Greetings from campus, Deac families!  Your students got to see a bunch of snow yesterday, though none of it stuck to the ground.  It started snowing early – big, chunky flakes at first, and then it tapered off to smaller flakes throughout the day.  At times it was more drizzle than snow.

And like so much of the rest of the country, we are getting wildly varying reports of what kind of issues that Snowstorm Pax will bring us.  We are hearing everything from 1-3 inches with possibility of some ice on top of it, to 8-12 inches.  If you are from the North or the Midwest (or any part of the country that is used to dealing with a lot of snow), the prospect of 8-12 inches would perhaps not be a Major Event, but it sure will be in Winston-Salem if it happens.  Just an inch or two of snow routinely closes K-12 schools for days, so if we get The Big One there will be a lot of impact for those of us with young kids.

The good news is that campus is well-equipped and we have a fantastic Facilities department that works to salt sidewalks and plow campus roads, etc.  The difficulty we face as a small city in the South is that we do not have a small army of salt trucks and plows to get rid of the snow.  So if it really does come in the 8-12″ variety, it will be interesting commuting for a few days.

Last time I checked, it looked like the beginning of the snow could be sometime on Wednesday.  Looks like there could be some snow starting late morning, with another big wave at night.  For students on campus, they might wish to stock up on a few foodstuffs in their residence halls if they don’t want to venture out to the Pit or other eateries in the snow.  For those seniors living off campus, they might wish to make sure they have enough food in their refrigerators in case they need to hunker down for a day or two.

As a reminder, if there is a weather event that would require classes to be delayed or canceled, we announce that in a number of ways.  Please tell your students to be attentive to their email and/or the WFU web site.  And of course above all to be safe.

If we do get an enormous snow and classes are cancelled, do yourself a favor and check out the Quad Cam.  There are few things more fun than watching ‘grown up’ children playing in the snow like they were young kids again.   You might witness an epic snowball fight, or the makings of creative and amazing snowmen.  In college, just like in elementary school, snow days can make the students giddy.  And especially when you have students from Texas or Arizona or California or Florida who have never seen snow in their hometowns, it is a thing of beauty to watch them play in a really big snow.

Wherever you are, Deac families, we hope that you fare well in this storm.  We’ve heard about plenty of snow and ice related misery this year, both those to the north and south of Winston-Salem.  May you all keep your power and be safe!

 

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