With this weekend’s snowstorm affecting many students and faculty as well as places on campus, Daily staff writers investigated how the poor weather affected things such as studying, CyRide and Ames businesses.

Storms affect several locales nationwide

The storm that narrowly avoided Ames was not just an Iowa blizzard – it was a huge storm which covered a large portion of the United States, affecting much of the eastern half of the country.

“The people on the north side of the storm ended up with some snow and some ice,” said William Gallus, professor of geological and atmospheric sciences. “Everybody south of the storm had heavy rain, flooding and tornados.”

This storm set seemed severe with tornados destroying buildings, people without power and places and events getting shut down. Chen Tsing-Chang, professor of geological and atmospheric sciences, said the storm was not out of the ordinary at all.

“At this time usually there is severe weather,” Tsing-Chang said. “This is not unusual.”

Gallus said the weather was a little more severe than normal, but still not very odd.

“It was probably one of the strongest storms we’ve seen in several years in this side of the country,” Gallus said.

The weather has calmed down nationwide, although some warnings for floods and winter weather still remain in effect, according to the National Weather Service Web site.

– Linsey Lubinus

Severe storm, class cancellation delights students

After a severe snow and ice storm pummeled Iowa State, students experienced a true Iowa winter storm, complete with class cancellation.

“I missed my Psych 101 exam when Thursday’s classes were canceled, which was great,” said Daniel Bearden, freshman in pre-business.

Thursday’s class cancellation marked the first time since February 2001 that the university has canceled classes.

In lieu of his exam, Bearden studied with friends and watched “The Office” in the new Hixson-Lied Student Success Center.

“If I had to describe the whole experience in a sentence, I’d have to say, ”Twas a delight,'” Bearden said. Other students shared Bearden’s enthusiasm, as some experienced snow for the first time.

“We played a lot in the snow, which was always fun, and I got to miss two classes on Thursday” said Kiranjeevi Eshcol, junior in electrical engineering.

Eshcol came to Iowa State from Hyderabad, India, and said this was his first real blizzard experience.

“I actually wouldn’t mind a few more snowfalls,” Eshcol said.

He and some friends also went out driving after the first storm, despite the difficult traveling conditions.

“We were in an SUV and we got stuck for a little bit, but it wasn’t bad,” Eshcol said.

While most students enjoyed an escape from classes, some grow weary of the bad weather.

“I’m definitely ready for spring,” said Wesley Atwood, sophomore in environmental science.

Atwood said he thought the storm was exciting, but stayed inside playing basketball at the Lied Recreation Athletic Center.

“I didn’t drive, but I probably would have gotten stuck,” Atwood said.

All students interviewed supported the decision by the university to cancel classes and enjoyed the rare occasion of a snow day.

– Julie Young

Alternate locations to study

When Iowa State cancels class early and Parks Library closes early as well, students will look for alternative places to study. But where are those places?

Jessica Stroda, Parks Library assistant in the Reference and Instruction Office and senior in civil engineering, said that even though the library may be closed, there are plenty of other places to study in the case of a closing.

“I would say that other buildings, such as Durham, are open [even though we may be closed]. We closed at 5 p.m. [on Thursday], even though classes got out at 1,” Stroda said.

During the snowstorm on Thursday, the Parks Library closed at 5 p.m., but other buildings stayed open, such as the computer labs in Durham.

“It was about normal out there. When we closed, there was a big rush to the door. I don’t think that the closing really changed study habits very much. They just had to change where they would be studying in the evening,” Stroda said.

Jarrod Byerly, junior in finance, said the storm only caused him to move his study habits to his home.

“[It] seemed to me to be the best and smartest thing to do to study was to go to my house,” Byerly said.

– Kyle Miller

CyRide operational through storm with help of more drivers

Snow, sleet and rain could not keep CyRide’s wheels from turning during this weekend’s winter storm.

Sheri Kyras, director of transportation for CyRide, said the buses were able to stay operational during the bad weather by having the drivers carefully watch road conditions and take necessary precautions to avoid problems.

“We really didn’t have many problems with this storm, so we just continued to operate and provide service for the community,” Kyras said.

The importance of safety was stressed to the bus drivers as they navigated around an icy Ames.

If a bus got a little behind, CyRide administrators suited up and drove buses to pick up the slack.

“The drivers ran at a pace that they felt was safe. If they got behind, they would give us a call, and we had extra buses go out to help,” Kyras said.

“A lot of our administrative staff was out during the storm to keep the service going.”

CyRide ran smoothly with the extra help, and no incidents or injuries were reported.

On Feb. 25 the weather caused five buses to become stuck in the snow and CyRide was temporarily shut down.

“We had a few incidents with the storm last weekend,” Kyras said, “but with this storm we had no problems.”

– Adam Edelman

Storm does little damage compared to previous blizzard

Despite blizzard warnings that resulted in cancelled classes on Thursday, little damage was seen on the ISU campus from this most recent storm.

Storms early last week caused power outages across town.

“Primarily what happened is ice builds up on the tree limbs,” said Brian Trower, assistant director of electric services for the city of Ames.

“On top of that we had a lot of heavy wet snow that bent them down to the point of breakage.”

When these limbs break they sometimes fall on power lines or other power equipment, causing outages.

The rain preceding Thursday’s storm made a big difference, Trower said.

“The rain washed most of the ice and snow off of the tree limbs,” he said. “It took the weight off of them.”

As a result, there were no new power outages reported with the storm, Trower said.

“It’s been incredibly quiet. We’re very pleased,” he said.

– Andrew Bennett

Storm leaves Ames businesses alone to handle more customers

Ames businesses kept moving as last week’s storm swept through the area, leaving a lot of students ordering in.

“We were extremely busy,” said Jason Mangold, operations director at MonkeyThis, 119 Stanton Ave. “We were out in the snow; we slop around in that.”

Mangold also said every delivery they had was completed efficiently the night of the storm and they even brought in extra drivers to help the deliveries go more smoothly.

“We were able to get everything delivered,” Mangold said.

Domino’s delivery personnel were also out in the snow, but in a limited range.

“We shortened our delivery range to about a mile radius,” said Thomas Baker, manager at Domino’s, 118 Hayward Ave.

Domino’s employees also noticed an increase in deliveries, but had to tell the customers they were only delivering within that one-mile range.

“[Customers] understood because of the streets,” Baker said.

While people were ordering in to stay out of the weather and off the streets, others were out driving around.

These enthusiasts needed to find some entertainment while the storm hit, and they went to the movie store to do just that.

“We were busy,” said Drew Metcalf, employee at Family Video, 3407 Lincoln Way, “[and] we remained open.”

Family Video intended to stay open through the storm but found it difficult to do so when it experienced a power outage Sunday.

This power outage caused Family Video to close early, Metcalf said.

– Marjorie Smith