The snowstorm of Feb. 24-25 was one for the books.
And three-hour, white-knuckle commutes with too many traffic accidents to count alongside cars, trucks and buses going nowhere.And angry parents who reluctantly sent their kids off through waist-deep snow to schools that even the weather experts said should have been closed.
And the longest shutdown in Salt Lake International Airport history and thousands of frustrated travelers, including Gov. Mike Leavitt, who was stuck in Cincinatti while Junior Achievement of Utah held its annual "governor's breakfast" without him.
And sore backs and clogged snow blowers, no-shows or late-comers at work, closed government offices, off-schedule buses, and 3 to 4 feet of new powder atop inaccessible ski resorts.
The great snowstorm of 1998 officially started at 8:17 a.m. Tuesday and was still going strong as the Deseret News went to press Wednesday.
"We've broken all kinds of records," said William J. Alder, meteorologist in charge for the National Weather Service, tossing out numbers, statistics, dates and editorial comments as furiously as the snow was falling:
- Snowiest Feb. 24 ever, with 9.6 inches at the airport compared to the previous record of 5.1 inches for that date in 1972.
- Possibly the snowiest Feb. 25 ever, with 8.1 inches recorded as of press time, compared to 8.3 inches in 1969.
- Third heaviest snowfall for a 24-hour period, ever. From 8:17 a.m. Tuesday to 8:17 a.m. Wednesday, 17.9 inches of snow fell at the airport. The most ever recorded for a 24-hour period was 18.4 inches on Oct. 17-18, 1984, followed by 18.1 inches on Dec. 28-29, 1972.
- Wettest February ever, totaling 3.69 inches of water, breaking the old record of 3.22 inches set in 1936. That's three times the Febrary norm of 1.23 inches.
Alder said the heaviest snow was confined to Salt Lake and Davis counties, especially on the benches and in the canyons. Elsewhere, Roy got only 3 inches of snow; Clearfield, 7; Provo, 2; Spanish Fork, 8; Fillmore, 6; Kanosh, 9.
The west valley areas of Salt Lake and Davis counties, downtown Salt Lake City and the I-15 corridor were also hit hard, with problems compounded by blowing and drifting snow. Secondary roads everywhere in the two counties were almost impassable except with high-profile, four-wheel-drive vehicles.
It was so bad that Alder advised local school districts to cancel classes. Most private and parochial schools and colleges took that advice, but the big public districts did not, and that caused a lot of controversy.
News organizations were flooded with calls from angry parents.
"We had many, many calls from parents," said KENZ radio DJ Jimmy Chunga, whose own commute was a 100-minute nightmare. "They were telling us that government buildings were closed, the Board of Education Office was closed, and yet for some reason the schools were open. They couldn't believe it was too rough for the school administrators but not for the kids."
The districts themselves got an earful as well, said spokesmen for the Granite, Salt Lake, Murray, Davis and Jordan districts. But officials defended their decision to stay open, saying it was made after consulting the weather data and transportation limitations.
They also rejected assertions by many parents that the districts were reacting to the controversy they faced the last time they had makeup classes for snow days.
Jordan District spokeswoman Melinda Rock said the assertions were the result of rumors.
"We stand by our decision and at all times keep in mind the safety of our students," Rock said. "Ultimately, it's the parents' and families' choice whether it's safe to take children to school."
Kent Gardner, spokesman for the Granite District, said, "Because of the requirement to hold a certain number of classes every year, we are reluctant to close. We only close in extreme circumstances."
Alder said if the call had been his to make, he would have canceled classes.
"I told them (school districts) that the storm was continuing and that many roads were impassable. That's all I can do," Alder said. "Personally, I thought it wasn't fit for man nor student."
Emergency agencies agreed with his assessment.
Salt Lake County sheriff's dispatchers took about 100 traffic-related 911 calls between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. Wednesday, but none involved serious injuries, dispatch supervisor Tracy Shimmin said.
In fact, the most serious event of the morning seemed to be a downed tree at 3600 S. 400 East near Granite High School, she said.
"We've been lucky, so far," Shimmin said, predicting dispatch calls would either meet or beat Tuesday's number of 400 calls.
All canyon roads were also closed Wednesday at 8 a.m for avalanche control and were expected to be closed through most of the day, Shimmin said.
By rush hour - a most inappropriate term for Wednesday morning's commute - Salt Lake police were no longer responding to traffic accidents unless they involved injuries. Dispatchers advised callers to exchange information on their own.
In Davis County, snow flurries and wet roads caused 16 slide-offs and five other accidents between about 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. Wednesday. Deputies also found at least one abandoned vehicle, Davis County Sheriff's Lt. Roger Anderson.
"It looks like it's going to be another yesterday," Anderson said. "Yesterday we had 130 odd snow-related accidents, 105 slide-offs and 28 other traffic accidents."
Thousands of passengers were stranded at the Salt Lake International Airport and delayed at other airports well past noon Wednesday.
"In 28 years, we've never been this closed," Al Stewart of the Salt Lake Airport Authority said Wednesday morning.
"This closed," as Stewart phrased it, translates to a complete shutdown, which was expected to last beyond noon Wednesday. The airport was closed at 6 a.m. And when the airport reopens, only one runway was expected to be initially cleared and operational, Stewart said.
Stewart could remember only a couple of other times the airport had completely closed, and those shutdowns never lasted more than about 40 minutes.
The shutdown primarily resulted from the 16-18 inches of snow that the airport had received by midmorning, but high winds and low visibility also played into the decision, Stewart said.
Although airport personnel had not taken a count of passengers delayed, Delta Air Lines' Salt Lake City Director Bill Gibbs said that Delta alone had over 18,000 passengers on the books for Wednesday morning, and an average day will see 20-25 planes leave.
Utah Power spokesman Dave Eskelson said downed lines were reported all along the Wasatch Front, mostly involving individual residential lines.
"I suspect we'll be dealing with this through the evening Wednesday," Eskelson said. "It's been pretty bad."
It was bad for just about everybody.
Utah Highway Patrol trooper David Smith was released from the hospital Tuesday afternoon after being hit by a car when he stopped to help two motorists involved in an accident.
The accidents occurred about 9:30 a.m., said UHP spokesman Verdi White II. Two cars heading south on I-215 west collided and careened into the median. Smith pulled into the median and was at the driver's side window of one of the disabled cars talking to the driver.
A northbound car lost control, spun around and slid into the median hitting the car that Smith was standing next to, White said. The trooper, who's only been on the road about six months, was thrown about 8 feet.
If it weren't for all the snow, business would be have been booming for Terry Ford, who owns Terry's Towing and Auto Repair in Sandy. Since Tuesday, Ford's three tow trucks have been running non-stop, but nasty road conditions and traffic gridlock have slowed them down, he said.
"We're about two or three hours behind on each call. It's crazy, you can't even come close to catching up with the number of calls," he said. "One of my guys called in and said it took him two hours and 45 minutes to do a 14 mile tow. . . . It's ugly out there," he said.
Crystal Hayes' pager started buzzing madly at about 4:30 a.m. Wednesday. The calls, were from clients of the home health care agency where Hayes is the staffing coordinator.
"They were afraid that we wouldn't be coming because of the weather," said Hayes. "But we reassured them that we were prioritizing and we might be late, but we'd get there."
To get to patients, everybody at IHS Home Care in Salt Lake City was pitching in, Hayes said. Office staffers with four-wheel-drive vehicles were even shuttling nurses to appointments when necessary. IHS's 19 nurses and health care providers serve about 150 clients daily, she said.
The storm even delayed the Utah Legislature, where dozens of lawmakers called in "stuck."