Dartmouth College shut down yesterday for the first time in at least 15 years due to a blizzard said to rival the great storm of 1978.
Students trudged to classes Tuesday afternoon as six more inches of snow joined that already on the ground. Libraries and other services shut down and some of the last few classes of the term were cancelled by snow-bound professors.
"I wish it hadn't happened," said Vice President and Treasurer Win Johnson.
"Nobody likes to shut things down, it's an inconvenience for students. But if I had to make the same decision again and I was presented with the same information, I think I'd make the same decision," Johnson said.
Johnson and a few others made that decision early Tuesday morning after communicating with local and state authorities. A campus-wide email message sent out yesterday afternoon warned students and College employees of the high chance for a snow day.
The storm itself flooded communities on the East Coast and left tens of thousands of homes temporarily without power.
Flights were cancelled throughout the Northeast including cancellation or delays for the majority of flights at Boston Logan airport, according to their website.
This week's storm, a Nor'easter, was being compared by the media to the Blizzard of '78. That storm displaced 1,000 people, caused millions of dollars of damage and 30 deaths.
Johnson stated that the College will most likely stay fully operational through the end of the term.
A factor in Johnson's choice to shut down the College was predictions of worse conditions by Tuesday afternoon which did not materialize.
Predictions of weather for later this week from various news sources suggested cloudy weather until later this week, with snow to start again on the weekend.
