Brutal Ice Storm Closes Campus

Unprecedented Ice Storm and Its Ensuing Damage Causes Campus to Close for Over Two Weeks

by Lauren Paul

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“It was something different… it wasn’t good. It was like surviving,” was what Santiago Rodriguez said about his experience in the ice storm that ended up majorly affecting the entire campus of Blue Mountain Christian University and many students’ lives.

The ice storm first came in on Friday, January 23, 2026. Several students were able to leave during this time, but several chose to stay on campus, including ones that were too far to go home. Campus power was shut off sometime Friday night, with the heat and the water following soon after. Because of this, on Monday, January 26, those that were still in the dorms were evacuated.

This also was very difficult on the international students who were forced to stay on campus without heat, power, or water. Most of these students who had to stay were part of the tennis and soccer teams. According to Santiago, a tennis player originally from Colombia, the event was unlike anything he had experienced before. He said that his friends from the soccer team and his teammates, including a few other students, were all stuck inside without heat or anything to do. Those on the tennis team were taken in by a teammate from Tennessee, while those that weren’t able to find anywhere to go were sent to stay at First Baptist Church in Tupelo.

The ice storm affected many people in the surrounding area, and affected students who lived close by. One of those was Natalie Morrison, who ended up being stuck at work, at Blue Sky gas station in Walnut, for an entire week without heat or power before finally being able to leave. “We were scheduled to go there Friday and stay overnight just to help run the store and keep it open. We were planning to leave because we expected other people to show up, but nobody showed up. We slept on blankets on the hard floor of the office. Overall, it was cold, dark, and I was glad to shower when I got out.” Several places in the surrounding area around Ripley and New Albany, were out of power from one to three weeks in some places.

During this ice storm, classes were moved online for those who had internet access, and eventually stopped completely until class was able to resume in person. In addition to power issues, there were concerns about safety due to building damage and tree limbs. Even after those were resolved, the return to campus was again postponed due to a water damage issue from the storm that took time to be identified and fixed. Some buildings had taken a great deal of damage, especially the Fisher-Washburn building. The damage ended up being so bad that the building didn’t open for classes until five days after the rest of the campus buildings were holding classes.

Finally on February 11, classes were able to return back to normal and campus was able to open back up after being out for about two and a half weeks. The ice storm was a natural disaster that was unlike anything that has ever happened at Blue Mountain before, and one which everybody hopes will never happen again.