Saturday, Jan. 7th. Gray clouds gathered. A bitter breeze swept through the city. Shortly after midnight, the first flakes fell. Whirling winds were soon whipping sheets of snow, covering the ground with blankets of white.

The Blizzard of '96 had begun. And Penn's Physical Plant was ready.

"We have a campus snow and ice control plan, which we update every year," said James Wargo, executive director of Physical Plant. "When there is one inch of snow or significant ice that would impede pedestrian traffic or create a dangerous situation, our people are called in."

For the purpose of snow removal, Physical Plant divides the University into four zones. Members of the snow-removal crew are assigned to a zone, then given specific duties.

Physical Plant prioritizes buildings on campus. Student housing, the medical school and research facilities are dug out first. "If anyone's coming in," Mr. Wargo noted, "researchers are coming in."

Under normal circumstances, Penn's snow-removal system works just fine. But these circumstances were hardly normal. By the time the blizzard ended, the University was dealing with 30 inches of snow. Penn was up to its ivy walls in white.

Although Physical Plant started to fight the storm on Sunday, it couldn't keep up with Mother Nature. Snow was falling at a rate of three to four inches per hour. Driving winds complicated matters. Uncovered areas were quickly covered again.

"We were losing the battle," Mr. Wargo said. In the end, the University decided to close. Updates were recorded for 898-MELT and posted on Penn's web page.

At last Wednesday's University Council meeting, Provost Stanley Chodorow, on behalf of President Judith Rodin, acknowledged those who "kept essential health and safety services open and functioning. ... I know I speak for the entire Penn community when I say that I am very proud of and grateful to all those who were involved. Thank you."

Sixty Physical Plant workers, plus a dozen supervisors, struggled against the furious blizzard. Around 6 p.m. Monday, they finally had things under control. But their work was far from over.

"We felt that even with all of our forces, we would not have the campus where we wanted it by nine the next morning," Mr. Wargo explained. "We needed to keep the University closed to give Physical Plant extra time on Tuesday to get the campus back in shape. A lot of people on campus would impede that."

The majority of Penn's personnel may have had a brief vacation, but they didn't necessarily spend their free time drinking hot cocoa and watching Oprah. Some employees worked at home. Personnel with computers and modems accessed Penn's network from their buried houses.

"It's my presumption that an awful lot of work got finished at home," said Dan Updegrove, associate vice provost for Information Systems and Computing (ISC) and executive director of Data Communications and Computing Services (DCCS).

Not all Penn employees, however, had the luxury of working from home. Essential personnel were expected to report for duty. Campus police, for example, didn't get any time off.

Throughout the storm, the police deployed foot patrols. Their cars, equipped with chains, were placed in strategic locations around campus.

Since most students were home for the break and the storm had emptied the streets, the police weren't as busy as usual. Still, when someone sounded the alarm, they responded. "All in all, we were here, and we were able to provide a quality public safety service," said George Clisby, chief of campus police.

The storm did have its effects, however. Essential or not, people had trouble traveling during the blizzard. Some police couldn't get to campus; yet, the police who were already here were willing to stay on campus.

"It's very commendable that some people volunteered to remain throughout the bulk of the storm," Mr. Clisby said. "We were able to put them up in dormitories."

Physical Plant employees also stayed on campus to deal with the storm and its aftermath. The University rented hotel rooms for some workers, and allowed others to stay at Grad Towers. Besides giving the workers a place to stay, the University nourished them. Unfortunately, local restaurants and hotels were running out of food, and the storm kept vendors off campus.

"The Steinberg Conference Center pitched in," Mr. Wargo said. "Once or twice, they sent our people breakfast and lunch. On Tuesday, dining services came in and set up at King's Court to feed our people."

With their bellies full, the workers took to the snow with shovels, brushes and snowblowers. Their pickup trucks were armed with plows and salt spreaders.

It wasn't enough.

"It was the heaviest snowfall in the last 120 years," Mr. Wargo said. "We needed more people."

In extreme emergencies, Penn turns to contractors. And the Blizzard of '96 certainly qualified as an extreme emergency. "We rented from two contractors," Mr. Wargo said. "At the storm's peak, we had seven front-end loaders and three uniloaders--the small, Bobcat types with small buckets that can turn on a dime and get into small places.

"We also had seven triaxial dump trucks, so we could load the snow in the triaxials with the front-end loaders, and dump the snow at Murphy Field. It had gotten to the point where there was just no place else to put it."

The contractors may have played an important part in clearing Penn, but Mr. Wargo saves his highest praise for Physical Plant. "Our people did a hell of a job," he said. "Some people stayed for three days, some people stayed for four days. And they put in 12 to 14 hours a day."

Should another major snow or ice storm cancel local schools, Penn faculty and staff are reminded of a new on-campus "snowcare" program for children ages three months to 12 years. The new Quality of Worklife Program, called Snow Day Child Care, was announced in the January 9/16 issue of Almanac, page 14. Pre-enrollment is required. For more information, e-mail Marilyn Kraut, the Quality of Worklife Program Coordinator in the Division of Human Resources, at kraut@a1.benhur.upenn.edu.

The Penn community is also reminded that the special phone number, 898-MELT (6358), indicates the University's operating status, as does the Penn Home Page on the World Wide Web (http://www.upenn.edu/). Emergency closings are also announced on KYW News Radio (1060 AM); number "102" is the code for closing of day classes and schools/centers, while "2102" is the code for evening classes.