by Abigail Ramirez
Daily Lobo
A winter storm blew through Albuquerque over break, bringing more snow to the city than ever recorded.
More than 13 inches of snow was dumped on campus on Dec. 28 and 29. It damaged trees and caused roofs to leak around campus, said Mary Vosevich, director of Physical Plant.
Student Stephanie Woodward said she was not in Albuquerque for the snowstorm, but she was surprised to see how much it snowed when she returned.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
"I'm from Gallup, so we get a lot of snow, but this is definitely the most snow that I have seen in Albuquerque," she said. "It took me a long time to dig out my car from all of the snow."
Harvey Chace, associate director of the Physical Plant, said there were minor roof leaks in Johnson Center, the economics building and the law school.
"We have the working contractor on campus taking off the snow of the roofs where the leaks occurred, and we are at the point of investigating the sources of the leaks," he said.
Chace said it will cost more than $10,000 to repair the roofs.
Vosevich said the snow damaged hundreds of trees around campus, some of which will not survive.
"We are likely to lose up to 100 trees permanently because of that damage," she said. "If you look around campus, you will see branches down all over the place."
Vosevich said she doesn't know how much it will cost to repair and replace all the damaged trees.
A crew will be evaluating the damage to the trees, Vosevich said. Trees that can't be saved will be removed and replaced with new ones, she said.
"It's going to be several months before we are able to take care of everything, because obviously we want to be safe in our approach of taking care of these trees," she said. "It's time-consuming to do that kind of tree work."
Student Ami Montes said the snow kept her from going to work or anywhere else around the city.
"This snow storm kept me barricaded into my home for three days, but I did have a ton of fun sledding with my family and having snowball fights,"
she said.
The construction projects for Centennial Engineering Center and the School of Architecture and Planning building did not suffer any damage from the snowfall, said Michael Reid, project manager.
"In some cases, it caused an inconvenience, but not something that is going to affect the final completion date," he said.
Vosevich said Parking and Transportation Services and Physical Plant hired a contractor to help plow parking lots, because UNM does not have the necessary equipment.
"We are limited in our equipment resources, as is the rest of the city and New Mexico, as far as having snow removal equipment," she said.
Physical Plant had already ordered snowplows and plow blades before the storm, but they had not arrived, Vosevich said.
Vosevich said people should be careful while walking around campus, because much of the snow and ice remains.
Chace said it could take awhile before the ice melts.
"It will melt during the day, run off and at night refreeze," Chace said. "Icy spots will appear for the first time in the morning on the walkways that pedestrians use and on streets around campus."
