Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 16, 1993 TAG: 9303160104
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG and CHRIS STEUART STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SPRING RETURNS TO WINTER AS STUDENTS COME BACK NORTH
Rob Lowry and Mike Lindblom walked through Virginia Tech's campus on Monday, wearing boots, shorts and new suntans."We're fighting winter," said Lowry, a Tech sophomore.
Monday was supposed to mark the end of spring break for students at Tech and Radford University. Instead, the weekend marked the biggest winter storm most students have seen this side of New Jersey. Classes were canceled Monday and today at both universities.
"We're going from 90 degrees and beach to 30 degrees and three feet of snow," Lowry said. "But we're not wearing jeans for the rest of the year."
Lowry and Lindblom returned this week from the Bahamas, what Lindblom calls "a real spring break."
The drinking age was low and the sun was hot, he said.
But on their way back from Florida, where their cruise ship docked, they met heavy gales and, finally, snow.
The students, both members of Theta Chi fraternity, spent two days at a hotel in Statesville, N.C., before making it back to school. They were lucky, Lindblom said.
They had friends who were stranded in a truck stop, others who spent the night in a church.
Back in Blacksburg, they faced their own problem: "I may have to fake-bake to keep my tan" at a tanning salon, Lowry said, displaying his light brown legs.
On Monday afternoon, Tech was starting, slowly, to fill up with students. They were combing the campus, looking for something to do.
"I think I'm gonna write President McComas a letter and thank him for keeping the gym open," said one student as he walked inside, T-shirt tucked under his arm.
Mark Sullivan, a senior at Tech, drove in Sunday night from South Carolina, past the barricades that blocked Interstate 77.
He did it partly for the adventure, he said, partly because the roads were clear in Greenville, S.C., and he figured some of the stories about Virginia were exaggerated.
"It was a nightmare . . . it was like the Twilight Zone," he said of the trip.
Michele Letourneur, a resident adviser, and Nathan Curtis were back at their Newman Hall dormitory on Friday.
They were the only ones there all weekend.
There is one advantage to having a dormitory to yourself: you can blast the music really, really loud.
But that's about the only advantage.
"I've been going stir crazy," Letourneur said.
Radford University appeared deserted Monday afternoon, the streets, thawing in the sunshine, were filled with cars buried in snowdrifts up to the side-view mirrors.
Students, still at home or on break, were ringing in the spring - literally.
"We have fielded a tremendous amount of phone calls today," said Debbie Brown, Radford's public relations director. "Students and parents concerned about the students getting on the road have called the public information office, campus police and president's office."
And the police station.
At least there were plenty of people on hand to answer the calls - five staff members were snowed in Friday night, said Toby Phillips, chief of campus police.
Pam Tenbrook, a member of the Radford gymnastics team, trudged along the sidewalk in front of Dalton Hall with her luggage.
The gymnastics team returned from a meet in Williamsburg a day late, but students looked forward to an extra day off.
"It'll give me time to settle in and do some homework, maybe," Tenbrook said.
A Tech work crew was still clearing campus roads of snow late Monday as Tammy King, a sophomore from Danville, and Carlisa Woody, a sophomore from Martinsville, made their way toward an open restaurant.
They got bored on Sunday and decided to return to Tech, even though they knew classes had been canceled through today.
"At home there was no phone, no power, no running water," Woody said. "I just thought I'd come back to school."