Ice Storm 2005

The aftermath of the ice storm that hit Georgia last weekend left thousands without power and resulted in two fatalities in Baldwin and Putnam Counties.

More than 300,000 Georgia residents were without power after the storm subsided late Saturday.

Although Georgia College & State University sustained varying damages, staff and personnel were prepared, said Associate Director of Operations & Maintenance Kevin Murner.

GC&SU began making preparations for the storm last Thursday, Murner said.

“We also had a Facilities Director on site at 4 a.m. Saturday morning monitoring the weather and campus conditions every half hour until 7:30 p.m. on Saturday evening,” said Murner.

“This Director was back in on Sunday from 7 a.m. until 12 p.m. on Sunday to administer a follow up assessment.”

At least three trees on campus sustained “severe damage,” although most trees on front campus experienced mainly sporadic and minor damage, Murner said.

West Campus also experienced minor damages, including the loss of approximately twenty to thirty pine trees.

In addition to at least 15 accidents caused by the storm in Baldwin County, debris also caused damages to numerous vehicles in the Milledgeville area.

“Around town, personal vehicles were damaged due to falling debris,” Murner said. “I know of four vehicles that were hit pretty hard with falling debris.”

Plant Operation & Maintenance personnel administered a disaster response dispatch to assist with power outages if necessary.

Although power outages could have potentially been more extensive, approximately 15,000 customers were still out of power in the Milledgeville and Baldwin areas, Murner said.

Freshman and Adams Hall resident Jessica Koburger said she woke up around 9 a.m. Saturday morning and noticed the power outage.

“My room was freezing,” said Koburger. “I ended up going over to a friend’s house because she had power, and then we got power back around five.”

Housing staff had begun directing residence hall students to the Centennial Center, which was receiving power from a generator, when power was finally restored, Director of University Housing Paul Jahr said.

“The university community owes a debt of thanks to members of the Plant Operations, Centennial Center and Public Safety departments for their efforts in responding to the loss of power this past Saturday,” said Jahr.

Murner said out of the ordinary complications at a local Georgia Power station caused delays in the restoration of power.

“Georgia Power Substation located on Hwy 49 west shut down around 11 a.m. Saturday, creating about a six hour power interruption for GC&SU,” Murner said. “Georgia Power engineers were able to make repairs and restore electrical power by late afternoon Saturday.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 4 2005. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry