Skip to content
News
Link copied to clipboard

'A lot of love out here when it snows'

Though many hunkered down, others reveled in the historic snowfall that turned Philadelphia into a winter playground. They got into snowball fights, snowboarded down the Art Museum steps, and ran impromptu laps from LOVE Park to Eakins Oval.

Snow and ice left a slushy pattern on the Schuylkill on Saturday morning.
Snow and ice left a slushy pattern on the Schuylkill on Saturday morning.Read moreALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer

Though many hunkered down, others reveled in the historic snowfall that turned Philadelphia into a winter playground.

They got into snowball fights, snowboarded down the Art Museum steps, and ran impromptu laps from LOVE Park to Eakins Oval.

"It makes you really excited because you're smiling at people on the street," said Erica Hope, 27, of Chinatown, who was among about 20 who joined an afternoon snowball fight in Washington Square organized on social media. "You're all slipping together so it's a good thing and now you're cramming snowballs in each other's faces."

With roads nearly impassable to cars and people strolling in the streets, Hope and others compared conditions to the September weekend when Pope Francis' visit closed Center City to traffic.

"I feel like this, the pope's weekend, are moments where we become the same person again and you can just go around and play with your fellow Philadelphians, and that's what I really enjoy," Hope said.

Deep snow didn't deter every motorist from trying to drive, and near Sixth and Walnut Streets, one car after another ended up spinning wheels. Eric Kerchner and his wife, Natalie Jottard, both attorneys, began the afternoon with a walk from their South Philly home and spent two and a half hours freeing cars.

"People just needed help, so I helped them," Kerchner, 30, said. "When we started helping, others stepped in to help as well."

Eventually a crowd of up to 15 helped push six vehicles out of the snow until a National Park Service Bobcat made a path.

Others had to travel, but were wise enough to stay off the roads. Amtrak's 30th Street Station was desolate Saturday afternoon, but for some homeless and a few brave travelers. Abi Dairo, 27, a University of Pennsylvania medical student, walked from campus to catch a train to New York to see her mother.

"I don't want my mom to shovel by herself," she said.

Dairo wasn't aware of the storm until Wednesday, and didn't tell her mother she was on her way. She was worried her mother would tell her not to come if she knew, she said.

The 200 guests at Christen Donovan's wedding to Jeffrey Regan made sure they were there using an even more reliable form of transport, their feet.

"We did a lot of walking and thank God for Uber for the people that needed some assistance," said Donovan's aunt Fran Tomlinson. "A lot of advance planning."

Getting to the wedding at St. John the Evangelist Church on 13th Street may have been a challenge, she said, by the event was beautiful.

"I also kept saying, at least it's not raining," she said.

Elsewhere in the city, a family visiting from Washington left its mark in the snow across from Independence Hall.

"We made a snow fort, and a volcanoish-kind-of-looking thing, with my kids," said Sung Choi, who was staying with his wife and two sons at the Hotel Monaco on Fifth Street for his cousin's wedding. It was one of three weddings that proceeded Saturday at Hotel Monaco, despite the storm.

While waiting for the wedding to start, Choi, 41, looked out his window on the third floor to the snow fort below.

"We can actually see our fort from our window and we can see folks, a whole bunch of adults, playing around in it," he said.

Area hospitals reported business as usual, for the most part, without large numbers of injuries from the snow or cold.

One Philadelphia woman, though, experienced an alarming stop-and-go trip to the hospital when she went into labor, said a spokeswoman for Penn Medicine. The woman tried to drive to Jefferson Hospital, but got stuck in the snow. An ambulance went to her rescue. It, too, became stuck in the snow. Finally, a police car took her to the nearby Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where she was in labor Saturday evening, the hospital system reported.

Anticipating heavy demand, ride hailing services UberX and Lyft had said they would have drivers out Saturday. Good luck finding a car, though. Throughout most of the day both companies' apps reported no drivers available. When a car did show up as free, it was quickly claimed and disappeared from the app.

Shai Khomemi was one Uber driver who had pledged to be out driving. Conditions forced a change of plans, he said. The Northeast Philadelphia resident said his car was snowed in, depriving him of the chance to take advantage of Uber's boosted pricing that was nearly twice its regular rate of about $5.

"I tried to come out, I could not," he said. "Possibly tomorrow."

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia reported that churches would celebrate Mass on Sunday, but that parishioners shouldn't feel compelled to risk dangerous conditions to get there, said spokesman Ken Gavin.

"If it's not possible for an individual to go to Mass, they should try to find a way to keep Sunday holy at home," Gavin said.

The snow stymied business for many of the city's restaurants. Starr Restaurants reported via Twitter that Alma de Cuba, Pod, and the Ranstead Room were closing Saturday. Vetri restaurants Amis, Vetri, Alla Spina, and Pizzeria Vetri were staying open, though.

"Of course we've had cancellations, but we're holding strong," said Bobby Domenick, manager at Vetri's on 13th and Spruce streets.

One Philadelphia stalwart, Little Pete's on South 17th Street, served hearty breakfasts of omelets, pancakes, sausage, scrapple, and bacon Saturday morning same as always, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Inside, customers filled every booth and the horseshoe counter had only a few empty seats. Business was booming.

Another house that never closes, the Sugar House Casino, reported a smaller crowd than usual, but, "the people who stopped by had a great time," spokesman Jack Horners said.

As the sun set, the Washington Square Park flash mob snowball fight ebbed and Michael Bomze, 32, a Lower Merion schoolteacher, snowball in hand, reflected on playing in the snow with a bunch of strangers.

"It's always cool because you always meet strangers here and Philadelphians are like, really nice people," he said. "I think you kind of lose that sometimes because you're driving and people are jerks on the road, but, a lot of love out here when it snows, all over the city."