By SUSAN COLTRI
BYU has received snow every day since Jan. 17 with the exception of Jan. 20, according to the Geography Department’s weather station. It has been snowing consistently since early Tuesday morning.
Between 4:30 p.m. Monday and 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, BYU received seven inches of snow. During the 24 hours following that — Tuesday at 4:30 to Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. — the campus had received 9.5 inches of snow.
Although the snow has made it more difficult to get to class, it has had little additional affect on campus life. With very few exceptions, classes have been held as scheduled, said Brent Harker, BYU public communications director.
Harker knew of only one faculty member that missed class. The teacher lived in Heber and could not get to campus because Provo Canyon was closed.
The grounds department says it has seen worse storms and feels very prepared to deal with this one.
“What really makes a difference is the rate at which the snow falls,” Harker said. If the snow continues to fall at a slow and steady rate, the grounds crew should have no problems taking care of it.
The grounds crew has been working almost around the clock since early Monday morning. The crew only shuts down between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m.
There are 40 full-time crew members and 100 student crew members. There are 62 pieces of snow removal and sanding equipment including many different types of plows and snow blowers.
Harker can only remember one campus closure in the 13 years he has been at BYU. “There are serious repercussions of closing campus as we saw last Friday with the power outage,” he said.
Students get upset when their activities are canceled, and there are financial losses.
On top of this, the university must be open the exact number of days already scheduled to remain accredited. If campus was closed, the day would have to be made up.
Decisions to close campus are not made until early in the morning, Harker said. The best way to find out if school is closed is to listen to the radio.
Student volunteers from BYUSA helped out grounds crew members Wednesday by digging cars out of BYU parking lots that had been snowed-in by snow plows, said Misha Davies, a BYUSA representative from Palm Beach, Fla.
Off campus, city crews worked hard to keep streets passable. Students and landlords have to keep their walkways clear, and thus, local hardware stores are selling tons of shovels and bags of sand.
“We are going through supplies like water,” said Alexis Lishman of Homebase Improvement Warehouse in Orem. She said they are keeping most snow shovels and sand well stocked, but are beginning to run out of snow blowers.
Utah Valley State Community College closed Wednesday at 5 p.m and will remained closed today for snow removal, said Val Peterson, vice president for college relations.
The school does not have the equipment necessary to remove all of the snow and it’s also a commuter school, Peterson said. “The snow is a little bit ahead of us and we need a chance to catch up.”
This is only the second time the school has closed down for snow in the last five years, he said.
