The University of West Florida’s Emerald Coast Campus was unable to provide heat to its facilities from Feb. 5 to Feb. 10 because of a break in the main water system.
Although heat was unavailable at the Fort Walton Beach campus during the five-day period, the campus functioned as normal. Students continued going to class and teachers kept to their schedules.
“No classes were canceled or moved and no projects were postponed,” Associate Dean Joyce Gossom said. “The lack of heat didn’t really affect anyone,” she said.
Gossom said she adapted to the temporary situation by bundling up and using a space heater to stay warm.
The weather forecast during the five days without heat mainly consisted of rain and wind. A low of 30 degrees was recorded on Feb. 10. The average low for the five days was approximately 38 degrees, which meant cold evenings in Fort Walton Beach.
Some of the facilities on campus made slight changes to their operating hours in the evening because of the lower temperatures.
Functioning as the access point to UWF and Northwest Florida State College, the library made some minor changes to its schedule. The library closed no later than 8:30 p.m., as opposed to its regular closing time of 9:00 p.m.
A notification on the library home page told students and staff to call the facility in advance before visiting, since it would close early if nobody was in the building after 7:00 p.m.
The heating problem was resolved after Feb. 10, when maintenance workers from Northwest Florida State College repaired the broken waterline, Gossom said.
She said the waterline was repaired by Northwest Florida State because UWF shares the Fort Walton Beach campus with a branch of Northwest Florida State College.
No more problems have been detected since the waterline has been repaired.
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