Snowfall + rain = MHCC puddle

Tuesday night’s snowfall that closed all MHCC campuses Wednesday was washed away by wind and rain Thursday as campus reopened and students and staff returned.

Four to six inches of snow prompted college officials to close all three campuses at 5:25 a.m. Wednesday. There were also falling tree limbs, according to Interim President Michael Hay, which made access to campus a “challenge” for the morning crew.

“We elected to shut down because opening by 10 a.m. wasn’t going to happen and opening by noon was going to be a big challenge. So we figured if we are closed past 12 p.m., we might as well close campus,” said Hay.

The Gresham-Barlow and Centennial school districts also closed their schools, which was another factor for MHCC closing, Hay added.

The process for closing down the campus began as early as 1 a.m. when Public Safety called Associate Director of Facilities Management Russ Johnson to let him know about a short power “bump.” Power was unavailable for a few seconds “but everything came back on,” according to Johnson. By 4:15 a.m., Johnson was on campus to inspect the conditions.

“I came on campus and checked everything out and talked to Public Safety and checked news reports,” said Johnson.

According to Director of Communications Maggie Huffman, the reports from facilities included ice, snow, fallen limbs and intermittent power outages on campus. The snow was also wet due to rains on top the previous night’s snowfall.

At 5 a.m., Johnson and Hay conferred and Hay made the decision to close campus.

“Some staff who couldn’t make it to campus would’ve been on the emergency crew. Conditions would’ve been unsafe for pedestrians. In general, driving conditions were unsafe in Gresham,” Johnson said of other reasons for closing campus.

By 5:30 a.m., Johnson let Huffman know of the decision, who in turn began to spread the news. Huffman logged into Flash Alert and sent out a message that campus was closed.

“The message was out three minutes after I sent it. I received mine in two minutes,” said Huffman.

Flash alerts are sent via text message, email and now Twitter, depending on how people subscribe to the service. “Our policy suggests that people register once a year (on Flash Alert),” added Huffman.

After the Flash Alerts, Huffman then let college staff know to update the website and change the phone greeting to reflect the closing of campus. She also called Jean Wagner, director of Head Start, to let her know to tell the kids’ parents about the closure. All of those took place at approximately 5:35 a.m., according to Huffman.

After that, Huffman sent out an all-staff email at 7:19 a.m. that alerted the staff to the closure of campus as well as conditions on campus.

“Our number one priority is the safety of students, staff and visitors,” said Huffman.