Wayback Wednesday: Snowed in at Parkland

The “snowmaggedon” that dropped on the East Coast this week harkens back to a time when the Midwest fell victim to a blizzard that has not since been matched.  Even though it was thirty-seven years ago, people still talk of it. It’s the great Blizzard of 1978. 

The storm was so bad that nine people were stranded at Parkland for almost 40 hours. From Prospectus, February 1, 1978:

Eight employees and one student were stranded in Parkland for almost forty hours during the blizzard that crippled the Champaign-Urbana area last week. 

Bruce Bunney, one of the custodians trapped during the storm, said that it was inconvenient but not all that uncomfortable. “We had the furnace checks to keep us busy and there was the pool room upstairs. We watched the weather reports on the T.V. and there were several specials on.” 

Bunney’s son, a Parkland student, was also one of those trapped at Parkland.

Donald Swank, Dean of Instruction, after seeing that all students had left the school, found himself trapped at Parkland, along with two computer center operators, three custodians, a security guard, and a radio station engineer. 

“Unless you have change for a dollar there is no way to buy any food at Parkland,” Bunney said. 

“It wasn’t all that bad but we were sure glad to get out.” The nine were rescued about 1:30 p.m. on Friday when snow removal trucks managed to break through the drifts caused by the 40-60 mile an hour winds. 

This photo from the Parkland Archives
shows a much, much lighter snowfall,
ca. 1977.

In Parkland Works, Sally Foster Wallace noted the January 28 issue of the Champaign-Urbana Morning Courier, in which Dean Swank recalled how the group “realized they were stranded about 11 p.m. Wednesday,” after Parkland had closed due to weather that evening at 8 p.m. Swank’s account downplayed the event, stating that one of the custodians was able to get out once with a four-wheeler and brought back bread, baloney and cheese. The group also regularly checked the teletype machines that had been installed for the new radio station, WPCD, which had been scheduled to air it's first broadcast, but was delayed a week due to the storm. 

The Parkland men’s and women’s basketball teams, coaches, cheerleaders, the Athletic Director and accompanying staff  were also stranded due to the unfortunate weather – in a Danville hotel. 

So, unless you’re a person who REALLY loves snow (and there’s nothing wrong with that), be thankful that we’ve been having such a mild winter, and remember, spring will be here… eventually.  

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Wayback Wednesday Bonus: To read more about the impact the extreme 1978 weather had in Illinois, check out Record Winter Storms in Illinois, 1977-1978. 

Wayback Wednesday is a feature of the Parkland College Archives. If you have ideas you'd like to see in future posts, email us at archives@parkland.edu. The Archives is open to faculty, staff, students, and the public by appointment.