Column by Buck Ryan

As “Snowpocalypse ‘09” melts into history, we the people of Journalism 101 wish to record the story for posterity.

Fifty years from now, as scholars piece together their stories of the devastating ice storm that triggered the worst power outages in Kentucky’s history, they will learn of at least one student who confronted the challenge with a skull fracture and another who enjoyed the “800-billion snowflake bailout from class.”

The students, ages 18 to 25, hail from 23 cities in Kentucky, 15 other states and 2 other countries (Germany and Ghana). Half are journalism majors and the other half have majors spanning international studies, agricultural communications and marketing. In one chilling moment in Kentucky history, they were united with their professor in the news event of the year.

Our story begins at 3:18 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009, when a quiet, bearded computer lab assistant interrupted my “News Editing” class to announce that the university was shutting down. “I must close this lab by 3:30,” he said softly.

“Thank you,” I said, and as I turned to my class, four words popped to mind: “Run for your lives!” Cold-hearted UK never shuts down, I thought. I could only suspect then that an icy Armageddon would cancel our first JOU 101 exam the next day.

When UK closed classes on Wednesday, Jan. 28, Patrick Corbett, 20, of Louisville, heard overtones of Alice Cooper: “School’s out for winter!”

Fear, not joy, overcame Athena Stanley, 21, a journalism major from South Point, Ohio, who had suffered a skull fracture from a fall before the storm.

“Walking under trees, I looked upward, praying to God I would not be hit by an icicle gone rogue,” she said.

Feeling far from home, Fink Densford, 25, a journalism major from Modesto, Calif., said, “My roommates warned me people would flip out here, but school would never close … Lightning has nothing on ice when it comes to exploding trees.”

Natalie Van Wagoner, 21, a secondary English education major from Pendleton, Ore., envisioned a Winter Olympics with events like “walking to class without falling down” and “pushing out cars that were stuck in the snow.”

“Snowpocalypse ‘09,” a term coined by Brittany Hedges, 18, of Flemingsburg, Ky., struck other students in one of three ways: rude, food or that’s beautiful, dude.

Lauren Forsythe, 19, a journalism major from Paris, Ky., said: “The ice storm stomped on Lexington with such a quiet aggression. She came in so massively and then did not say a word the next day.”

Margaret Baughn, 22, a secondary English education major from Evansville, Ind., got a taste of winter. “The ice covered everything like cheese on a large pizza,” she said.

Stephen Allison, 23, a biology major from Stuart, Fla., said the storm consumed Kentucky “like a competitive eater devours a hot dog.” That may explain why the storm suffocated Lexington with its “awful breath,” as Tiffany Johnson, 23, put it. She is a secondary English education major from Flint, Mich.

Some saw beauty and the feast. Shea Davidson, 19, a journalism major from Cincinnati, said, “Once the ice storm had settled, the trees and bushes were glittering diamonds sparkling in the sun.”

On that beautiful note, our collective memories are frozen in time.