Penn students bitter about freezing cold

Freezing temperatures caused some heating problems in both HRS and off-campus housing. Even North Face couldn't help College sophomore Graham Lyles weather the North Pole-like temperatures and piercing gusts of wind that swept across Penn's campus yesterday. "It was miserable. I had to walk to David Rittenhouse Laboratory at nine this morning," said Lyles, who was bundled up in a double-layered parka, fleece hat and waterproof gloves. "My face hurt. My eyes hurt. It was pretty painful. Already sick with a wintertime cold, College senior Joanna Czekajewski, had similar complaints about the freezing weather. "I am layered up and taking NyQuil, DayQuil, orange juice and just waiting for this to end," she said. "I need to go on spring break." Temperatures in Philadelphia dropped into single digits yesterday morning with wind chills falling near zero or below zero, producing a bitter reality check for Penn students who have experienced an otherwise mild winter. Even when the sun poked through in early afternoon, temperatures on Tuesday barely rose above the teens with brisk winds pushing the wind-chill factor well below zero. "It is the first genuine day of winter that we've had this year in the region," said Bill Gartner, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in State College, Pa. "Temperatures this cold make it dangerous to stay outside for long periods of time." However, most Penn students and faculty, who had no choice but to attend their first classes of the semester, ventured outside -- grinning and bearing the arctic temperatures and winds. Though not before they layered themselves in their warmest clothes and hurried along Locust Walk, rushing into the warmer confines of the classroom. "I look like a refugee with a scarf over my head, and I'm walking very quickly," said Meg Jewell, a research manager in the Opthamology Department. Decked out in a long wool coat, scarf and sweater, wind-burned Engineering senior Betsy Hamme was chilled-out enough. "It's freezing cold out here," she complained. "I just wanted to crawl back into bed. My room is nice and warm." But some Penn students didn't have that luxury, as the cold weather caused heating units in a number of off-campus rental properties to shut off. College senior Ali Olshewitz said that when the heat in her apartment did not work for almost two days, she and her roommates were forced to vacate the freezing building and sleep over at their friends' places. "What made it so unbearable was that it felt like it was negative 10 degrees," she said. "One of my roomates left a glass of water and it was frozen. Our toothpaste was frozen, our mouthwash was frozen and you could see your breath inside the apartment." Campus Apartments President Dave Adelman confirmed that some of their properties did lose heat for around four to six hours yesterday when computerized thermostats malfunctioned. "When you get to 12 below, it's a shock to any system," Adelman said. "This is extreme cold that we haven't seen in two to five seasons." On campus, the cold weather left residents of Harrison College House shivering in the shower when a steam pipe burst early Monday morning, Faculty Master John Richetti said. The weather also prompted Philadelphia to implement its Code Blue program, which puts extra police officers and social workers on the street to encourage the homeless to go to shelters, city spokesman Ken Snyder said. However, the cold weather hasn't been bad news for everyone. According to Eastern Mountain Sports Assistant Manager John Clark, sales at the campus outdoor sporting gear store in Sansom Common have spiked over the past few days as students who left their gloves and hats at home attempted to purchase new ones. "Everyone is picking over what we have left," Clark said. "People were frustrated because they couldn't find scarfs, headbands and earmuffs -- which we've been sold out of for days." While the freezing temperatures forced many freshmen girls rushing sororities to walk quickly from house to house, it didn't put a damper on Engineering freshman Jen Portland's rush experience. "I like it. I like the cold," she said. According to the weather service, temperatures are expected to rise through midweek but remain below 40 degrees. Another arctic cold front is pushing out of central Canada and coming this way. Today will be mostly cloudy with scattered snow showers or flurries in most locations. Highs will average in the low 30s. Daily Pennsylvanian staff writers Joshua Liez and Michael Sonsino and the Associated Press contributed to this article.

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