Local authorities pushed an Emergency Alert to all cellphones in the area warning people to go indoorsGETTY IMAGES
The strong winds around Pyeongchang are "becoming a serious problem" with the Games nearing its second week, as it has been "blowing for days, postponing, delaying and otherwise marring several ski events in the mountains," according to Cathal Kelly of the GLOBE & MAIL. Local authorities around midday local time today "pushed an 'Emergency Alert' to all cellphones in the area warning people to go indoors to avoid the weather." Alpine skiing events have been "badly disrupted," and the logistical issues are "becoming nervy." Alpine events are already scheduled to "run every day until the end of the Games," and many athletes were planning to "vacate rooms up in the mountains for teammates once they had completed their events" (GLOBE & MAIL, 2/14). NPR's Hu & Chappell note the winds "reached up to 50 miles per hour," and as they "hurled snow and debris around ... the sky sometimes looked as if a turbulent ( and very dusty) storm cloud had descended upon the earth." The wind in Gangneung "blew apart a temporary tent and toppled a security scanner." A "moveable fence was also knocked over" (NPR.org, 2/14). In DC, Barry Svrluga writes the winds have "set off car alarms, impaled sand into skin, toppled concession stands and forced officials to shut down an entire cluster of venues -- sending everyone inside." The "serious stuff for the public, and not just the athletes, came on the day the women's slalom was canceled at Yongpyong Alpine Center." Fans "dutifully filed in, sat for more than an hour, then filed back out, mobbing buses down the hill" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 2/14).
EVEN BETTER THAN THE REAL THING? USA TODAY's Josh Peter noted the snow being used for the Games is "undeniably fake" despite the Jeongseon Alpine Center, like many venues in Pyeongchang, being covered "by what appears to be 100 percent real snow." Snow Machines Inc. Project Manager Ian Honey said the snow is "at least 98 percent (manmade)." Peter wrote even though the "heavy use of man-made snow may be a surprise to TV viewers and spectators, there's no coverup or raging controversy here." Honey said that the '14 Sochi Games "depended on snow that was 80 percent man-made." It appears Pyeongchang "lacks natural snowfall to host a Winter Olympics without substantial help from technology." Less than an inch of "natural snow was on the ground when the athletes arrived" (USATODAY.com, 2/13).
