Phila. not spared blizzard's wrath

Philadelphia certainly got its share of the blizzard that many have touted as the storm of the century. More than 11 inches to be precise, with snow drifts a few feet high. "It's one of the most severe storms we have on record," said Tom Beitel, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. "This storm had the lowest pressure ever of any kind of storm [on record which passed through Philadelphia]. Beitel added that Philadelphia has seen more snow fall in the past with 21 inches in 1983, but it was the combination of low pressure, damaging winds, and heavy snowfall -- falling at 2 inches an hour in some places -- which made this weekend's storm as severe as it was. Major arteries such as Interstates 95 and 76, the Vine Street Expressway, as well as the Pennsylvania Turnpike were closed. As of Monday, however, "the roads have been officially reopened," according a spokesperon for the Pennsylvania State Police. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Trasportation Authority also was shut down as of Saturday afternoon except for the Broad Street Subway and the Market-Frankford Elevated, according to SEPTA spokesperson Rich DiLullo. "We've got a lot of the system operating now, but we cannot say because of the freezing which is being predicted for tonight what we will run tomorrow," DiLullo said yesterday. "All the rails will be operating tomorrow [Tuesday]," including the Airport Express which was operating by yesterday. The storm also had a mixed economic impact on the city. Yesterday, an average of 30 percent of office workers were absent, according to Tom Widing, the vice president for regional affairs of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. He said the city was fortunate that the storm came on a weekend. "I think we would have seen a very high absenteeism rate if the storm were [yesterday]," he added. "I think we would have seen 100 percent closure of companies in Center City, as we did in 1983." The city mobilized a crew composed almost solely of overtime workers to remove the snow. The Streets Department transformed "everything we could get our hands on" into snow-plows. "Our plan is not to plow every street in the city, but to make the major arteries accessible," said Kevin Koch, the Streets Department's acting chief highway engineer. "By Wednesday, everything should be pretty cleared up." One beneficiary of the snow storm were area hotels, from motor lodges flooded with stranded motorists to luxury establishments such as the Ritz-Cartlon in Center City. "We did run a 100 percent occupancy on Friday, Saturday, and last evening [Sunday]," said Juliana Scheuchenzuber, the assistant front office manager for the Ritz-Carlton. "We were forecasting around a 60 to 65 percent [occupancy] for the weekend [but] a lot of our travelers could not leave, and a lot of people who could not get rooms at the airport came here to Center City." Hotels on the campus also felt the impact of the storm. "We were into the 90 percents [in occupancy] because of the storm, maybe 93 or 94 percent," said Bill Mayes, the general manager's administrative assistant for the Sheraton University City. Mayes added that the managers with four-wheel drive vehicles shuttled workers to the hotel. Video stores fared well too. "It was probably one of our busiest days of the year [Saturday]," Kay Nothstein, the night manager for T.L.A. Video in Society Hill. "I mean we were packed, and we are still feeling the impact of [the storm] today." Thousands of the Christians received a respite this weekend. In Pennsylvania, Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua granted a temporary dispensation to all Roman Catholics in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, allowing them to miss mass on Sunday. Some of the faithful did brave it to church, however. At St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Society Hill, about one third of the usual congregants attended services. "It was a little below average, we usually have between 100 and 130 people on average, and we had 45," said the rector, Wendel Meyer. Many homeless people had a rougher weekend than usual, going to city shelters, police and fire stations, the subway, or any other place offering warmth. "Seeing how I knew that there would be a lot of snow, I came up to the University of Penn, and husseled up enough money by pan-handling to rent a room at 42nd and Powelton to get out of the cold," said Mark Watson, a homeless man who is seen regularly outside the Wawa at 38th and Spruce streets. "I also made a few dollars by helping people get their cars out of the snow." The annual Philadelphia Flower Show, which is traditionally held over spring break at the Civic Center, was forced to close its doors early on Saturday as a result of the blizzard conditions. The show also missed out on Sunday, its final, and often most profitable, day. The Philadelphia School District also cancelled classes yesterday, as did area colleges including Bryn Mawr and Haverford. Students in the Philadelphia School District will have another day off from school today as classes have been cancelled for a second day. The storm virtually paralyzed the Philadelphia area, shutting down most of the roads, shopping malls, and virtually any other function scheduled for Saturday or Sunday. '

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