Athens, Texas, typically boasts 60-degree weather in February. When the city fell victim to 6 inches of snow and sub-zero temperatures last week, the National RV Training Academy (NRVTA) experienced challenges in wrapping up one group’s training and helping its community survive.
Tony Flammia, NRVTA’s marketing director, said, “While this part of Texas will see freezing temperatures overnight from time to time, nobody was prepared for single-digit temperatures for four consecutive days.”
The snowfall hit as soon-to-be-graduates finished advanced training with NRVTA, but then Athens lost power. “We had rolling blackouts for three days as local power companies tried to keep up with demand for power and heat,” Flammia said. “Instructors would be leading class one moment, and the entire building would be thrust into darkness the next.”
NRVTA Certified Master Technician instructors brought in portable generators and lithium batteries to run TVs and laptops. “Power would come up for 30 minutes, then go off for up to three hours,” Flammia said. “Fortunately, that was usually just enough time to recharge the batteries before the next blackout arrived.”
Volunteering students undergoing training visited local gas stations with portable gas cans to operate generators supplying power to NRVTA training centers and the campground office. Despite the weather, 13 students completed their required training and became NRVTA Certified RV Technicians.
While NRVTA helped its advanced training attendees to graduate, the Texan RV Park in Athens experienced burst pipes, shorted RV surge protectors and low propane. “The campground ran out of propane on the first day of the cold front,” Flammia said, and residents lacked enough gas to keep heaters running when power was on.
Campground staff was able to receive an emergency propane refill the next day, which held them off until above-freezing temperatures came later in the week. The campground’s trained technicians replaced exploded water filters and burst hose bibs, among other issues caused by the extended cold weather.
“I was immensely proud of the way our staff and students stepped up to help each other during the storm,” NRVTA President Terry Cooper said. “It just reaffirmed that people graduating from this program really do have servants’ hearts and a desire to make a difference in the lives they touch.”
