The Mesquite Online News - Texas A&M University-San Antonio

English lecturer talks winter storm hardships

English lecturer talks winter storm hardships - The Mesquite Online News - Texas A&M University-San Antonio

Footprints in the snow along the path between the Central Academic Building and the Madla Building at Texas A&M University-San Antonio on Feb. 15, 2021. Photo By: Lauren Mayes

What started as a normal weekend in the home of Dr. Lisa Jennings resulted in extremely low water pressure and periodic loss of electricity for approximately a week.

Jennings, a lecturer who teaches English, lives in an apartment on the Southside of San Antonio. She explained what the nights were like with no electricity.

“I had blankets and all of that stuff,” Jennings said. “It really wasn’t so bad. I could manage.”

As the week continued, in addition to loss of power and lack of water, Jennings experienced a disconnection from the outside world as she had no access to the internet or news updates

“I know this sounds horrible, but I was so upset,” Jennings said. “I was like I’ll freeze, (but) I just want my internet!”

Jennings’ only intel about the outside world came from text messaging with friends.

“I would text my friends and ask them, when is it going to end? What is the temperature today?”

Jennings was unaware of the boil water notice that was released later in the week and said she feels she fell ill for a couple of days as a result of ingesting tap water.

Jennings was also concerned that she was not able to get in touch with her students and notify them that she was disconnected.

She said after her own experience with the storm, she decided to empathize with her students by giving them the following week off to recover.

Jennings said her students seemed grateful. She expressed her understanding that although the weather cleared, people were still going to need time to recover fully.

“This is going to go on for a long time, and we just have to be aware of that and just sort of give ourselves enough kindness and enough grace so that we can continue to get through it,” she told students.

Toward the end of the week as the storm cleared and Jennings pantry was emptied out, she ventured out to the grocery store.

“I tried to go get food because my food had completely finished, but my car wouldn’t start,” Jennings said.

With a delay in both auto repair and grocery delivery services, Jennings was left with little to no food for almost four days.

“My friends brought some food for me on Saturday,” Jennings said. “I had some crackers and rice milk, that’s what I was eating.”

Jennings commended the school in its efforts to assist students and provide resources for recovery.

Jennings said she found a silver lining in her colleagues from the Department of Language, Literature and Arts.

“When I finally got the internet back, people from the LLA department were so helpful,” Jennings said. “They were offering to bring water, bring food, just come and see us; they were offering to help me with my car.”

“It was nice to see how much people in the department cared for each other,” she said.

For information about post-storm resources on campus and in the community, click here.

About the Author

Catherine Valdiviez
Catherine Valdiviez is a communications junior at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. She is involved in the South San Antonio community through her employment at Palo Alto College and involvement at A&M-San Antonio. She aspires to share her passion for spreading the importance of proper written and verbal communication skills by becoming a speech and communications teacher.

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