Can You Dig It?

Students use teamwork (and shovels) to free trapped vehicles

February 20, 2007

Students work to free a car trapped on High Street in front of the library.

On Saturday a group of Dickinson football players helped dig out a car belonging to their teammate Justin Piotti '08. Like thousands of other motorists across the state, the players and other Dickinsonians across campus had to use muscle, teamwork and patience to free their vehicles from the remains of last week's snow, sleet and ice storm.

The aftermath of the storm was still being felt a week later. Vehicles remained frozen in place in campus parking areas and along roads, encased in rock-hard ice and snow. The storm forced the cancellation and postponement of events across the campus, including a rare closing of college offices on Wednesday, Feb. 14.

Conditions were no better throughout much of the state in the wake of the first significant storm of the winter. Sections of interstates 78, 81 and 80 did not reopen until the weekend, thanks in part to a decision—in hindsight an incorrect one—by state officials and road crews to allow the storm's initial snowfall to accumulate on roads in the hope that it would sop up the freezing rain that followed. By the time many crews hit the road with plows and salt, their efforts were no match for conditions made worse by plummeting temperatures, accidents and gridlock.