BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | Dealing with a hurricane of the force of Sandy, followed by the city’s longest-ever blackout is hardly academic.
Yet New York University students, faculty, staff and facilities survived the most devastating storm in the city’s history “mostly all well,” according to Jules Martin, the university’s vice president for global security and crisis management.
Following Monday’s storm, the university ultimately decided that the school would not reopen for classes until Mon., Nov. 5.
The university did have to relocate 6,000 students from dorms whose life-safety and fire-protection systems ran out of backup power, sending these students to other dorms or nonresidential facilities.
In a statement released on Wed., Oct. 31, Martin reported that things were under control and that the university was focusing on doing door-to-door outreach with is nursing school students and faculty to elderly residents living in N.Y.U. housing.
Due to power outages affecting facilities and the transit situation, classes and activities were canceled through the end off the week.
According to Alicia Hurley, N.Y.U. vice president for government relations and community engagement, the university’s co-generation plant didn’t fail during Hurricane Sandy. The newly expanded plant was intended to help take N.Y.U. increasingly off the grid, which has the benefit of putting less stress on the city’s system.
“The co-gen plant held up very well. It shows the need for it,” Hurley said. “The co-gen didn’t fail. It was always only covering our main academic buildings and some dorms — not everything could be added — about 30 of our buildings. We own more than 30.”
Some dorms – either not near Washington Square or built in a way that didn’t allow them to be connected to the co-gen plant — lost power.
N.Y.U. Langone Medical Center on First Ave. in the E. 30s had to be evacuated during the storm when its generators failed. But, Hurley explained, the medical center has its own generator system.
The university’s co-gen system is actually like “mini-systems/micro-grids” that can only be set up to serve a certain number of buildings and within a certain distance.
N.Y.U. announced that it would be opening 13 academic buildings, including Vanderbilt Hall, Tisch Hall, Stern Business School, Shimkin Hall, Furman Hall, the Silver Building and Warren Weaver Hall. In addition, Bobst Library and the Kimmel Center for University Life – where the university put up some students on cots — are on the co-gen system.
“Please be aware that because we are operating under extraordinary power conditions, we may need to curtail loads in these buildings similar to what we do on high-heat days in summer, whereby some elevators, nonessential lighting, etc., may not be on,” an emergency notice read. “All life-safety systems will be operational in these buildings even in curtailment mode.”
Said Martin, “The most important news is that our community is safe and well. No injuries, and very minor damage to our facilities at our Washington Square campus.
Many of the students who needed to be relocated found their own accommodations with friends or family who had power, according to the university.
During the day, the Kimmel Center and the adjacent Global Center for Academic and Spiritual Life were open to students to charge phones and get access to WiFi.
Hot showers were available to students on a 24/7 basis at the Palladium recreation facility on E. 14th St. Students were required to bring their ID, and their own towel and soap.
In one mishap, a generator at the 3rd North residence — for which the university had scheduled a refueling — ran out of fuel on Wednesday at noon, creating a temporary smoke condition. There was no danger, and there were no injuries, the university reported. The fuel arrived five hours later, allowing the generator to be restarted and the hall to be used for overnight housing.
Many faculty and their families live in N.Y.U. housing and were also without power. The faculty had access to the academic buildings that have N.Y.U.-generated power, and they and their families had access during the day to the lower level of Bobst and on 24/7 basis to the lower concourse of Tisch Hall and Hemmerdinger Hall in the Silver Center; in these locations they could access WiFi and power for charging phones and other devices.
Hot showers were available at Coles gym for faculty and their families.
The university arranged for transportation for faculty to parts of Manhattan where power was not lost so that they could shop for food for their families and to fill prescriptions.
As for the medical center, it was closed and was “beginning its recovery operation.” Around 300 patients were safely evacuated from the hospital during the storm, though some research facilities were damaged.
