<p>I'm living without power at home (although I'm at work in NYC today where it's warm, toilets flush, etc.) but am a little shocked that we parents got no notice of what's happening with our children at Hampshire. My first-year daughter is apparently sleeping in a gym at Mt Holyoke.</p>
<p>Can anyone update us? There's nothing on Hampshire's website!</p>
<p>Never mind – I just saw Lash’s message!</p>
<p>Yeah, our daughter called us from the MoHo gym on Sunday night as her phone battery was dying. There was a notice on the front page of the website yesterday that classes were canceled for today. Today, that message changed to classes canceled for Monday and Tuesday. According to our daughter, there are downed trees and branches all over campus. Thankfully, the storm hit after the big Halloween bash!</p>
<p>Posted on the Web site yesterday:</p>
<p>"We had hoped to have power restored by Tuesday morning, but the latest estimate we have received indicates it will be late Tuesday. If that proves accurate, students can return to campus Wednesday afternoon. Since Thursday is Advising Day, classes will not resume until Friday.</p>
<p>Dean of Faculty Alan Goodman has reached out to deans and provosts at the other Five College schools to let them know that it is difficult for Hampshire students to attend five college classes, and asked for their flexibility. Hampshire will also be flexible about students who are off campus returning late in the week. We will continue to keep you updated as information becomes available."</p>
<p>Our daughter has a class today at MoHO. She will go, but she doesn’t have her assignments ready, which are back on her computer that she left behind in her mod.</p>
<p>Sounds like they’ll get power way before we will – luckies! ;D</p>
<p>I read on the other thread about kinderny’s rescue. ALF, has anything this bad happened in the (six?) years you’ve been a Hampshire parent? I’m hoping it was a freak thing with the weight of snow on leaves, etc.–would hate to think it’s an annual event.</p>
<p>One of my SIL’s lives in Northampton, just a few miles away from Hampshire. She is without power too. While she has lost power in the past, this is extraordinary for this region in my understanding. Yes, too many leaves still on the trees to handle this amount of snow and so many power lines taken down. Also heard there was a problem with a generator too, which otherwise would have supplied fire alarms and power to SAGA (dining services).</p>
<p>Sorry ALF and HCEB, if I’d known your D’s were stranded, there would have been room for more. ;)</p>
<p>I have never before heard of Hampshire students being asked to go home for a few days. I really think that this was indeed a freak occurrence. Certainly my brother (VT) and my Mom (NJ) felt that such heavy wet snow was unprecedented at this time of year. From what I gather, Western Mass got more snow than anyone - I have friends who live in the Berkshires, and they reported 2 ft!</p>
<p>Apparently Mt. Holyoke has some older steam-heated buildings that could still be heated with the help of backup generators.</p>
<p>I recall a one-day power outage a few years ago, but that was pretty much taken in stride, mostly because it was not during cold weather.</p>
<p>My daughter would have left to stay with one of the above relatives, but she is a Residence Life Intern (RA), and was required to stay to help out. She also told me that college employees had removed all spoiled food from mod kitchens and were giving each mod some money ($50?) to replace that food.</p>
<p>Just received this email:</p>
<p>"Although we were told yesterday afternoon that we would have to wait several days for Hampshire’s power to be restored, it came on at 4:00 this morning for the central campus. Crews have been working around the clock - the buildings are warming up, we have full communications systems restored, the physical plant staff are hard at work cutting up fallen trees that litter the campus, and the residence life staff are in constant contact with students. This afternoon, starting at 2:00, students who have been housed at Mt. Holyoke College will be bussed back to campus. Dinner will be served to them this evening from 6 to 7 p.m.</p>
<p>The campus will re-open to all students beginning tomorrow (Wednesday, November 2) at 7:00 a.m.</p>
<p>Classes are canceled on Wednesday, but the campus will be open. Staff are expected to return to work if they are able, with the possible exception of those who work in buildings located along Route 116 (the business office and Red Barn, admissions, human resources, health services, and communications), since power has not yet been restored to those buildings. Personnel in these buildings will be advised by their supervisors about when to return to work. Alternative arrangements are being set up for the provision of health services for our students.</p>
<p>The College will resume full academic operations on Thursday, which is advising day. Classes will be held as usual on Friday.</p>
<p>We deeply appreciate your patience and goodwill throughout this major snowstorm and power outage.</p>
<p>Jonathan Lash
President"</p>
