Hillsdale buried beneath a blizzard

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Hillsdale buried beneath a blizzard
The college was buried under snow earlier this week. Nathan Steinmeyer | Courtesy

Today’s forecast may be rain, but just last week the season’s biggest snow storm blew into Hillsdale, leaving several inches of snow and some happy students with no classes to attend.

Senior Brigette Hall says she was happy to have all her classes canceled.

“It feels like Saturday,” she said.

According to the Hillsdale Daily News, the National Weather Service Northeast Indiana predicted 8-12 inches of snow for Hillsdale County on Friday.

Director of Campus Security Bill Whorley said clearing the nearly a foot of snow on campus was a team effort.

“The security office worked with the grounds department and Hillsdale College’s Emergency Response Team, a volunteer group, to remove snow where their machines couldn’t,” Whorley said. “The big machinery they have can’t clear small spaces around buildings, like sidewalks and areas close to doorways, so we did it.”

Senior Rachael Reynolds, who lives in downtown, said making her way to campus Friday morning proved harder than she expected. Her car, parked around the corner from her apartment, got caught in a snowbank after the snow plows came through.

“It took me twenty minutes to dig myself out of the snow bank so my car would move,” she said, “and I have four-wheel drive.”

Lecturer in Rhetoric and Public Address Brita Stoneman cancelled her two Friday morning classes the night before.

“I worried I’d wake up and it’d be nothing,” she said. “When I saw all the snow, and I just laughed. The amount that we got was ridiculous.”

Her husband, Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Public Address Ethan William Stoneman, also cancelled class. The Stonemans live about five miles from campus, Ms. Stoneman said, but that’s far enough when the roads aren’t plowed.

Junior Andrea Wallace, who volunteers for Hillsdale’s Liberty Princess Co., said the business had about a dozen performers working over the weekend, and the snow made transportation difficult.

“I was Ariel for three parties on Saturday and had to trudge through all the snow in character heels,” Wallace said. “Needless to say, I was a cold mermaid, and unlike Elsa, the cold bothered me anyway.”