As Sandy creeps up the East Coast, many vital services on campus have been preparing all weekend for her arrival. Ingrid Bushwack, Director of Dining Services, reports that she requested all the main food suppliers – namely bread and the school’s primary food vendor, US Foods – to deliver early on Saturday and Sunday to stockpile food before the storm. Bushwack also said that the school always has an emergency water supply on hand, so no further preparations were made on that end.
“Obviously, if we have a power outage, we will need to reduce the menu options as we will not be able to cook. As far as the staff goes, Dining Services are essential personnel & need to report whether the college is closed or not,” Bushwack said.
Today, Harris and JA are 90%-95% staffed. For tomorrow morning, Dining Services will see how many employees are able to get to work and open dining halls accordingly.
Bushwack mentioned that arrangements will be made for any staff that wish to stay overnight, though at breakfast this morning most staff seemed confused and worried that they wouldn’t be able to get home and had not yet heard what lodging the school could offer. In addition, the possibility of leaving campus and reporting back to work tomorrow become slimmer as the storm approaches. The New London Day reports that highways closed at 1pm, flooding has already begun on local roads and CT Light and Power estimate that 18,000 customers are already without power in surrounding towns.