<p>I think my daughter kind of liked camping in the MoHo gym! This storm was a complete aberration for this area – I’m in Putnam County NY, 50 miles north of NYC, and it’s like living on another planet from the city. I’ve never seen such destruction – much worse than Irene. We got over 18 inches of snow, there are huge beautiful old trees down, hanging on wires, branches all over the place, roads not cleared, etc. We never get this kind of snow, esp when the leaves are still out! The snow was incredibly heavy, and once it started being caught by leaves, branches began to hit the ground – trees and bushes didn’t stand a chance. We’ll be lucky to get power by this weekend and my cousin in Northampton says that’s true up there too. For those of you who don’t live in the Northeast, this is NOT a common weather occurrence!</p>
<p>As a MHC parent (D is a soph), I am very proud that MHC was able to help some HC students by housing them in the MHC gym. I hear that Route 116 is still closed. Many of the MHC profs still don’t have power at home. Some shower on campus, and bring their kids to campus to get warm. Really a freak (early) storm. The problem was not the amount of snow – they get more later in the winter – but timing. The leaves were still in the trees, and the snow clung to the leaves, breaking limbs, etc. In the winter, after the leaves fall, the snow is no big problem there. In the northeast, there was a similar bad early snow storm in October 1988 or '89 causing similar downed-trees problems.</p>
<p>Yeah, I don’t know what Hampshire would have done without the MoHo Field House (gym) and UMass’ ability to supply hundreds of cots (from where?). Fortunately, there were less than 200 students who ended up having to go there, as most students were able to go home or go with a friend. Here is a nice account by a parent who took in a bunch of students: <a href=“http://blog.hampshire.edu/family/[/url]”>http://blog.hampshire.edu/family/</a></p>
<p>Here’s a little slide show of the cleanup effort: [Hampshire</a> Community Assists with Cleanup](<a href=“http://www.hampshire.edu/news/22529.htm]Hampshire”>http://www.hampshire.edu/news/22529.htm)</p>
<p>Wow, there are sure a lot of downed branches!</p>
<p>It was actually kind of scary driving there on Sunday to pick the students up: a number of branches hanging off of electric lines over the road. Campus still looked pretty beat up yesterday.</p>
<p>Here’s a nice letter of appreciation from President Lash:</p>
<p>Posted: November 01, 2011</p>
<p>To my friends and colleagues of the Hampshire College community:</p>
<p>Now that the dust has settled (or, rather, now that the snow is melting), I want to take a moment to thank this amazing community for working tirelessly and creatively, and cooperatively, to manage the crisis we have experienced these past few days. No one I have spoken with has ever experienced a snowstorm this extreme in October. I certainly never imagined the kind of damage such a storm could wreak. We faced a daunting collection of problems Sunday morning - no power, no heat or light, no communications. All of you proved more than equal to the task of dealing with those problems.</p>
<p>My first thanks go to Hampshire’s students, who were remarkable in their patience, cooperation, common sense, and good humor. The campus was evacuated without incident on Sunday - many students went home or stayed with friends nearby, and several hundred were sheltered at Mt. Holyoke College through the extraordinary generosity and hospitality of Mt. Holyoke president Lynn Pasquerella and the entire Mt. Holyoke community (a small but delightful example: a number of Mt. Holyoke students went to the field house last night, where Hampshire students have been staying, bringing candy and camaraderie by means of “reverse trick-or-treating”).</p>
<p>The members of the emergency response team and their staffs have been working literally around the clock to bring the campus back into full operations. Physical plant workers have been clearing trees and debris, bringing the heating and electrical systems back on-line, evaluating all facilities for safety, and even emptying out refrigerators so that students will return to clean housing. Residence life staff have been staying with students at Mt. Holyoke, communicating with students staying off campus, and keeping spirits up in myriad ways. The campus police have been doing whatever might be needed, from facilitating transportation to liaising with Mt. Holyoke and UMass to secure cots and blankets. Dining services personnel have cleaned out all the perishable foods and re-stocked in preparation for serving a hot meal to returning students this evening. Communications and IT personnel have activated every conceivable means of staying in touch with the community, including the parents of our students, to keep everyone apprised with the latest updates.</p>
<p>For me, as a new member of this community, it has been absolutely wonderful to experience the spirit of shared purpose and the willingness to help out in whatever ways necessary that have characterized our response to this emergency. Hard as this has been for all of us, it makes me even more grateful to be here. Thank you with all my heart.</p>
<p>Jonathan Lash
President</p>
<p>What a graceful letter! It really has you appreciate the myriads of details that have to be tended to keep an institution running.</p>