After an unusually early snowstorm that struck the Northeast October 30, the Andover community woke to see branches strewn across the Great Lawn and power outages across campus.
“The Eagle Tribune” reported that 2,570 homes and businesses in Andover lost electricity by 9 p.m. October 29.
On campus, seven dormitories and Gelb Science Center lost power. According to the National Grid, eighty-eight percent of the Town of Andover lost electricity.
Alumni House, Flagg House, French House, Hersey House, Morton House, Stowe House and Whitney House were all left without power after the storm. According to Larry Muench, Director of Facilities, all the dorms except Morton House had regained power as of Wednesday.
The dorms that lost power are not linked to Andover’s backup electricity loop, and thus lost power when the grid maintained by the outside utility company failed.
Peter Higgins ’14, a resident of Flagg House, said, “[Flagg House] lost electricity on Saturday night, but we just slept in our dorm without electricity. Sunday we got up and there still wasn’t any electricity and we decided that we didn’t want to stay in our dorm.”
“Clark [Perkins ’14] and I went to Taylor Hall, and we slept on the couches in Taylor Hall and the other kids went to Stearns to sleep with their ex-prefect Brandon Wong ’12. Then, last night we all slept at the [Austin] Gaiss’ ’14 house. It wasn’t too terrible though because I could use the gym shower, I could come to campus to charge my electronics, it wasn’t too bad overall,” continued Higgins.
Morton House will not regain power for a few days, since a falling tree limb pulled the electrical infrastructure off the building. The OPP electrical team spent Sunday reattaching the devices to the building but has yet to receive assistance from the National Grid.
Gelb Science Center also lost power and ran intermittently on emergency power over the weekend. Classes could not be held in the building on Monday due to the lack of heat and electricity. Science classes were relocated across campus, with some classes gathering in Double Brick House, Morse Hall and Samaritan House.
Like the dorms that lost power, Gelb was running on a separate electrical loop than the main campus. Gelb regained power on Monday night and classes were held in the building on Tuesday.
According to Muench, the electrical loop wired to the “main” campus did not lose power for extended periods of time. He noted, however, that the generators did turn on several times for short periods of time.
Aside from power outages, the snow affected “hundreds” of trees on Andover’s campus according to Muench. As tree branches littered the ground and roots sprouted from split trunks, members of Office of Physical Plant (OPP) trimmed and pruned to minimize the damage.
The majority of the damaged trees needed to be removed because they had split beyond repair.
Muench attributed the fallen trees to the timing of the snow storm. The flurries came while many trees still had their leaves–several had not even changed color yet. Because each leaf full caught snow and the combined weight created a large pressure on the trees.
No buildings or members of the community were hurt from the falling trees.
“I think we were very, very lucky. We had one building where a tree limb was leaning against, that was Churchill House. No other building had damage from a limb, so with all the limbs you see on the ground, we’re very lucky,” continued Muench.
Most of the older trees and trees that had lost their leaves survived; however, the younger trees with full foliage were destroyed to the point that members of OPP had to remove them. The damage could take months to reverse, according to Muench.
Due to the loss of electricity in the Town of Andover, the streetlights and traffic lights were also not functioning until Tuesday.
Though there was snow in the forecast for Saturday night, Muench was not expecting the storm to cause this much damage to campus. Muench said the ploughs were ready to go on Saturday night and Sunday morning, the normal response to snow. He did not anticipate the snow would be as dense as it was.
Late Saturday night and all day Sunday, many different OPP crews, as well as Public Safety and a coalition of faculty and Student Council members, worked to find a place to stay for students and faculty members without electricity.
“The first thing we did was look at safety. ‘Are power lines down in areas that people could be hurt?’ We had to look at walkways, paths, buildings, and any roads. Also, danger from fallen limbs, we had to do a lot of work that day to clear off paths and walkways,” said Muench.
Rome Arnold ’14, said, “I was very lucky not to be hurt. I was walking back to Bishop Hall when a massive tree literally fell three feet away from me. I don’t think anybody expected the storm to be that bad.”
