Snowpocalypse 2014

[Evie]

Just checking in to let everyone know that my family and I are not among the thousands of people in Alabama who were stranded by yesterday's weather and unable to get home yesterday during the ice storm.  Although it did take my husband, son, and I about four hours to get home from downtown Birmingham yesterday (including having to leave the car in a parking lot about 3/4 mile away and hike the rest of the way in, since our neighborhood has too many hills and curves to navigate safely), and my daughter managed to get a ride home from school before the worst of the road icing occurred.  So we are all snug and warm and have food on hand, unlike the many people who are still stranded on the highways and back roads and office buildings with no emergency supplies handy.

For those of you living in colder climes who are wondering how a mere "dusting" of snow could have laid an entire state low, let me assure you that the problem isn't the snow, it's the ice.  Even the Blizzard of '93 didn't hit Alabama this hard, though that was a matter of timing.  During that storm, businesses closed early, the snow didn't begin to fall until around 5:00 or 6:00 pm, and the roads took longer to ice over.  It was not until the middle of the night or the next morning that they became impassible.  This time, it hit during the workday.  Again, since we are used to the occasional snowfall this time of year, which generally doesn't result in over an inch of snow (if that much), there was no immediate panic.  We figured that schools would close early, businesses would also close due to the numbers of parents needing to get home to be with young children, and we'd all enjoy a nice half-day off work, and in the meantime the snow would melt off in the rising afternoon temps as it always does.  During Southern snows, usually the time of greatest danger is after sunset, when the temperatures fall and the roads ice over.  We don't have the infrastructure down here that the Northern states and Canada have.  No salt trucks, snow plows, etc.  Just a few sand trucks, and not enough of those to meet the needs of an entire city, much less the state.  We generally don't need them, after all.  When was our last bad winter storm, 21 years ago?  My children (including my college age son) hadn't been born yet during the Blizzard of '93.

But this time, the noonday temperatures fell rather than rising, and by the time schools and businesses realized that this storm was going to be different from anything we've experienced before, it was already quite hazardous for anyone to venture out on the roads, but especially for those who are inexperienced in driving in snow and ice.  And that, of course, means practically everyone born and raised this far south of the Mason-Dixon line. 

We knew even before starting out that our chances of driving straight into our driveway were nil, but fortunately the roadways between downtown to an area of town within a mile of our home were fairly level.  And we knew we had food at home and (unless the power went out) also heat, not to mention our teenage daughter and two cats, whereas my office building had no food, a very inadequate heating/cooling system that can't be trusted even at the best of times, no blankets, and most restaurants in walking distance were closing or had already closed.  So we decided to chance the roads, since my husband is very familiar with all the surface streets between downtown and home, so if one was too traffic jammed or icy, he could figure out another route to take.

Even so, our usual 40 minute commute took around four hours, with us rarely able to creep faster than 5 miles an hour except for when we managed to get on a fairly clear strip of motorway that had been partly thawed by passing traffic and hadn't had a chance to refreeze yet.  There were accidents and skidding cars all around us.  We slid and spun our wheels a time or two ourselves, but not too badly.  Emergency vehicles were out in droves, but far too few to meet the city's needs, even though I'm certain all of Birmingham's finest were out and doing their best (and still are). 

At last we made it to a small shopping area within hiking distance of home.  The parking lot was almost full, since everyone else in our residential area who had managed to make it that far had also needed to leave their car there and walk the rest of the way home.  But there were people out in off-road 4-wheelers trying to aid stranded motorists and give them rides the rest of the way home.  One nice old fellow saw me and my DH walking up the road (DS had decided to go on ahead of us while I had stopped into the Subway sandwich shop, which was still open, for a restroom break), and he offered to give us a lift to our house.  DH was enjoying the walk, but I took him up on the offer, figuring the last thing I needed would be to make my shoulder injury worse by slipping on ice during the final leg of our journey.  My driver managed to get me about halfway up my street, but our hill proved to be too steep for his vehicle to make it more than halfway up, so we went back to the bottom of the hill and he let me off there to walk the final block or so to my house.  By this time, DH had caught up with us, so we arrived home together.

Here are some pictures of what my community looks like right now:
http://imgur.com/a/woBtl

There were sights like those everywhere we looked on our drive home yesterday, and I'm sure they only got worse after sunset.  Fortunately we made it home by 6:00 pm, so we may have missed the worst of the roads refreezing.  (Not that they ever really thawed, but at least there were some areas that were more slushy rather than hard ice.)

Needless to say, schools remain closed, as are most businesses (unless their staff got stranded there and they opted to remain open to help out other stranded people).  The road leading to our nearest hospital is completely impassable.  We know, because we attempted to take that short cut before discovering there was no way to get up that hill, despite it being sanded earlier.  My daughter just read some news report about there being something like 4000 students still stranded at schools, since buses couldn't run and their parents were unable to get to them and bring them home.  At least they are warm, dry, and have food and adult supervision there, so that situation could be much worse. 

I am safe at home enjoying a lovely day off work, and I have a lot to be thankful for (even though this winter storm also means that my MRI appointments that were scheduled for this afternoon now have to be rescheduled...Grrr!)  But please keep the less fortunate members of my community in your thoughts and prayers!

[Aerlys]

Thank God you are all warm and safe. Kudos for braving it out and making your way home. Such a trying time for all! (Been there, done that, and got the t-shirt...err...sweatshirt.)

