The Blizzard of 2026 left thousands in the University of Rhode Island community without power and heat, buried under multiple feet of snow.
On Sunday, Feb. 22, Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee declared a state of emergency for a blizzard that was forecasted to drop 10 to 20 inches of snow, according to USA Today.
McKee announced a travel ban for commercial vehicles at 5 p.m., and a ban for all vehicles except emergency personnel at 7 p.m. The roads would be pre-treated and the Rhode Island Department of Transportation had about 500 state and vendor plows as well as 60,000 tons of road salt.
The snow began falling and record snow totals emerged, according to the National Weather Service. Rhode Island TF Green International Airport saw 37.9 inches of snow, breaking the previous record from the notorious blizzard of 1978, which had 28.6 inches, according to the Weather Channel. Around URI, the totals were just as high.
In North Kingstown, 36 inches of snow had fallen and in Narragansett, 33 inches of snow had fallen, according to the National Weather Service. Across the entire state, every town was seeing snow totals that they hadn’t seen since the Blizzard of ‘78.
Amidst unprecedented snow totals, many were left without power. By midday on Feb. 23, 41,457 people in Rhode Island lost power, according to Rhode Island Energy’s outage map. By midday on Feb. 24, after the travel ban was lifted at noon, 15,000 people were still without power.
For on-campus students, the hardships were shared, according to second-year Jace Tavares.
“I was not prepared food wise,” Tavares said. “I was living off pop tarts and cinnamon rolls out of the vending machine for three days until I could actually get to Butterfield [Dining Hall].”
From on-campus residents to commuters, staff and athletics, each person was impacted by the storm. From an athletics standpoint, there were some odd similarities to draw, according to URI men’s basketball Head Coach Archie Miller.
“Unfortunately, mother nature hurt our state,” Miller said in a press conference. “At the end of the day, there’s a lot of other things that go on when a blizzard happens, but in terms of our players, it actually eerily felt like Covid.”
Similar to the COVID-19 pandemic, the normal routine was impacted, which hurt the team’s preparation, according to Miller.
“When a state of emergency is issued, and you are at a state university, you have to follow the protocol,” Miller said. “Our players and coaches didn’t see each other from [Feb. 22] to [Feb. 25]. No practice, no meetings.”
A week and a half after the storm, temperatures rose and rain fell. The change helped melt some of the snow. With spring still weeks away, the threat of more snowfall hasn’t passed.
