COLLEGE PARK, Md. (7News) — The University of Maryland shut down its College Park campus on Thursday and Friday after a failure in its temporary heating system left dorms without heat or hot water during extremely cold weather.

Students awoke Wednesday night to cold dorm rooms and limited access to hot water. Some, like a student named Grace, chose to leave campus altogether.

“They recommended that students go home or find the closest place they could with heat, and they’re like lending out blankets,” she said.

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The outage stemmed from the school’s reliance on a temporary external boiler system while its central energy plant undergoes reconstruction, school officials said. The temporary system, they said in a notice posted on a campus weather website, was unable to keep up with the recent cold snap.

“It’s been pretty cold recently. We don’t have hot water yet, so I’m currently heading to another campus because there’s no reason to be here right now,” said student Madeline.

The university said crews have been working around the clock since the weekend snowstorm to stabilize the system. By Thursday morning, officials reported that heat and hot water had been restored, but warned students to expect intermittent outages.

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That uncertainty prompted some students to pack up anyway.

“Right now it’s alright. It’s more just the ambiguity — just not sure if the heat is going to go off and on,” said student Zach.