On Tue., March 11, a construction company hired by the city of Winter Park struck a gas pipe on Holt Avenue. According to Jeremy Williamson, Director of Facilities at Rollins College, the company was engaging in directional drilling in order to install new underground electrical power lines. The pipe rupture occurred just to the northeast side of the Rice Family Pavilion.
Following the Emergency Operations Plan, Rollins contacted the Winter Park Fire Department (WPFD), who temporarily clamped the gas piping. TECO Gas arrived on the scene and completed the pipe repair within approximately two to three hours. According to Williamson, gas service was restored, and at the time of writing, no further action is anticipated. While repairs were being conducted, the R-Alert emergency system was used to send a new emergency alert message approximately every 15 minutes. A total of nine messages were sent throughout the duration of the incident, starting at 2:21 p.m. and finishing at 4:40 p.m. EDT.
Ken Miller, who oversees emergency operations at Rollins, explained that the response was “consistent with our emergency operations plans.” He added that although “the fire department was able to quickly crimp the line, it took some time for TECO Gas to arrive on the scene and make it completely safe,” requiring the ongoing alerts until the situation was fully resolved. The R-alerts were noted to be of higher frequency than what students had received in the past. Students took to YikYak to express confusion and frustration over the incident. Miller emphasized, however, that the rate and interval of messages sent is consistent with the Rollins Emergency Operation Plan.
Miller also added that members of the Rollins community who wish to modify how they receive emergency messages in the future can do so through MyRollins under the Security heading. There, email addresses, cell phone numbers, and landlines can be added or removed at the user’s discretion.
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