Spring Hill College experienced black ice for the first time in years due to unusually cold winter weather.
On Tuesday, January 16, Spring Hill College officials canceled operations on campus due to the freezing temperatures and ice storms rolling in. The combination of the cold temperatures and storms resulted in something called black ice.
Black ice is something that most members of the SHC community are not used to dealing with. These conditions can be very dangerous since the ice that forms on the ground is difficult to see. Maintenance workers took precautions by blocking off outdoor stairs by the Fine Arts building and Quinlin Hall due to previous reports of students and faculty slipping on the stairs. Senior Alexandra Ballester said, “I was leaving my apartment on campus at about 7:30 in the morning to go to class when I stepped onto my porch and slipped on the black ice and fell.”
Ballester is from California and has never seen or experienced black ice while at SHC. She described the black ice as being “weird because the ground looked dry in some areas and wet in others, so I didn’t think twice when I stepped onto my porch.”
The faculty worked around the clock to fix all the issues that arose due to the cold weather. They fixed pipes, air conditioning, and plumbing issues that came as a result.
While some students braved the cold weather by stepping outside, others preferred to stay in and not move about campus. Some students reported having to wait in their car for a couple of minutes while the layer of ice covering the windshield defrosted. Ballester said, “I was almost late for my class since I had to wait for the ice on my windshield to melt so I could see.”
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