Extreme weather over winter break caused multiple travel delays and accidents that affected students traveling back to campus for the beginning of winter quarter, as well as those remaining on campus over break.
At the beginning of January, a major storm hit the Midwest and Northeast, affecting thousands of travelers the week before classes started. According to the Denver Post, more than 20,000 flights were cancelled nationwide between Thursday, Jan. 2 and Wednesday, Jan. 8. JetBlue Airways Corp., one of the hardest hit airlines, shut down at four major airports in Boston and New York on Monday, Jan. 6.
Because of these extenuating circumstances, Housing and Residential Education (HRE) decided to allow several students to move back into residence halls early. According to Executive Director Demi Brown, three students from the Boston and New York areas contacted HRE and requested to move in on Saturday, Jan. 4 instead of the official move-in day on Sunday, Jan. 5.
“This was an exception more than a rule,” said Brown. “The biggest issue we were looking at was travel concerns with classes starting on Monday. That’s why we were responsive to those requests. We knew we could have students potentially stranded in airports and that was not ideal.”
Brown said only the students who contacted HRE and informed them of their travel concerns were allowed to move in the day before. He added the only reason it worked was because there were already resident assistants (RAs) staffing the buildings at the time.
“It’s difficult to allow a student back when nothing else on campus is open. We certainly weren’t prepared to have a large-scale move in,” said Brown. “But we could make a few exceptions for students who contacted us. We saw the scale of the storm that was coming.”
Back in December there were also at least six weather-related accidents on campus, according to Sgt. Stephen Banet of the Department of Campus Safety (DCS). These accidents included two traffic accidents, three water leaks and one person slipping and falling on the ice.
“When it is this cold, there is no telling what will happen,” said Banet.
December temperatures in Denver dropped this year, according to the National Weather Service. Last year, the average temperature was 31.2 degrees (1.2 degrees above the usual average) and the lowest temperature was -2 degrees. This year, the average temperature was 28.4 degrees (1.6 degrees below the usual average) and the lowest temperature was -15 degrees.
Denver still has warnings of hazardous weather conditions, but the seven-day forecast shows a mostly clear and sunny week with temperatures ranging from the mid 20s to the high 50s.
