The windstorm that hit the Dayton area Sunday left hundreds of students with no power, rotting food and dying cell phones.

Campus facilities and services helped UD students lessen their problems while the power was out.

The RecPlex remained open for students without power.

"We feel it's important to offer up our facility to our UD community, especially in times of need like this," Abby Thrine, assistant director for Facility Operations, said. "Knowing that the vast majority of our students, faculty and staff were without power starting Sunday, we decided to keep the facility open 24 hours until power is restored."

Those that took up the offer benefited from the facility's amenities.

"Hundreds and hundreds of students, faculty and staff have come into the building to shower, charge cell phones, charge their laptops or use the public computers," Thrine said. "We have a wonderful student staff that immediately stepped up and volunteered to work the extra overnight hours to keep us fully operational."

Dining Services also offered emergency meal plans for students that lost power.

Paula Smith, director of Dining Services, said students who used the meals could purchase food prepared by dining services, not prepackaged ones. Each student was allowed to spend the amount of money allocated to each meal in the traditional meal plans, according to Smith.

Smith said around 700 students used the emergency meal plan for dinner Tuesday, with the majority eating at Kennedy Union. At breakfast on Tuesday, around 480 students took advantage of the meal.

"The Dining Services team and the campus community are all about helping those that are experiencing difficult times," Smith said. "We realize the power outage is a difficult time and we're just happy to help."