Units across campus respond to historic blizzard

The weather may be pleasant now, but the effects of last week's historic and tragic winter storm are still being revealed and documented. With powerful winds causing dangerous whiteout conditions and the swift accumulation of drifting snow, countless motorists were stuck on roadways throughout Western New York and thousands of people across the area were without power — and just about everyone’s holiday plans were affected.

While the majority of the UB population was off for winter break, a small number of students, faculty and staff still had work to do, or were living, on campus. Several units across UB worked together throughout the storm to ensure the safety of everyone on campus, and even came to the aid of stranded motorists.

“As the storm raged throughout Western New York, our essential employees — including those in University Police, University Facilities and Environment, Health and Safety — were contending with extended shifts, time away from family during the holidays and, of course, unyieldingly dangerous elements. Meanwhile, our staff in Residential Life and Housing Operations provided comprehensive support to our resilient residential students remaining on campus during the winter break,” President Satish K. Tripathi said in a statement issued on Dec. 25.

While the storm tapered off, UB’s essential employees continued to do their part to ensure that university operations ran smoothly.

According to University Police Department (UPD) Chief Chris Bartolomei, two lieutenants, seven officers and two dispatchers showed up for their Friday shifts and were unable to leave until Sunday morning. During that time, the crew was primarily occupied with rescuing stranded motorists from roadways near campus, setting up a warming station, finding food and supplies, and being available for students residing in on-campus apartments and residence halls over the winter break.

With the arrival of the first two stranded motorists at their North Campus police station on Friday afternoon, UPD sprang into action to find them a warm and safe place to stay.

“We knew we couldn’t comfortably and safely keep people at the station, so we started calling around to see where we could put people on campus,” Lt. Jon Fletcher recalled.

Through Meegan Hunt, interim director for residential life, the South Lake Village Community Building was opened and became a temporary home to 49 motorists rescued from roadways near UB campuses throughout the weekend.

The rescue efforts were continuous near both campuses, making the decision to send officers out into the elements a difficult one for Fletcher and Lt. David Urbanek to make.

“All the credit goes to these seven officers. I could tell they were worn down and exhausted, but they never faltered or even hesitated when another call would come in. They knew what they were up against, and they kept on going,” Fletcher said. “I couldn’t be more proud.”

Officers Luke Galmarini and Jay Lawrence were charged with rescuing area residents on roadways near North Campus, while Officers Dale Hohl and Greg Fowler led the charge on roads bordering the South Campus.

“South Campus is a big open space, and with the wind and drift we knew that Bailey Avenue could potentially have motorists stuck, and that’s where we encountered most of the stranded motorists,” Hohl said.

Hohl and Fowler spent most of Friday and Saturday transporting motorists to the nearby VA hospital, which was acting as a warming station. Between the two campuses, officers — with assistance from UB Facilities crews and their plows — helped rescue nearly 60 people from the elements.

Back on the North Campus, with nearly 50 people in the South Lake Village Community Building, it became evident that a supply run was increasingly necessary.

“After figuring out where we could go, I spoke with two of our officers, Chris Sprigg and Luke Galmarini, and let them know that they’d be following one of the university’s high-lift plows to Wegmans, and they were willing to go and pick up supplies,” Fletcher said.

It took two attempts and over three hours to get the items, but officers Sprigg and Galmarini came through, thanks to University Facilities plow driver Carl Mitri.

“Carl was unfazed and super brave,” Sprigg said. “If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have been able to get to the motorists we were trying to rescue, and we wouldn’t have been able to pick up much-needed food and supplies.”

UPD received many thoughtful and appreciative hand-written notes from those they rescued and brought to the warming station at South Village Lake. A few excerpts include:

“Thank you all — a thousand times over — for all your kindness, caring, bravery and strength — we are all blessed to be in your care.”

“Thank you for your tireless dedication, your kindness, strength, endurance and compassion. There’s no way we can repay all you’ve given us, but please accept my eternal gratitude for keeping us warm and safe throughout this ordeal.” 

“There are not enough words or thoughts to express my appreciation and admiration for what you have done for my mother and me. You have reminded me that there are many great people in this world, and it is not an exaggeration to say that you saved our lives.”

“Thank you for saving all our lives and keeping us warm and fed, and for boosting morale. I’m happy to have shared Christmas with such good people.”

According to Jeffrey Angiel, director, Facilities Operations, the commitment to keeping both campuses safe and responsive required a group effort among departments in Facilities.

During the blizzard, Facilities crews kept up with the snow as much as they could, but temporarily suspended operations to focus on assisting UPD when it became apparent that their plows could not keep up with the falling and blowing snow. 

In the aftermath of the blizzard, they worked countless hours clearing snow from UB’s campus roads and walkways, prioritizing entryways to student residence halls. Then, they turned their focus to the interior of UB buildings. Over the next several days, they worked around the clock to restore power, repair burst pipes and remove water from various spaces on the North and South campuses. Their responsiveness and persistence significantly mitigated situations that could have been much worse, and enabled UB to resume operations on Jan. 3.

“We are very appreciative of our dedicated Facilities team members who were willing and able to assist our campus and our community in this time of need, facing extremely challenging circumstances,” Angiel said. “Our Grounds Department deserves a tremendous amount of credit for being at the forefront, clearing critical routes during the storm to enable travel for emergency services vehicles.

“I also want to express my gratitude to many more team members behind the scenes in our Utilities, Building Controls, Skilled Trades and Fleet Service departments for working tirelessly to ensure the safety and welfare of our campus community,” he added. “Together we functioned as a team and kept people safe, and for that I am grateful to the dedicated team members of Facilities Operations.”

The more than 100 students who remained on campus throughout the storm were under the supervision and care of Residential Life staff. With limited access to campus, Residential Life (RL) para-professional staff were the main caretakers for any issues that arose — including flooding due to a burst water pipe, storm-related property damage and relocating residents affected by flooding.

“RL professional and para-professional staff provide service to students 24/7/365,” Hunt said. “They are expected to respond to all crisis related to students, facilities, weather, etc. With this storm specifically, even our live-in/on-site professional staff were unable to respond, therefore our para-professional (RA/CAs) staff were responsible for many additional tasks.”

With many students on campus low on food after the storm, RL professional staff worked to distribute food left over from the semester from the Blue Table food pantry in the Student Union. According to Hunt, UPD boxed up food items, like granola bars and microwavable macaroni and cheese, and delivered the boxes to each of the five apartment complex community rooms, the Ellicott atrium and the Governors area office.

“RL professional staff coordinated with RA/CAs to distribute food from each location and sent out a message to all students signed up to stay for winter break, inviting students in need of food to pick up items. All the food items were distributed in each location, and in a few locations the food was gone within an hour,” Hunt said.

In addition, Parking and Transportation set up special mall/market bus service in the days immediately after the blizzard to connect residential students to area supermarkets.

Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences faculty and residents slept on hospital floors, worked long shifts and selflessly helped others during the storm, noted Allison Brashear, vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School.

“To our faculty, residents and all the essential workers who were out there helping our community, we thank you for your selflessness and bravery. Putting yourselves in harm’s way for the well-being of others, especially during the holiday weekend, is a gift to us all,” Brashear said. “How we weathered the storm as an institution says a lot about the Jacobs School. We showed, once again, how the City of Good Neighbors comes together to lift one another up.”

There were countless other stories of bravery and selflessness shown by members of the campus community, demonstrating just how deep UB’s True Blue spirit runs.

“While we will all remember the Blizzard of 2022 for different reasons … I hope we also recognize the enormous effort that our UB essential employees have made on behalf of our university and our region,” Tripathi said.