Prayers, of course, are going your way for you and everyone affected by the horrendous weather.

[Jerusha]

Very thankful that you and your family got home safely, Evie.  Although we are better prepared for weather like that up here, there are still days when it is "white knuckle driving" the whole way home and that is never fun.  Hopefully this is the last you will have to cope with it for a long while.

My thoughts to those who were not as fortunate to make it safely home - hopefully all are well.

[Laurna]

Just wow Evie.

I was not aware of the horrendous cold front the south has had from yesterday and today until you said something. Since then I have watched some news and seen some amazing footage of ice and people stuck on the roads. Atlanta had a baby born on the highway and some people spent 12 hours in their cars. Yikes! My prayers and safe wishes to everyone back east.

I am so glad your whole family is home. Stay safe and find some fun projects to do. The day is probably getting on for you at this time. but sounds like a good time to break out that sewing machine and see what you can do with it. Men's tunics might be an easy project, or test a fancy stitch on a hem of something.

Have a safe warm day at home.
And the same to all other Rhemuth castle residents in the southeast today.

P.S. I can see where a transfer portal would have come in handy yesterday.

[DesertRose]

Here in Jacksonville, Florida, it's just cold and rainy.  It may sleet tonight.

I will add my thoughts to those in worse weather than I'm having to put up with.  I can see that this really sucks. 

[derynifanatic64]

Orlando is just cold and rainy and will be so until this mess moves back up north.  Glad you and yours are home safe.

[AnnieUK]

Those pictures were pretty much what happens in the UK every time we have snow! I did love the "coffee on the porch" sign though. One of the few good things to come out of events like this is odd people showing what the world really ought to be like.

We have just had rain, rain, and yet more rain. Normally by this time of the year, we'd have had our first snow, but we've only had 4 or 5 days when the windscreen has been frozen. Admittedly, February is usually our worst month for snow, but getting to the end of January without any is very strange. But we have loads of flood warnings instead.

[AnnieUK]

And just after I posted that I saw this
http://www.businessinsider.com/snowedoutatlanta-facebook-page-2014-1
on Twitter.

This. Right here. Good folks.

[Elkhound]

Here we are dealing with this AND the aftereffects of what some are calling the "Aquapolypse."  Now it has been revealed that there is formaldehyde in the water as well.

[tenworld]

i had to leave a car and walk in iowa once because of ice, and now after 8 years in the eternal summer of southern cal, I am back in new hampshire enduring the coldest winter since "over the river" was composed, but here people do know how to drive in snow (after practising for the first couple storms) plus they do a much better job here of sanding/salting/plowing. And you learn quickly that good tires are important even on SUVs.

[DesertRose]

Well, the thing about the Deep South is that there AREN'T snowplows and stockpiles of salt and sand for snow because it so seldom snows here.  I saw a comment somewhere from someone in Nebraska saying that it seems funny at first glance that two inches of snow could screw things up so badly, but then, Nebraska would freak out at the prospect of a hurricane, whereas in Florida or Georgia or Louisiana, we have the apparatus in place for dealing with hurricanes.  Just not snow and ice. 

[Laurna]

It's like in California, we think of an earthquake under 6 as a nice foot massage. And I do have chains for my truck because my mom lives in the mountains 45 minutes away, But no chains on the car.  I have even put on the chains twice.( Don't relish doing that too often).  However, you can keep your Ice storms and tornadoes.(Those sound frightening).  I have seen tropical storms, but sorry Florida, I'm good with the hurricanes on the pacific side staying far south of California.  I'm afraid I am spoiled and not afraid to admit it.  Now a little rain might be nice to have; what is left of my lawn is fading fast.

[DesertRose]

Nobody in their right mind thinks hurricanes are fun. 

I just meant that we know how to deal with them down this-a-way. 

[Laurna]

I agree with you on that Desert Rose. Extreme anything is a major trial to deal with but at least you know your own area.  But when the extreme from somewhere else visits your neighborhood disaster strikes. 

Evie, I really hope your world is warming up  and you can get your car back up to your driveway.

[Aerlys]

Yep, different regions, different weather.

Growing up in the Midwest, my dad made sure I learned how to drive in the snow before I was 16 (I swear, the man had nerves of steel!  ). I've had my white-knuckle moments too, driving through lake-effect blizzards between Illinois and Michigan with just enough visibility  to follow the semi in front of me, all the while praying that I wasn't following him over the side of an overpass.

Kansas...now Kansas had weather! Tornadoes, ice storms, wind storms that rip the roofs off buildings...

And where am I now? In an area with a very boring, very grey, very soggy and slug-infested climate. Oh, we do get snow, though normally not that much. When snow does come, most people don't know how to drive in it. Two years ago we did have an ice storm and a couple feet of snow, leaving us without power for 5 days.  That idiot (former) mayor of Seattle wouldn't salt the streets because he didn't want it to get into Puget Sound, that is filled with..hmm... what? Salt water! 

No, I'm not really complaining, though an occasional change would be nice. Interminable drizzle and fog do get old after a while. We don't tan out here, we rust! Still, it's better than driving in snow and ice.

Just be careful where you leave your car. While attending university in Kalamazoo, a sudden blizzard dumped waist-high snow in just a few short hours. I had to stay at a friend's place and leave my car in a school parking lot. The next day, I discovered some smart aleck plowed ALL the snow around my car!