by Matt Repka on September 2, 2010
Hurricane Earl, the Category 4 storm expected to reach New England sometime Friday evening, is forcing organizers to readjust the Orientation itinerary.
Orientation Training and Leadership Coordinator Kate Carpenito, a senior, told Orientation Leaders in an email that the Candle Lighting ceremony held for incoming first-years on the President’s Lawn would be postponed to Monday at 9:15 p.m. in light of the weekend’s forecast.
“Due to the impending hurricane, we are making alternate plans for tomorrow evening’s outdoor activities.We have decided to move Candle Lighting to Monday at 9:15 pm. Please begin spreading word to your students so that they are aware,” Carpenito said.
Other outdoor Orientation activities, including the Food Fair held on Fletcher Field, can be potentially moved indoors in the event of inclement weather.
Hurricane Earl is currently located off the Carolina coast and moving northeast. As of early Thursday afternoon, the storm had been re-upgraded to a Category 4 hurricane, with winds in the range of 140 to 150 miles per hour.
The National Weather Service has issued a hurricane warning for parts of the Massachusetts coastline, including Cape Cod and the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. While Earl is expected to impact these areas most severely, the greater Boston area could still see rainfall and strong winds this weekend.
by Matt Repka on August 17, 2010
Police, fire and rescue vehicles closed a portion of the downhill campus late Tuesday afternoon in response to a chemical spill in Pearson Hall.
Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) Sergeant Darren Weisse told the Daily Tuesday night that “a small amount of a chemical” had been spilled in a Pearson Hall lab at approximately 5:00 p.m. Weisse characterized the incident as “minor,” There were no injuries, he said.
Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler told the Daily that a lab employee accidentally dropped “a tube containing a very small amount” of a chemical onto the lab floor. Thurler identified the chemical as “about 20cc’s” of methacryloyl chloride.
Exposure to methacryloyl chloride may result in “headache, dizziness, weakness, and nausea…respiratory tract irritation, esophageal or gastrointestinal tract irritation or burns, and allergic dermatitis,” according to CAMEO, an online chemical database for emergency responders.
Public Safety alerted the Somerville Fire Department, which in turn brought in a Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT) team to conduct a cleanup of the material. Workers in Pearson were asked to leave the building, Thurler said.
The section of Talbot Avenue between College Avenue and Latin Way was shut off to through traffic, and remained closed into the evening. Weisse said responders are still working at the scene. However, Thurler told the Daily she expects the road to reopen shortly.
Senior Becca Edelston was walking by the campus center just after 8:00 p.m. when she noticed a Public Safety vehicle blocking access to Talbot Ave. A public safety official at the scene informed her that a chemical spill had occurred. “They had the whole street blocked off,” Edelston said. “It was kind of scary.”
Edelston said an ambulance was among the emergency response vehicles on the scene. However, Thurler said that no one required medical treatment as a result of the spill, and the ambulance might have been present as a standard procedure for HAZMAT operations.
