A RECORD WHITEOUT

THIS IS GETTING real old, real fast.

One epic snowstorm may make for a Winter Wonderland, but a record-setting three in just two months is making for major headaches - with Philadelphia schools and other key services still shut down today after yesterday's fresh wallop of white stuff.

Blocked-off highways, icy backstreets, airport closings and rail delays, and a never-ending list of cancellations is all starting to sound like a broken record - and in one sense it is.

Last night, the snow total measured at Philadelphia International Airport marked a record for the snowiest winter in recorded city history, passing the old mark of 65.5 inches established in 1995-96. It was at an estimated 16 inches by 9:30 p.m. - or roughly 72 inches for the winter - and it was still snowing.

"This has been a horrendous storm out here today, and I'm really glad people took the advice and stayed in," Mayor Nutter said in announcing that city government would be closed again today.

"To our employers we ask that you again be mindful of tomorrow [today] and the difficulty and the challenge that many people will have in getting to work."

Through it all yesterday, Philadelphians and suburbanites did what they do best. They coped.

Here are some examples:

WHAT SOME people won't do for Starbucks! Pamela Cohen, 65, and her 13-year-old daughter, Star, took the R5 train from their Main Line home in Rosemont into Center City at the height of the blizzard in search of an open Starbucks. Pamela Cohen trudged down the slippery sidewalk on Market Street using a trash-picked 2-by-4 as a kind of cane. But her caffeine quest proved fruitless. At 4:30 p.m., Cohen stood before a locked, dark Starbucks near 12th and Market and exclaimed loudly, "I'm looking for Starbucks coffee, specifically Starbucks, not Dunkin' Donuts!" Alas, the Dunkin' Donuts a few doors down as closed, too.

They weren't the only frustrated consumers. Kendra and Evan Galipeau, both 26, took the train from their University City apartment to arrive at a virtual Center City ghost town.

They had hoped to find a Mario Brothers Wii video game, but most stores closed by 5 p.m. After Evan Galipeau tugged on the locked door of Kmart, which was tantalizingly lit up inside, he gave up and decided to focus on more basic needs: Food. the couple meandered off to Chinatown.

- Wendy Ruderman

ON THE BORDER of Camden and Gloucester City, the South Jersey traffic report came courtesy of a man in a skeleton ski mask who was perched on a guardrail of a Walt Whitman Bridge on-ramp.

"I've been here for a few hours and I've only seen one car come through," said Alton Baker, 53, of Gloucester City. Baker and a host of friends and family had come to the hill that leads up to the on-ramp for an afternoon of (illegal) sledding. If one of their sleds slid too far, someone could have wound up on the slushy southbound lanes of Interstate 676.

"There's no cars on there anyway," said Beth Bloom, 31, of Gloucester City, as she trudged up the hill with her sled. "They planted trees on the hill so we wouldn't come here but we haven't hit one yet."

Meanwhile, plows, police vehicles, and off-white mountains outnumbered the dozen or so snow-covered cars in the parking lot of the PATCO High Speed Line station on Ferry Avenue in Camden. The trains were running but delayed, and few people were using them.

One man who appeared to be trekking through the blizzard toward the trains said he had braved the elements only to get some Chinese food.

"I couldn't get in to work today and I'm sitting in my place starving," said Edward Wilson, 47, of Camden, as snow stuck to his face. "I'm gonna get some beef and broccoli. Maybe some wonton to warm me up."

- Jason Nark

BACK-TO-BACK snowstorms equals big bucks for plowing companies like Tow Squad, in Upper Darby.

"It's snowing cash," said the ironically named Dave Money, owner of the towing, plowing and repossession company.

He said his workers have been plowing since last weekend, stopping only for power naps and truck repairs.

"It was perfect because it gave us just enough time to get the trucks fixed," he said of the lull between the two storms.

"We're breaking stuff we've never broke before," Money said as he picked up a second steering box for one of his trucks.

Money even paid for a former employee - who moved to Mississippi 15 years ago - to fly back to town to bolster his staff.

He estimated that he's spent $10,000 on salt, plus $4,500 on repairs in the last few days. But the owner of Tow Squad since 1978 knows that you have to spend money to make it. And now's the time to spend.

"I'm gonna buy three snowblowers today!" he said.

- William Bender

WHILE MOST people were hibernating, Kevin MacMullet, 30, a postal carrier, slid around in his postal vehicle delivering mail to hundreds of Wynnewood homes.

"It seems like it's just us, the police and the EMTs who are out here," MacMullet said. Covered in snow from head to toe, he trudged up white blanketed streets with bundles of mail.

"Most people are surprised to see me," said MacMullet, lugging a big bag of envelopes. "Some people have been offering me coffee or hot chocolate. They've been real nice."

For a while, it seemed like public employees were the only ones out and about on the Main Line. Colin Ryan, a Lower Merion police officer, had to report to work at 4 p.m. yesterday - the peak of the storm.

"If you have a badge, you're essential personnel," he said, shortly after he started his shift.

He drove from his suburban Montgomery County home down Lancaster Avenue - usually bustling, but then desolate - to police headquarters in Ardmore.

"It was pretty slow-going. I can't imagine what it would be like without a four-wheel drive," he said. "I didn't see more than a handful of cars. People were disregarding lights and sliding on through intersections because they just couldn't stop," he said. "The roads were that slick."

- Barbara Laker

JESSICA PATRELL and her boyfriend, Phill Katz, trudged into the knee-high snow of the Von Colln park ball fields, near Pennsylvania Avenue and 22nd Street, yesterday afternoon to build a snowman. They already had a 3-foot-high boulder-sized base for their snow friend.

"It was my idea," Patrell, 24, of Center City, said. "He's the muscle," she added, referring to Katz.

"This is probably the most fun I've had in the snow," she said. "And I lived in Connecticut for the first 18 years of my life."

Katz, 29, who lives near 22nd Street and Fairmount Avenue, said he was "working from home" and the little snow break was "sort of like" his lunch break.

"I just hope it keeps coming down," he said of the big, white flakes.

On Fairmount Avenue a few cars drove by, and one woman skied in the road.

Chris Smith, 34, who lives near 24th and Parrish streets, decided to get out his snow shoes, the ones he normally uses to hike up mountains, to head to Klein's Supermarket on Fairmount Avenue, near 24th.

"I tried to get my dog to come out," said Smith, an accountant. "He wouldn't. Nor would my fiancee." Asked why he had gone to Klein's, he said he was "getting Coke. For rum and Coke."

- Julie Shaw

WAITING for the train at the Market East station, a lab technician at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital said he'd had a good day. "I'm off tomorrow," he said, smiling. "If I can just get on my train, I'll be really happy."

He was still waiting when a Daily News reporter boarded his R7 regional rail train.

A SEPTA conductor on the R7 who gave his name as Ron said that he had worked a split morning/afternoon shift and that there weren't many riders, although their numbers seemed to rise in the afternoon.

A female rider on the train mistakenly got off at the Wister station when she wanted to disembark at the Germantown station. She quickly got back on the train and teased the ticket collector. "You were supposed to tell me where to get off. That's why they pay you the big bucks."

- Michael Hinkelman

Staff writers Bob Warner, Valerie M. Russ and Catherine Lucey contributed to this article. It was compiled by Will Bunch.