{"id":5229,"date":"2015-02-26T17:08:38","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T17:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/?p=5229"},"modified":"2015-02-26T17:08:38","modified_gmt":"2015-02-26T17:08:38","slug":"winter-storm-causes-closures-and-delays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/2015\/02\/26\/winter-storm-causes-closures-and-delays\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter storm causes closures and delays"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Photo by William Kelly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mark Braboy
\n<\/strong>Associate Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jackson State University had delayed openings on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week due to a wintry mix of sleet and ice that paid a visit to Tiger Country.<\/p>\n

The wintry mix forced Jackson State, other schools, and offices from the central to northern parts of the state to close due to the dangers associated with the weather.<\/p>\n

According to www.weather.com, Winter Storm Octavia dealt a sturdy blow to the South, leaving hundreds of thousands without power and killing five people due to its icy blast.<\/p>\n

The State Emergency Operations Center was activated on Feb. 22 after Gov. Phil Bryant issued a state of emergency.<\/p>\n

The storm sent temperatures plummeting, causing black ice to form on roads and highways and leading to many traffic accidents on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

JSU began classes at 10 a.m. on Feb. 24-25 and evening classes and activities were cancelled to ensure the safety of students, staff and faculty. On Wednesday, Feb. 25, the University closed at 2 p.m.<\/p>\n

Many students received emergency messages informing them of the delays and closures.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that JSU is doing an amazing job with informing students, giving them at least a 24 hour in advance notice, on whether or not classes are going to be cancelled. The text messaging system is awesome,\u201d said Jasmine McCloud, a junior mass communications major from Flowood, Miss.<\/p>\n

However, many students felt the delayed openings were not enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like JSU should take the weather warnings more seriously because Jackson is not equipped to deal with snow and ice. To me, it\u2019s especially dangerous for faculty and students that do not live on campus. I really think they should have just cancelled classes for the entire day,\u201d said Imani Nelson, a senior biology from Detroit, Mich.<\/p>\n

Stacie Hopkins believes that commuter students should not have had to drive to school in the dangerous conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cJSU knows they are not equipped for bad weather so they are taking a chance. We have a lot of people who don\u2019t stay on campus and have to risk driving in conditions that the roads cannot handle. I\u2019m used to snow but honestly Jackson State needs to think this through more clearly,\u201d said Hopkins, a senior psychology senior from Chicago, Ill.<\/p>\n

To stay apprised of weather alerts and campus closures and delays, download the JSU Go app in your market or app store or visit the main website at www.jsusms.edu<\/p>\n

Mark Braboy and Guy King contributed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Braboy Associate Editor Jackson State University had delayed openings on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week due to a wintry mix of sleet and ice that paid a visit to Tiger Country. The wintry mix forced Jackson State, other schools, and offices from the central to northern parts of the state to close due […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-campus-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}