UNM canceled classes for the remainder of Thursday afternoon after a statewide gas shortage left residents throughout the state without heat. The University will remain closed through Sunday.
At 2:30 p.m. Thursday, University Communications sent out an alert saying UNM was closed the rest of the day, after Gov. Susana Martinez declared a state of emergency. In an executive order,
she called for “executive departments and agencies under the Office of the Governor, statewide, effective immediately, to release nonessential personnel in order to reduce energy demand on their facilities” through the end of the day.
New Mexico Gas Company said in a statement that rolling blackouts in West Texas caused “impeded” natural gas delivery. The statement said Bernalillo, Placitas, Taos, Questa, Red River and Silver City areas had already experience disruption in natural gas services Wednesday afternoon.
NM Gas Co. posted on its website at 6:20 p.m. Thursday that it had no plans to turn off natural gas service in Albuquerque, and company employees were doing everything they could to maintain service
In another executive order, Martinez temporarily lifted restrictions on the number of hours commercial vehicles may drive, in order to ensure gas is delivered to affected areas as quickly as possible.
UNM operated its boilers on diesel fuel Thursday to keep from further depleting N.M. Gas Co. resources. The University was on a two-hour delay so employees could double-check buildings, UNM spokeswoman Susan McKinsey said.
“One of the things that we were trying to do, part of the delay this morning, was to make sure that our Physical Plant was all ready, and our buildings were OK,” she said. “We switched our power to diesel, so we’re completely self-sustained there, and it’s fine to do classes.”
CNM did not try to reopen Thursday because frozen pipes burst in several of its buildings, Administrative Coordinator Rhonda Coochwikvia said.
“Most of our buildings have been affected by frozen water pipes, and our newest building, the student resource center, was mostly affected by water damage because of the sprinkler system that did freeze, so we had water leaks into that building,” she said.
UNM Physical Plant Department employees were able to keep the University’s buildings up and running, PPD spokeswoman Mary Vosevich said.
Employees have camped out in UNM’s buildings the past few nights to ensure temperatures remained steady and pipes didn’t freeze. She said temperatures didn’t fall below 53 degrees in UNM buildings last night.
Still, at 5:30 p.m., UNM issued an alert saying it would not reopen until Monday.
Students said they experienced difficulties getting to UNM and dealing with the freezing temperatures.
Student Casey Barton commutes from Moriarty each day, and said roads he took to get to school were icy. He said by the time he got to UNM, classes were canceled.
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“I wasn’t too happy when I finally got here, and my class ended up being canceled anyway,” he said. “I just got to Clark Hall, and there was a sign that said all labs were canceled today.”
Student Josh Madrid said classes shouldn’t continue until the city can deal with the frigid conditions.
“Our city isn’t prepared for this, and we shouldn’t have to deal with classes,” he said.
Shaun Griswold contributed to this report.
