Last week, it seemed we had the closest thing to a spring break that we’ll get this semester when the entire city of Memphis was practically shut down for the week due to inclement winter weather.
With up to 10 inches of snow in some areas and cars being buried in it, many stores and restaurants took several days off to maintain the safety of their staff and customers. The same decision was made by the University of Memphis when campus was closed for the whole week and this Monday.
Online classes remained open and hybrid classes just moved to that forum, but there were some in-person classes that had to just wait until this week. For Jackson Perriman, a junior, this was a break that he didn’t expect but definitely needed.
“With all the classes, my job and an internship I’m currently in, it was a nice time off that kinda came out of left field,” Perriman said. “I was able to get a lot of work done, but at the same time it was fun to be able to go sledding with friends and enjoy this weather that we just aren’t used to out here.”
Memphis had a few minor issues, however, from the brisk weather. There were shortages of water bottles in many stores due to our water being possibly undrinkable – triggering a boil notice from MLGW, which was one of the main reasons the UofM shut down on Monday. Also
in many towns near Memphis, many people were stuck at home without a choice from their neighborhoods and backroads still frozen over and filled with snow.
Luckily in Memphis, it was not as bad as some other states that got it a lot worse. For the first time in history, the entire state of Texas went under a winter weather advisory and many homes were affected from the freezing temperatures and the unwelcome precipitation.
With pipes bursting and thousands of homes out of power, it was a different story for them as many lives were in danger. Ruben Jimenez, a freshman originally from Austin, Texas, said the conditions back home are hard and something many Texans have never seen before.
“As for my family, we didn’t get hit as bad as others,” Jimenez said. “Just some power outages and that sort got them, but it was nothing like some people. Many communities I know of had people that were stuck in their homes with no heat for days, homes that were ruined from burst pipes flooding the house and other terrible damages.”
This week will be a time for recovery. With temperatures now coming up and the snow melting, many will be taking this time to rebuild or figure out what to do next. Unfortunately, this weather hit areas where some people have never experienced temperatures like that in their cities and may never again. In the Memphis area, several nights experienced single digit temperatures.
As for Memphis, the forecast for this week is back to being in the 50s/60s with some rain in between but nothing that will put the city back to a shutdown, something most of us are already too much familiar with.
