’t just happen.

University Information Technology Services maintains an around-the-clock data center to make sure the computer system servers stay up and running. It never closed during the storm.

“All of the people who came in to staff the data center and perform welfare checks on our systems had outages at their own homes and challenges getting to campus,” said Cathleen Middleton, associate director of computing services. “Their dedication and commitment to the university provided unwavering support to the whole campus.”

Chuck Dwyer manages the center, and has an example of that.

“One of our operators, Mitchell McDonald, knew he’d have trouble getting here for his midnight shift. So he came in early and camped in an empty office to sleep until it was time to start work.”

When there were problems away from the servers, it was up to staff from network services to make thefix the. Five of them handled the workload over the four-day period. Their biggest job was restoring online service at Bud Walton Arena on Thursday, the day of the Arkansas-Alabama basketball game.

The sportswriters and ESPN crew working the game may not have known it, but their jobs were much easier thanks to the network services staff.

Students, meanwhile, were happy to find many of the computer labs on campus open and running.

“Roger Henry was our biggest hero,” said Donnie Blagg, who manages the general access computer labs. “He coordinated efforts to keep the Arkansas Union lab open for students almost 24/7 for the entire week.”

Henry said he was able to drive to campus Tuesday morning, but many of his staff couldn’t.

“I felt better off here at the lab because we had electricity and heat,” said Henry. “My house had no power. I was able to coordinate some part-timers who could and would walk up here and keep the lab open, and together we maintained our schedule all week – except for about 10 hours one night when our night shift person had a tree blocking his driveway and couldn’t get in.”

The students appreciated it. Henry’s records show 30 to 40 students using the lab on Tuesday and even more on Wednesday.

By Thursday, Jerid Guist was able to get to work and reopen the Student Technology Center, which checks out laptops for students to use.

Working together, the information technologies staff managed to keep the campus connected under difficult circumstances.

“I was watching our campus network monitor via my iPhone's Web browser during the worst part of the ice storm while campus was closed,” said Craig Brown, associate director of computer services. “We never went below 93 percent of the network being operational, and most of the time we were never less than 97 percent. When service was down, it was usually related to power outages and service came back when power was restored. All in all, a great job.”

Facilities Management

Tuesday morning, Jan. 27, a steady light rain was falling and freezing where it landed, covering trees, bushes and everything else on campus with a coat of ice.

“Our grounds crew and custodial staff, really all our workers, know that they are essential, especially in conditions like this,” said Ron Edwards, director of operations for facilities management. “If they can get to work, they will. But the fact is, Tuesday only about 10 percent of our staff were able to get to campus.”

The grounds crew, about 20 of them for the entire campus, along with about a half dozen members of the labor shop staff ,worked to clear sidewalks, a daunting job as the day went on. Slick concrete became a secondary problem as tree limbs, heavy with ice, started to break everywhere.

Custodial workers meanwhile were spreading “Icy-melt” outside on the steps and porches of their buildings and the nearby walkways. Instead of working only their assigned buildings the skeleton crew worked in zones, again trying to cover the entire campus. They had to be careful of overhead branches falling, and had to try to clear the branches once they were on the ground.

The grounds and labor crews worked until dusk. Custodial staff worked their regular shifts until 11 p.m.

At the same time facilities management plumbers and electricians were being called to help with problems on the outskirts of campus, buildings thatwere off the campus power grid and had electrical lines down or other problems.

Wednesday more staff got in to work, but the size of the job had grown, too.

“We realized that with the number of people we had there was no way we could handle all the downed tree limbs,” said Edwards. “We started contacting tree services, but none of the local ones were available. The first one we could contract with came out of England – England, Arkansas. His crew was on the job Thursday morning, working with our grounds and labor staff, and getting some extra help from about 6 members of our carpenter shop. But we knew we needed even more.”

By Friday, two more contractors were at work, cutting and clearing downed trees and limbs.

“The damage was unprecedented for this campus,” said Mike Johnson, associate vice chancellor for facilities. “There were downed branches across the sidewalks, blocking the entrance to buildings. Some sidewalks had trees, bent by the weight of the ice, just hanging over them, waiting to break. It was dangerous to even walk around campus. That was the prime reason classes were cancelled Thursday and Friday. But our crews kept working.”

The university’s heating and power grids are all underground, so through all this, the main campus didn’t lose heat, and was without power for less than an hour.

“That was a scheduled outage,” Edwards explained. “A large tree was leaning against the main feeder line from SWEPCO to the campus. The only way to remove the tree was to turn off the power. As soon as the tree was removed, the power was back on.”

Johnson and Edwards were impressed with the job their limited staff accomplished, and the help they got from other services.

“In a situation like this, we always contract with Chartwells to feed our crews,” said Edwards. “Our people ate at Brough Commons through the week, and when it was closed Saturday they let us eat at the Northwest Quad dining hall. Facilities always pays them – but this time Chartwells said, no, they are donating the meals. We really appreciate that.”

The ice is long gone, but the damage remains and the clean up will continue for weeks, at least. Crews are collecting debris and removing it to parking Lot 56 on campus. They got a boost Thursday, Feb. 5, when about 700 students and faculty turned out to help with the cleanup. Edwards said that the university will hire a large chipper to turn the debris into mulch that can be used on campus.

“The damage is tremendous, but it can be repaired,” he said. “We will plant new trees. Meanwhile we will try to make the cleanup as sustainable as possible.”