Alexandra Palumbo
Contributing Writer
Friday, Nov. 16, was a tough one for ESU students and faculty as they dealt with the first snowstorm of the season.
The snowstorm brought a total of six inches of snow in some areas of East Stroudsburg. Some professors even canceled class before the snowfall in preparation of the storm.
On top of that, many stores and restaurants closed for the day for the safety of both their customers and their employees.
Starting at around 1 p.m., the storm began as flurries, but within minutes, the snow fell in heavily and accumulated quickly.
Throughout the rest of the day and into Saturday, Nov. 17, it snowed constantly and made most trails and paths to buildings difficult or impossible to get into and also created heavy ice on almost all areas of campus.
While teachers and faculty were busy making their students safe, some struggled to get home on the roadways. One shuttle got stuck going up the hill into the entrance of the University Ridge Apartments.
The shuttle was eventually pushed down the hill back onto East Brown Street and slowly made its way to the Innovation Center, where it was stuck there for a total of 45 minutes until the students could be transferred onto another shuttle.
“I’m glad how the shuttle staff handled the situation. She made the right call to pull over and pass us onto the other shuttle. She was looking out for her our safety as well as our own,” said Junior Emily Elder.
The roadways off of campus were backed up and treacherous as well. When student Stephen Chromey braced the snow well into the storm to go to his job, he was hit with lots of traffic and icy roads.
“The roads were hazardous for many vehicles and I was sitting in traffic for over an hour due to the snow and ice. Thankfully, it seemed like everyone was driving safe but it could’ve been much worse,” said Chromey, who normally drives ten minutes to work.
In terms of professors and their classes, many struggled to not fall behind due to the snow day that was called that Friday.
Some professors took lengthy steps in order to stay on track, such as mandating online assignments during regular class periods or making conference calls that were previously scheduled for class time online.
“It was honestly very helpful that my professors assigned our work online. I wouldn’t want to come back and have everything is piling up, especially right before finals, so it helped a lot,” said Graduate Student Samantha Young, who is studying exercise science.
While students stayed on top of their school work, the maintenance workers at ESU were working around the clock salting the roads, shoveling the pavement or parking lots.
While the roads, pathways and parking lots took days to make safe again, there were no reported injuries from the ice or snow.
Email Alexandra at:
apalumbo3@live.esu.edu
