Both the state of North Carolina and Duke were left reeling after the recent massive snowstorm that led Gov. Pat McCrory to issue a state of emergency and cancelled three days of class.
Beginning Wednesday morning, the storm quickly accumulated a level of 2-3 inches of snow on the ground, causing bus routes to stop service at 5:30 p.m. that afternoon. Despite enforcing the emergency weather policy, the University put some staff members—such as bus drivers, the police force and facilities workers—up in area hotels to ensure that essential campus services were running. Emergency coordinator Kyle Cavanaugh said the storm was the worst the University has seen in the last five years.
"It was a combination of the blast of snow, the ice and the temperature never rising above freezing," Cavanaugh said. "This one was a bit unique...every storm has its idiosyncratic qualities."
McCrory noted in a press release Wednesday that “heavy snow, ice and gusty winds” could bring power outages. He urged residents to take precaution accordingly, adding that it would be a “tough 48 hours.”
The University began preparation for the snowstorm the previous weekend, Cavanaugh said. The emergency management team met multiple times both Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon, ensuring that plans to fully combat the winter onslaught on campus were put in motion—such as pretreating roads and walkways.
“We knew we were going to see something, it was just a matter of exactly when,” Cavanaugh said.
Although students did not experience any power outages, both Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta and Deona Hatley, a residence coordinator on Central Campus, sent emails warning students of impending power loss.
“With the accumulation of ice, there does come the possibility of losing electricity,” Hatley wrote in an email Thursday to residents.
Despite students being relatively unaffected, the state of North Carolina was not so lucky. Cavanaugh noted that 17,000 people lost power in Wake County and 4,000 in Durham County.
Cavanaugh added that although the University puts an emphasis on students, the hospital is particularly difficult to manage during emergency weather times because it cannot stop running. To enable this process, Cavanaugh said bus drivers normally transporting students served on the "snow desk" last week, helping to pick up hospital employees who could not get to and from work due to weather conditions.
"We got through this as well as can be," Cavanaugh said. "It is really complementary to our staff."
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