Danieley residents return after ice storm cuts power

Paige Lucas woke up at 3 a.m. on Friday and realized she had no power in her apartment in Danieley Center. Lucas was just one of many students in on-campus housing who were left powerless in the wake of Friday's ice storm, but unlike most students who returned to their rooms Saturday night, Lucas and the other Danieley residents weren't able to return until Sunday afternoon.

According to an email from Vice President for Student Life Smith Jackson, full power was restored to campus Sunday afternoon and all academic buildings and residence halls reopened. This was the "All clear" signal for the hundreds of residents to move back into their rooms.

Until Sunday afternoon, Danieley residents had been sharing rooms with friends who had power, sleeping in the Moseley Center or finding some other place to spend the night. Lucas was staying with friends off campus, but for her, it was a relief to be moving back to Danieley.

"It is so nice to be moving back into my apartment because I can shower in a place with all my towels and stuff and I feel at home I can charge my phone..." she said.

Other students, like freshman Carter Hill, were disappointed that their buildings were the last to regain power.

"I feel like we should have been able to come back a little bit sooner," he said. "But I'm definitely glad that we're back now because it's definitely better now than never."

Power returned to some parts of Danieley on Saturday, but residents were unable to spend the night because the university considered conditions unsafe without full power. This decision irritated a few Danieley residents.

"We thought that since we had some power we should be able to make our own decision whether we would want to sleep in our bed or not," Hill said. "We had almost eight kids sleeping on the floor last night when we all had open beds here."

Lucas, however, was relieved to be back in her apartment before classes started up again.

"Thankfully it was a weekend and not a school week where I had to deal with getting up early and making sure I got to class," Lucas said.