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Snowmageddon 2010

As the snow continued to endlessly fall over London Tuesday afternoon, the University of Western Ontario and The Spoke were forced to do the unthinkable.

They cancelled Rick McGhie’s Wednesday night performance.

It was just the latest in a string of cancellations across London as a result of an unprecedented snow storm that has ground the university and most of the city to a halt for three days.

While the full extent of the storm won’t be known until it tapers off sometime Wednesday evening, it is widely expected to be one of the worst in London’s 155-year history.

The storm has relentlessly blanketed London with the white, fluffy stuff since Sunday evening, piling anywhere from 65-90 cm of snow in areas across the city. By Wednesday evening, the blizzard is expected to have dumped more than a metre of snow on London — more than the city saw all of last winter.

While city officials flirted with the idea of issuing a state of emergency Tuesday morning to call in outside help to clear the massive amount of snow, newly-elected London mayor Joe Fontana ultimately decided to hold off.

Throughout the day, the city urged local business owners to close up shop and send their employees home and asked motorists to stay off the roads. It’s estimated the storm will cost London more than $1 million to clean up.

Meanwhile, Western officials decided to tell students to stay at home for a second straight day early Tuesday morning and later in the day cancelled all classes and exams for Wednesday as well. The school aims to be back up and running on Thursday, just one day before the start of mid-year exams.

The decision to cancel classes Tuesday was made while most students were still asleep after a 4 a.m. meeting between Western administration, grounds crew leaders and campus police.

“The snow conditions were such [that Western’s grounds crew] felt they could not have things appropriately and safely operational,” Gitta Kulzcyki, Western’s vice-president resources and operations, said.

Most of Tuesday’s on-campus events had already been cancelled the day before, including an alumni luncheon with Western President Amit Chakma.

The snow was so heavy at Western’s Elgin Residence Tuesday morning that a blocked heating vent caused a carbon monoxide buildup in the residence.

Approximately 500 students and staff were evacuated around 11 a.m. to Medway-Sydenham Hall across the street where they waited for around an hour until it was safe to return.

Despite plowing throughout the day on a practically empty campus, Western’s grounds crews were not able to keep up with the pace and volume of the snow Tuesday afternoon, forcing Western administration to extend the campus closure through Wednesday.

“It was clear Mother Nature was delivering more snow more quickly than our staff could keep up with despite what I know were their best efforts,” Kulzcyki said.

Another major factor in the university’s decision to shut down campus on Wednesday was the London Transit Commission who pulled their buses off the roads at 3 p.m. Tuesday and planned to keep them in the garage until Thursday.

Considering the lack of public transit across London, mostly un-cleared sidewalks throughout the city and exceedingly hazardous driving conditions — the decision to close campus was an easy one to make.

“[Considering] London Transit’s decision to suspend service for [Wednesday] based upon the road conditions they were encountering, it seemed the best and safest thing to do was to close [campus on Wednesday,]” Kulzycki said.

The biggest worry for most students is the effect the storm will have on midyear exams which begin Friday and run until Dec. 23.

Wednesday’s closure comes four years to the day after exams were canceled on Dec. 8, 2006 due to inclement weather. Aside from this storm, Western has been forced to shut down campus just four times in the last six years — all in the month of December.

However exams were only ever affected during the 2006 closure and Kulzcyki was confident the current storm would not affect the exam schedule.

“Students should expect that exams will proceed as scheduled on Friday and plan accordingly,” Kulzcyki said. “At this point, we’re hoping to get ahead of the snow on Wednesday, such that we can open on Thursday,”

While unlikely, if campus was forced to shut down until the weekend, Friday’s exams could be rescheduled before the new year as the university has a free day built into the exam schedule for extenuating circumstances like these.

Once Western’s crews have cleared the roads and walkways on campus, their focus will turn to removing the snow from school grounds all together. Despite a sprawling campus, the university has run out of places to put all the snow.

“Our crews are working to move the snow into piles such that we get clearance in the areas where we need them,” Kulzycki said. “Once the snow fall ceases, we will need to be transporting some of the snow off campus — we simply don’t have room to locate it all.”

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