Winter storms pose challenges for education facilities, but some of the more serious risks to students emerge before students arrive, during refreeze cycles and even after campuses shift to virtual learning.
FacilitiesNet spoke with Lalit Agarwal, president and chief executive officer of the Association of Physical Plant Administrators (APPA), to see how school and higher education leaders most often underestimate winter storm risk, why accessibility and verification matter as much as snow removal.
FacilitiesNet: When it comes to winter storms, where do you see education leaders most underestimating risk — especially before students arrive and after the snow stops falling?
Lalit Agarwal: Education leaders most often underestimate risk during transitions, especially when conditions may appear “good enough,” but are actually changing the fastest.
Before students arrive, refreeze is the trap. A walkway that’s passable at 5 p.m. can be a slip hazard by 7 a.m. because meltwater refreezes overnight, especially on shaded routes, ramps, bridges and areas under rooflines. Leaders should assume the morning commute is a new event, not a continuation of yesterday’s clearing.
After the storm, complacency takes over while hazards persist. Roof loads don’t disappear when precipitation stops. Ice dams can create delayed leaks. Snow piles melt, drain and refreeze into black ice. The risk shifts from obvious snow accumulation to less visible, higher-consequence hazards. This is when injuries happen.
This is magnified in regions that don’t see ice often. A half inch of ice can shut down a district or campus not because people are careless, but because they don’t have the same equipment, materials, vendor capacity and routine that snow regions have built over years.
The bottom line is: The storm isn’t “over” when the snow stops. It’s over when surfaces and systems are rechecked and verified as safe.
FN: What should superintendents and facilities leaders be asking about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) access, entrances and bus loops to ensure campuses are truly safe and accessible after a storm?
Agarwal: Leaders should ask one question first: “Is the accessible route our first priority or an afterthought?” If curb cuts and ramps aren’t cleared early and kept clear, the campus may look open but isn’t truly open. Other questions to consider are as follows:
FN: Many districts shift to virtual learning during severe weather. Why doesn’t that eliminate facilities of risk, and what building systems still demand attention during winter storms?
Agarwal: Virtual learning doesn’t eliminate facilities’ risk because buildings don’t pause, and winter weather can damage systems quickly, especially when occupancy is low.
Even when classes move online, leaders still have to ensure heat is maintained to prevent frozen pipes and protect equipment, domestic water and fire protection systems remain intact (because a freeze-related failure in an empty area can go unnoticed and become a major loss event), roofs and drainage are monitored for drifting, ice dams and leaks that show up after the storm, and power and controls are checked as outages and restarts can create cascading problems.
Also, people are still on campus: facilities teams, public safety and often meal staff. Duty of care still applies. Finally, when it’s time to reopen, the only reliable basis for decisions is ongoing monitoring and documented checks, not assumptions.
FN: What does a realistic, facilities-informed checklist for reopening a campus after a winter storm look like — and what critical steps are most often overlooked?
Agarwal: Trust your facilities team.
A realistic post-storm checklist is facilities-informed, verification-based, and built for refreeze cycles. Leaders should treat reopening as a phased process with clear “go/no-go” criteria.
The most overlooked step is documentation. Leaders should require crews to take photos, log conditions and record decisions and timings. If an incident happens later, documentation shows the district or institution took reasonable, disciplined steps, and it also improves response quality in the next storm.
My go-to checklist includes:
Jeff Wardon, Jr., is the assistant editor of the facilities market.
