All 102 residents of the northeast Longwood Landings apartment building have been assigned temporary housing following Monday evening’s rooftop fire, according to Longwood University Media Relations Director Matt McWilliams.
The Office of Residential and Commuter Life (RCL) worked to find space in either Longwood-managed housing or on-campus residences for displaced residents during the 48 hours following the incident, said McWilliams.
RCL Associate Director of Occupancy Management Jean Wilwohl was in charge of contacting and reassigning affected students.
According to Wilwohl, the office was able to make phone and email contact with every affected student and through email and start reassigning housing within 24 hours of the incident.
“I would say people were literally working around the clock to make sure things were happening as quickly as possible,” said Wilwohl.
Wilwohl said all of the students were initially placed in vacancies in either the Longwood Village or Lancer Park, then were given the option upon request to move into main campus residential halls because no freshman required transitional housing this year.
The majority of the students have remained in the Longwood Village (64) and Lancer Park (15), while others were dispersed across Arc, Curry, Frazer, Stubbs, South Ruffner and Wheeler Halls. Wilwohl said the numbers are preliminary and could change as more students contact them.
Information provided by Associate Director of Occupancy Management Jean Wilwohl.
No students were assigned to Sharp or Register Hall, the newly constructed on-campus residence halls, according to McWilliams.
According to Wilwohl, it is not yet known when the 102 students will be able to return to the Longwood Landings northeast building. She said they are waiting for more progress and information from the building’s restoration team.
“Until they’re a little bit farther along, we won’t have a definite timeline,” said Wilwohl.
Wilwohl said RCL has communicated to the affected students that they will notify them directly of more logistics and answers to inquiries as the information becomes available to avoid misinformation.
Continue to follow The Rotunda for updates.
The Longwood Police Department and fire crews responded after the roof of the northeast Longwood Landings building - a Longwood University-managed apartment complex - caught fire and burned for around an hour and a half last night after being struck by lightning.
