Storm winding down, with another on the way

After deposting the second-biggest snow in Philadelphia history, this weekend's snowstorm finally wound down Saturday afternoon in the immediate Philadelphia region and, later, at the Shore.

As the intensifying coastal storm pulled away, however, it continued to generate strong, icy north winds that caused considerable blowing and drifting.

This is probably not the place to mention that another potentially potent storm is on the horizon for midweek -- perhaps a major one -- but it's actually possible.

At last report, officially 26.7 inches was measured at Philadelphia International Airport, 3.5 inches more than was reported for the Dec. 19-20 storm and second all-time behind only the 30.7 of Jan. 7-8, 1996.

Before this winter, Philadelphia had never had two snowfalls of more than 14 inches in the same season. But the seasonal total of 53.9 inches of snow and counting puts the winter of 2009-10 at No. 4 on the all-time list for Philadelphia.

In fact, this marks the first time in the history of recordkeeping, dating to 1884, that Philadelphia has had two snowstorms of this magnitude in the same season.

On Saturday, the city of Philadelphia fought the storm with all the equipment and people at its disposal - winning in some places and losing in others, Mayor Nutter said at a late-morning briefing.

"Please stay off the roads if you can," he implored.

Scenes from a day of digging out

By 11 a.m., 18 inches of snow had fallen at Philadelphia International Airport, and wind was creating drifts 20 to 30 inches deep, Nutter said. The snow emergency remained in effect, meaning that any cars parked on emergency routes would be ticketed and towed.

The mayor, wearing a bright red Americorps coat, blinked back flakes of falling snow as he spoke to reporters outside city hall. He asked people to stay inside, and to check on neighbors, particularly the ill and elderly.

Few cars were moving in Center City at noon. Those that were generally had plows on the front.

At the Municipal Services Building, the statue of Frank Rizzo wore a winter stole of white. Across the street at City Hall, Generals McClellan and Reynolds were encased in wind-driven snow. Baldwin wore a white top hat.

A few people walked on, determined to get to work, or just to take photos of a city transformed by winter.

Among the throngs of workers out plowing and snow-blowing were Tom Grimner, of East Norriton, and Jeramie Emel, of Parkesburg. They finished up carpentry work they were doing at GlaxoSmithKline in Center City at about 3 p.m. Friday and then went immediately into snow-removal mode for the company.

This morning, they were out early, clearing sidewalks from the building at 16th and Race Streets all the way up toward Spring Garden Street, where there's an employee parking lot.

"We no sooner get an area clear than it's covered right up again, within minutes," Grimner said. "But at least this way we're able to stay on top of it."

They took a break at noon and planned to go right back out.

By 2 p.m. the snow in the Pennsylvania suburbs had started to let up and people began to shovel out. Most stores along Lancaster Avenue in Wayne were closed and contractors were out plowing parking lots. The roads while passible, were snow packed.

Three Radnor High School students, Terrel Brown, 17, Robert McCurdy, 16 and T.J. Hines, 16, had been out shoveling snow from driveways and walks since 11 a.m. in the West Wayne area.

"It's been cold and you can't tell where the sidewalk is anymore," said Brown. The three planned to save the money they made after they got something to eat. They were planning to work all weekend.

The Bottle and Can store on Morris Road in Wayne, was one of the few open stores.

"It's been steady," said Junior Yi, 26, owner. "I thought no one would be here. They are crazy."

Yi said he would remain open until 11 p.m. if it stayed busy.

Kevin Rice, a customer service representative at the Acme in Devon, was busy taking calls from employees who were not able to make the drive to work. As of 2 p.m., he said 21 of the 50 employees had called out. While the store was open, business was very slow with only a handful of customers.

"We had a rush around noon," rice said. Many of those customers that did brave the roads told Rice they wanted to get out and drive in the snow "for the thrill."

Getting to work was the hard part

Hospitals activated contingency plans to make sure medical personnel could get to work today.

At the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, staffers came prepared to stay over, and about 100 of them wound up sleeping in various accommodations in the hospital Friday night. Today, security vehicles are shuttling staff members from area train stations to the hospital, said spokeswoman Kim Guenther.

Though most activities scheduled for Saturday were canceled or postponed, a handful of events and retailers remained open.

The Deptford Mall in Gloucester County opened at 10 a.m. Saturday morning. A spokesman said individual store owners were making their own decisions about whether to open, but throughout the morning employees trickled in. The Willow Grove Mall in Montgomery County opened for business at noon.

The Philadelphia Auto Show remained open for its last weekend, and apparently the lure of all the shiny new vehicles was too much for some to resist.

When the doors opened the Convention Center at 9 a.m. Saturday, said spokeswoman Andrea Simpson, five people were standing in line.