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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 1982)
Emerald Vot 83. No 72 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Wednesday, January 6, 1982 Snow forces extra day of registration By ANN PORTAL Of tha Enwald The second straight day of icy roads and sporadic snow took its toll at the University Tuesday, forcing officials to extend registration a day for students stranded because of hazardous roads Traffic problems and injuries from slippery walks were no problem, how ever, with the physical plant, student health center and campus security all reporting few serious side-effects of the half-foot of powder that turned to ice Monday night ■'We've gotten by quite well,” said Harold Babcock, physical plant director University administrators decided to continue registration after they received Monday enrollment figures showing a much lower than anticipated turnout Only 5,008 students registered Mon day, 1,600 less than expected, according to Registrar Wanda Johnson Depart ment representatives at McArthur Court said Tuesday registration also was slower than normal Extended registration will go from 9 a m to 4 p m today at McArthur Court There is no priority order, so students may register at any time Students cannot register at depart ments or drop/add courses until Thursday, after registration is over but seniors and graduate students who have been shut out of classes they need to graduate should contact those depart ments Every effort will be made to help those students, says a University repre sentative Winter term classes still will begin today; only physical education activity and professional activity classes have been cancelled However, faculty members have been advised to make “provisions" for students who are unable to attend the first day of classes No one should be penalized for missing class because of bad road conditions, said Joanne Carl son, acting vice provost for academic affairs Bad roads also were a problem for classified staff, and the 'contingency plan" to feed and house staff announced Monday remained in effect Tuesday Two staff members ate and stayed in the dorms Monday, said Muriel Jackson, administrative assistant More rooms are available for those involved in registra tion or those trapped for weather reasons Employees are urged to follow travel warnings, and can use compensatory or vacation time to stay home, if necessary, she said At the University, physical plant em ployees sanded walks and entries before staff arrived, though streets were left alone because the school has no equip ment for plowing them, Babcock said University Physician Jim Jackson said several students showed up at the health center Tuesday for minor treatment because of falls, but he said none had fallen at the University Three stargazers stuck Stuck at 6,500 feet with their snow plow lodged in a ditch, personnel at Pine Mountain Observatory are getting their fill of snow — six feet deep in some drifts around their station Caretaker Gene Brandon, one of the snowbound employees, says this is the most snow to fall on Pine Mountain in the six years he's worked there But he said, in a Tuesday telephone interview, that there's plenty of food and everyone's fine, as long as claustrophobia doesn't get to them "Once you re up here four or five days it's pretty essential you get out,'' he said Monday, Brandon drove to Pine Mountain, located about 30 miles south east of Bend He says his four-wheel drive truck did fine on Highway 20. but three miles after the turnoff to the obser vatory, even the truck failed He reached the station after three uphill miles on cross-country skis Brandon joined assistant Karan Wade and research assistant Mark Barbour, who both went to Pine Mountain before the snow storm began Brandon said he tried Tuesday morn ing to use a snow plow to clear the nine miles to Highway 20 But the plow, which had never been used at Pine Mountain, is made for highways and ran off the rough mountain road into a ditch, he said Tuesday afternoon he was waiting for a Pacific Northwest Bell "snow cat” to help pull the plow out This is their fifth big snowfall of the season, Brandon said, noting that the outside weather hovered between 0 and 4 degrees Monday night and Tuesday "It's really cold up here," he said It's important to keep the observatory open in the winter because some stars are observable only during the winter months, observatory director James Kemp said "It's a struggle and this is the worst in seven years," he said Photo by Bob Baker The streets and walkways wore a crusty layer of icy snow in the morning, making them treacherous to cars and pedestrians. Storms devastate parts of West Coast A storm that caused mud slides in the affluent suburbs of San Francisco moved eastward Tuesday, flinging up to 8 feet of snow that blocked mountain passes and stalled travel in several states At least 22 people have been killed in violent storms since Monday Rescuers digging in the muck of stricken communities in the San Francisco Bay area found six bodies Tuesday, the victims of mudslides and fallen trees That made the total at least 12 killed in northern California as hillsides gave way after 12 inches of rain in a day Six others were missing and presumed dead, including three children trapped when a mud slide buried their home in Pacifica Seven people died of heart attacks while shoveling snow in Wisconsin, including five in Mil waukee which was digging out from under a 16-inch snowfall that was the city's worst since 1947 A man froze to death in Idaho, and weather-related traffic fa talties were reported in Utah and New York California Gov Jerry Brown was expected to declare a state of emergency in a four-county area where hundreds of homes were destroyed or damaged Damage in Marin County alone was estimated at $30 million "I’ve never seen a storm of this magnitude in 25 years," said Brian Waterbury, a San Rafael fire official. Meanwhile, fresh snow up to a foot deep closed hundreds of schools and highways across Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. The Milwaukee Blood Center issued an emergency appeal for donors, saying supplies had run low because routine donors could not get to the center because of the snow on Mon day Snow packs up to 14 feet were reported in the Lake Tahoe area of Nevada, where 8 feet fell in 36 hours. Ski resorts closed last January for a lack of snow were closed Tuesday because of too much
