{"id":32017,"date":"2015-02-02T14:43:12","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T19:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=32017"},"modified":"2015-02-03T12:07:48","modified_gmt":"2015-02-03T17:07:48","slug":"helping-a-university-weather-the-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2015\/02\/helping-a-university-weather-the-storm\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping a university weather the storm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"By

By dawn the storm was far from over, as Joe Kamendy and his front-end loader kept pushing back the snow.<\/p><\/div>\n

When a major snowstorm makes driving dangerous and shuts down schools and universities, many people stay indoors for an unscheduled “snow day”.<\/p>\n

\"Inside,

Inside, food staff Ed Abraham and Laura Exnowski prepare breakfast in the Decew dining hall.<\/p><\/div>\n

But not everyone.<\/p>\n

Brock University’s five residences house nearly 2,400 students, the equivalent of a small town that needs to be fed, made secure and kept accessible to emergency vehicles.<\/p>\n

When Monday’s winter wallop shut down Brock for the day, cancelling all classes and activities, a handful of employees still managed to get out of their own driveways to make sure nobody went hungry or was marooned in a snow-bound corner of campus.<\/p>\n

\"Mike

Mike McNamara, left and Richard Strickland clear a path from Decew Residence to the Schmon Tower. <\/p><\/div>\n

While Campus Security monitored the safety of students and facilities, a small group of food services staff made sure dining hall kitchens in Lowenberger and Decew residences were up and running. The first baker got in at 2 am, as the storm was starting to peak. Chefs arrived by 6 am, followed shortly by 10 service staff and two managers.<\/p>\n

Outside, in the face of wind-driven snow and lots of it, snow clearing crews worked through Sunday night and all day Monday.<\/p>\n

\"Plow

Plow driver Bob Rattew: "You just keep going."<\/p><\/div>\n

They used plows, snow blowers and shovels to clear roads and fire lanes, keep walkways and building entrances useable, and – taking advantage of the absence of parked vehicles – plowing out parking lots. At one point mechanics had to be called in to repair the main plow, but it was soon back out in the elements.<\/p>\n

By Monday noon the worst had moved on, and Environment Canada lifted its weather alert for Niagara. But swirling winds were still sculpting two-foot drifts that had to be cleared before thousands of students and staff showed up the next morning.<\/p>\n

“At the height of the storm you just keep going,” said snowplow driver Bob Rattew. “You’re just trying to keep up.”<\/p>\n

Ride along with Bob Rattew, watch this video<\/a> recorded by John Dick, Brock’s Manager of Grounds Services.<\/p>\n

\"Campus

Campus Security staff (l-r) Sean McGrath, Darren Peacock, Rick Geady and Bruce Beckett use CCTV to monitor campus conditions.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When a major snowstorm makes driving dangerous and shuts down schools and universities, many people stay indoors for an unscheduled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":32026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32017"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32017"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32099,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32017\/revisions\/32099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}