From the Archives: "Ice Storm 2000" Closes Centenary for Two Days

It's sleeting, it's snowing!

The pile of ice is growing!

Didn't stay in-

Made snowmen —

Went snowball throwing!

Thursday, January 27, students and faculty woke up to a slushy mess and reports of school closings. The administration made the decision to cancel classes and close facilities with the exception of the library and the caf, which opened later than usual for breakfast.

Many commuters, unaware of the cancelations showed up for classes. Some die-hard professors went to their classrooms anyway so that students, not realizing that school was closed, could ask questions and find out what assignments would be due when classes resumed. Dr. Bryan Alexander was one of those professors who still met with members of his classes.

"Student learning is why we're here. So I made sure I could hold as much of the class as possible: being there for student questions, teaching some of the technology, helping with student group projects," he said. "As a Russian-heritage Yankee, this was a snap."

Enjoying the extra sleep time, students remained indoors for most of the morning and early afternoon, until about two o'clock on Thursday when the falling ice began to look like snow and pile up on the ground.

Students marveled over the white ground. Roughly two inches of "snow" fell by the end of the day on Thursday. The campus immediately livened up with students sliding down the side-walks, throwing snowballs, and making snowmen. Some students even made makeshift sleds out of plastic garbage bags, cafeteria trays, Rubber-maid tub lids and anything else they could get their hands on.

Drew Sutton said, "It was the best party Centenary may ever throw."

Later that evening, students glued themselves to news channels and waited for a formal announcement of another day off from school. Finally that evening, the little blue line running along the bottom of the television scrolled the words "Centenary College" in its list of closings.

Due to the closing of several major roads, students were not able to take much-awaited trips away from campus, whether it was home for the weekend or to the grocery store.

"I was planning on traveling home to Vinton, La., for the weekend, but I didn't feel that it was safe to travel," said Jenny Trahan. "At first I was a little irritated because I hate when plans get changed at the last minute, but I got over that really quick. I enjoyed being on campus and playing in the 'snow' and ice with my friends."

Several students from the northern United States thought Shreveport was overreacting. The problem with ice in Shreveport is that people are not prepared or trained to drive in inclement weather conditions.

One student remembered waiting in negative 40- degree wind chill for at least four feet of snow to fall before classes were cancelled in New York.

On Sunday, the sun came out and the ice began to melt. The trees began to rain on the students as they were going to lunch in the caf. The only evidence of the winter wonderland was mounds of snow in low-trafficked areas and several memories and photographs of "Ice Storm 2000."