Record Setting Snow

A record-setting amount of nine inches of snow covered the Ottawa University campus on Tuesday, February 4. Classes were cancelled both Tuesday and Wednesday for students.

School was not canceled until early Tuesday morning, but professors had already begun sending out emails and hanging signs up on doors telling students they would not be coming to campus on Tuesday. Some professors informed students that they would be meeting virtually for class.

E2campus notification late Tuesday night, informing them that school was cancelled for the second day in a row. The students also received an email about the school cancellation.

Although classes were cancelled for students, staff members were still hard at work preparing hot meals for the students and clearing off sidewalks and parking lots.

On Wednesday, some familiar faces could be seen, such as President Eichner and other faculty who enjoyed lunch in the cafeteria.

All schools in Franklin County were closed both Tuesday and Wednesday. Franklin County sent out a declaration of disaster for precaution purposes in case extra resources would be needed by the state. Not long after that, the state of Kansas announced a declaration of natural disaster. Franklin County did not, however, end up needing the extra resources.

The Friday before the snow days, an ice storm caused many wrecks throughout the Ottawa area.

Other parts of the United States also had record amounts of snow. According to The Weather Channel, the snow and ice storm on January 30 through February 1 recorded 14 inches of snow fell near Devil’s Postpile, Calif. and Smithfield, W. Va. had 12 inches of snow.

Students celebrated their first snow day of the Spring semester by playing board games, watching movies, playing in the snow, sledding in forest park, playing football in the snow, catching up on their favorite TV shows and hanging out with friends.

Freshman Kelty Lougee said she loved the snow days.

“I watched the movie Mean Girls,” Lougee said.

Junior Mallory Kleoppel said she played six hours straight of board games to escape cabin fever during the two snow days.

The Campus’ staff would like to thank everyone who helped out during the snow days to ensure everyone was safe and had warm meals to eat.