Curt Carlson
co-editor
A swath of Central Nebraska, including Kearney and surrounding counties, was on the receiving end during the recent holiday period of an unexpected, unwanted, and, according to long-time residents and weather experts alike, an unprecedented double ice storm volley that brought the region temporarily to a standstill.
Trees and power lines bore the physical brunt of the storms. Thousands of homes, businesses and farms across the region found themselves without power. Some communities, including the entire town of Holdrege, even two or three weeks later, were still without power or operating on generators. Thousands of residents sought warmth with relatives, friends or in public shelters set up by agencies such as the Red Cross. Most schools and businesses shut down or delayed openings the first week of the year.
Even some of the media organizations upon which we all depend for critical information in times of crisis were crippled. The NTV studios, located in a rural area 13 miles south of Kearney, for instance, became (literally) hardhat territory due to ice falling from the tower structure looming overhead. According to NTV General Manager Vince Barresi, some large chunks of ice actually penetrated the roof of the building in the area of the newsroom, destroying computer equipment. As was evidenced to nearly everyone who watched, the news anchors for several days were forced to operate in a studio with very little warmth and reduced light.
The impact on UNK was great, and, in spite of the more recent snowstorm that covered up the remaining ice, is still very much in evidence on campus two weeks after the storms: More than 80 large trees are either already on the ground or damaged beyond recovery; offices delayed opening for an extra week; returning students were asked to delay moving into residence halls by an extra day; students living in nearby neighborhoods found yards cluttered by tree limbs and parking difficult due to the city’s cleanup work; warmth in classrooms, offices and work areas is sustained by a fragile NPPD electrical grid that is highly vulnerable to the next storm; and some university labs are contemplating how to replace valuable refrigerated materials that were spoiled when power was lost.
As an exercise in disaster preparedness, the Great Winter Ice Storms of 2006 provided an excellent opportunity for public and university officials to manage the consequences of the storm and mitigate further damage. On Jan. 2, 2007, as the damage from the New Year’s Eve storm was becoming evident, and in response to a call from NPPD officials to delay opening of offices and cut campus power, Chancellor Doug Kristensen called a small crisis team of administrators to meet in a cool conference room at the Facilities Management and Planning Building.
NPPD, with only one of its five power lines still able to serve Kearney, needed the bulk of electricity normally consumed by the UNK campus to redistribute to homes and communities without any power and had decided that power to all but a few essential parts of the campus must be severed immediately. (The Internet, still operating thanks to a generator powering servers in Otto Olsen, provided that day to the UNK administrators the first view of giant lattice electrical towers that had collapsed under the weight of ice.) According to Interim Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance John Lakey, “The electrical power to the campus was brought down by NPPD on New Year’s Day to help ensure power to the Kearney and surrounding communities.” Kearney became for several days, in fact, a city of rolling blackouts.
Later, Lakey, who was the chief crisis manager for UNK during the storms, said, “We were allowed to bring some buildings back up to power as long as we kept the power usage to less than a third of our normal consumption. After the second transmission line to Kearney was restored (Jan. 5), we were allowed to bring power up to all buildings. We have been told by NPPD that we can have normal operations as long as we conserve power where possible.”
The team’s New Year’s Day decision (to delay opening offices at UNK by a week, and delay residence hall opening by a day) was immediately written-up and distributed via phone, FAX and e-mail to media across the state. The greatest concern was for UNK students in Lincoln and Omaha, where the Kearney weatherrelated problems were not then being reported as extensively as in areas more to the west. The chancellor did not want students to arrive on Friday, the day students were originally scheduled to move back into residence halls, because without power, the halls would still be cold and dark until Saturday.
As for office staff, even if power could have remained on the week after New Year’s Day, most sidewalks and parking lots were still buried in one to two inches of hard and slippery ice, and tree limbs were scattered everywhere. Some exterior doorways, for example—such as the north entrances to the Communications Building—were blocked for a time by ice buildup.
What are the lessons to be learned? According to Lakey, there are, indeed, several important ways we as a community of faculty, staff and students could improve our readiness in the face of future disastrous weather events. Among the lessons : 1) Before the next storm, identify equipment, research projects and other items that may be lost or damaged by the lack of electrical power, and 2) Increase the number of employees who can be contacted through the automated calling system.
Even these several weeks after the last ice pelt dropped on campus New Year’s Eve, Lakey advised in a letter to campus that we are still not out of the woods. “The two transmission lines feeding Kearney are very fragile and changes in weather conditions can affect these lines. A loss of one of these lines would cut power to Kearney to about half of what is needed to support the city. If this should happen, NPPD will immediately disconnect power to UNK and the other high users such as the manufacturing plants. We will be in this situation until the third transmission line is restored to Kearney, which will be at a minimum three weeks.”
In the same letter, Lakey encourages everyone “to save power where ever possible. Space heaters should not be used. Lights not needed should be off, and computers should be shut down at night.” Because of the remaining fragility of the entire electrical network that supports UNK and Kearney, these admonitions are still in force.
The University, obviously, is just one part of the area affected by these storms. News reports continue on a daily basis of the heroic efforts of line crews, city and county workers, Red Cross volunteers, and many other citizens throughout the region who lived for days, and sometimes weeks, without power. And we can certainly sympathize with our neighbors to the South, especially in Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, who have endured their own ice nightmare in recent days.
The University, obviously, is just one part of the area affected by these storms. News reports continue on a daily basis of the heroic efforts of line crews, city and county workers, Red Cross volunteers, and many other citizens throughout the region who lived for days, and sometimes weeks, without power. And we can certainly sympathize with our neighbors to the South, especially in Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, who have endured their own ice nightmare in recent days.
