The spring semester started off with a bang and has been a constant stream of disruptions and disasters since the first Sunday of the semester. Since that first Sunday, there have been two Carter fire alarms, a wind storm, an ice storm and a busted sprinkler in the Mac laundry room.
On Sunday, January 7, recently returned students were looking for a relaxing Sunday night before the start of classes the following day. Unfortunately for students living in Carter Hall, the calm was rudely interrupted by the first of several disruptions to the semester and the first of two fire scares in Carter. Students were forced out during dinner and had to take shelter in Brock Hall to await the all-clear from the Fire Department.
Yet this was far from the worst the first week had to offer. The week, which started with an ominous fire scare, ended with a devastating wind storm. On Friday, January 12, winds exceeding 20 miles per hour ripped through campus, causing everything after Chapel to be canceled, and prompting the Office of the President to recommend that students seek shelter indoors for the remainder of the day.
The destruction left by the wind included snapping a lamppost on Brock lawn off of its metal base, as well as shattering a glass door at the entrance to Brock and sending dozens of shingles flying off of the south end of Carter. While campus was lucky not to lose power during the storm, residents of Lookout Mountain were not all so fortunate, as several power lines were taken down across Scenic Highway, resulting in overnight power outages while electrical workers endeavored to quickly get the power back on in homes before the next wave of inclement weather struck.
The second wave of inclement weather struck late Sunday night and carried through till Monday morning. As students anticipated a day off of classes to celebrate the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr., they were also anticipating an incoming snow to the mountain. The snow did not last long, however, as it quickly froze over and became treacherous sheets of ice. The ice entirely wrecked the MLK Day festivities and caused the school to cancel classes until Wednesday afternoon.
The climactic end to the hectic stretch of disasters to begin the semester came to a head on Wednesday, January 17, when two different buildings had debacles almost simultaneously. Once again, Carter Hall had a fire scare forcing students to evacuate the building into the frigid air and once again take shelter in Brock. Then, within a few minutes in the Maclellan laundry room, a sprinkler pipe burst, and began dumping water all across the room. Residents of Mac, and a few outsiders, rushed to minimize the damage from the water while the Resident Director Emily Whiteman tried to get a hold of Safety and Security, who were reasonably occupied with the ongoing Carter fire alarm.
In the end, the maintenance team was able to shut off the water, and the damage was minimal, and once again the Carter fire scare was no more than just that. Thus concluded the hectic first two weeks of the semester, but thanks to the efforts of Safety and Security and many other departments in maintaining the school, all is back to normal and awaiting the next string of catastrophic events. Welcome back.