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