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Student newspaper of Illinois Institute of Technology since 1928

A blizzard in the city that works

By Ryan Kamphuis
CAMPUS EDITOR

 

It came lt saw lt conquered After days of
warning, the great blizzard of 2011 hit Chi,
cagol Dumping over 20 inches of snow on the
ground, the blizzard brought the city to a halt
and shut down almost everything Wednesday
after the snow stopped, the city looked like a
ghost town, populated only by those who were
willing to brave the snow to see the aftermath
Lake Shore Drive was filled with abandoned
cars and buses People skied down the middle
of State Street Chicago Public Schools were
empty

llT ran into just as many issues as the city of
Chicago did Initially shutting down from 4:00
pm Tuesday, February 1 to 3:00 pm Wednes,
day, February 2, HT eventually canceled all
classes on Wednesday Students awoke to a
campus totally covered by snow on Wednes,
day Academic buildings and the MTCC were
snowed in and had to be dug out in order to
be entered Roads could not be seen, the Quad
was covered in Sefoot snow drifts, and the
wind coming in off Lake Michigan created
wind chills below zero degrees Fahrenheit

The blizzard canceled many events that
were planned for Tuesday and Wednesday, in,
cluding a chemistry colloquium, a psychology
presentation, the Black History Month kickoff
event, and many meetingsl Even with all the
cancellations, llT students still made the best
of the horrendous conditions Snow forts be,
came commonplace on the quad, and many
snowball fights were had

In what many students felt was a controvere
sial decision, llT decided to restart classes on
Thursday, February 41 Many were angered by
this decision since the Chicago Public Schools
and many other schools decided to stay closed
on Thursday

Despite this fact, llT was ready for the re,
turn of students on Thursday Facilities had
spent all of Wednes day plowing and saltng the
sidewalks and paths west of State Street in or,
der for students to move between classes The
conditions east of State Street were another
story, howeverl Paths had formed between the
dorms and the MTCC, but only because they
had been packed down by the repeated travels
of students

Many of the entrances to most of llT’s
buildings were closed off on Thursday This
was either because snow hadn’t been cleared
from the front of the door or, in the case of the
MTCC rotating door, all the snow and wind
broke it

While llT’s sidewalks and paths were
cleared on Thursday, the same couldn’t be said
for the roads crossing llT’s campusl While the
city of Chicago did begin to plow the roads on
campus, they weren’t fully cleared on Thurs,
day State Street was down to one lane through
campus, and snow still covered the median,
making it tough to cross on foot

If one thing was learned from the blizzard
of 201 1, it was that Chicago truly is the city that
works While cities like New York and Philae
delphia were crippled for days by blizzards in
late 2010, Chicago got just as much snow and
was back on its feet in less than one day By
late Thursday, flights were heading out of both
Midway and O’Harel Roads were cleared, and
businesses were open Life was back to normal

 

[Photos by Ryan Kamphuis and Chris Roberts]