Yale slow to clean up campus in wake of storm

JULIA TIERNAN/YH SLIP 'N' SLIDE: After last week's snowstorm, much of campus was covered in ice like this Johnathan Edwards walkway.

Though the snow ended on Fri., Jan. 15, students were still slipping on Wed., Jan. 20, as they went up Science Hill. With just nine grounds workers to plow snow and break up ice, last week's snow remained this week's problem.

"You couldn't walk down the steps outside of my room without holding on to the railing," Erica Catlin, TD '00, who was scared to step outside her door, said. "The slick layer of ice created a virtual death trap."

Many workers complained that there was not enough manpower to handle the cleanup. "It would certainly be helpful to have more people working. We've got the right equipment to do the job, but we need more people to shovel and sand," John Kul, Yale's grounds maintenance supervisor, said.

Yale had six plowing machines and three salting machines traversing the campus. Meanwhile, contractor Fusco apparently had additional subcontracted ISS workers helping to clear the snow at the Swing Space and Linsly-Chittenden Hall. "There were probably around half a dozen people helping to shovel. They brought extra people down," Roberto Meinrath, Yale's deputy manager of grounds and facilities, said.

Some of Yale's custodial workers helped shovel the walkways, and most workers put in overtime hours, working 12- to 13-hour days on both Saturday and Sunday. Still, Yale did not shovel the grassy areas, and many continued to slip and fall on the icy pavement.

As a result, University Health Services started receiving a steady flow of injured students. "We in the emergency room had lots of knee and wrist injuries," Dr. Paul Genecin, director of the Yale Health Plan, said. "In fact, we now use the abbreviation FOI to refer to those who have fallen on ice."

Kul attributed the slow cleanup to a unique mix of weather. "Usually we either get snow or we get rain. This time we had sleet in between, and that is rare. It was a killer combo," he said. "The combination of sleet and rain created a one-inch layer of ice. It reached the point on Friday afternoon where we couldn't plow." Much of the overflow from the drains got iced over, providing no place for the water and rain to go. "Once you have ice, then snow, then ice, there is no magic way to remove the ice," Kul said.

Many students noted the absence of salt on the sidewalks. "It's annoying that they don't put salt on the streets but put sand instead," Johanna Zumer, PC '01, said.

But according to Kul, the cleanup crew must use sand because pure salt eats away concrete and bluestone. Instead, the University uses an 80 percent sand, 20 percent salt combination on its walkways to provide traction for walking and melt snow at the same time.

According to Kul, the grounds crew poured this sand and salt mixture onto walkways early Friday morning--before it started to sleet. "Once it started to sleet, sidewalks became re-covered over with rain and ice and we had to put the sand down all over again. The water on top of the sand kept washing it all away," he explained.

Even with the sand on the ground, many students continued to fall. "I usually run during the weekend. I tried this weekend and I nearly lost my life," Jenny Anderson, JE '01, said. And it wasn't until the warm weather hit New Haven in the middle of the week that the sidewalks finally began to thaw. "We were lucky to have a warm few days," Kul said. "In a situation like this there's really no magic way to prevent the ice build-up. All you can do is wait for the warm weather to melt it all."

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