Wednesday and Thursday the weather forecasts all predicted snow Friday afternoon. Friday morning the day was cold and crisp with clouds gathering on the horizon. Then the storm hit – Friday afternoon snow started to fall furiously and piled up on campus. Chattanooga television stations showed interstate highways under several inches of snow, mall announcements of closings, and school closings by the barrel before campus screens went dark from lack of electricity and the curtain of snow interfering with signals.

 

Meanwhile on the Laurelbrook campus Debbie Davis and Clinel Walker had started a health seminar on Thursday evening that was supposed to end on Sunday morning with a cooking school. Meetings Friday evening, Sabbath morning, and Sabbath afternoon were also scheduled.

 

With snow piling up on campus, the Friday evening meeting was canceled. Sabbath morning services did take place with each of the presenters talking about the laws of health, but the meetings began around 10:00 and the church service ended at 1:00. The afternoon meeting was scheduled to begin at 4:00; about that time most of the campus lost its electricity. In search of electricity, the meeting was first moved to the school auditorium and then to the cafeteria.

 

By 10:00 that evening the exit of City of Dayton electricity from the campus was complete. The Laurelbrook Nursing Home was running on backup generators. People in the retirement homes were moved to staff houses that still had decent heat, and many staff homes continued to use wood stoves or furnaces without the aid of the normal blowers and fans, heating at a much reduced rate. Through the night and into the next day, Marvin Frey, Laurelbrook Nursing Home administrator; Roger Westfall, vice-president for personnel; James Coulter and Richard Schoonard, maintenance men; and Ron Oxentenko, president, took people to and from work in the nursing home and kept campus roads free of plunging branches. Clifton Brandt spent many weary hours patching up the nursing home hot water system.

 

Next day brought little relief. The nursing home was on backup generators, the health seminar cooking school was cancelled, and many staff members were headed towards bed after working many long hours. The ice-covered trees and roads were beautiful, and several of the staff offspring tried out their sleds. A City of Dayton electrical crew was working on the mountain after snatching some precious hours of rest after 24 hours of continuous repairs, but where were they?

 

Finally, about 5:00 the crew showed up, and the power was restored. Life would now get back to something more normal.