Snowmageddon: The Aftermath
We have all heard about the beating D.C. got about two weeks ago from Mother Nature. At the time, I loved it. I got 4 days off from school. I enjoyed being holed up in my apartment, drinking hot chocolate and reading and watching TV. I took several fun treks out during the blizzard to a local Happy Hour that has really fantastic burgers. But now that things are back on schedule, the snow has become a nuissance.
The D.C. plows understandably focused on getting the snow off the roads. However, in doing so, they dumped it all in the middle of the sidewalk. To get to class, work, or basically go anywhere, I have to either walk along the side of a busy road, or climb around mountains of snow that are taller than me. They also didn’t get the roads totally cleared; traffic has been a nightmare. A bus trip that usually takes 10 minutes took 40 the other day, and a friend’s 30-minute commute took more than 2 hours, because all the roads that are usually two lanes have become one lane-streets. And don’t get me started on the black ice.
Do you have any snow-storm aftermath horror stories?
We got about 15 inches for the month of February. All in all it wasn’t too bad since the city and county had lots of salt ready and pre-treated the roads. However, the schools have been out for days and days and that’s causing problems in several areas. They have lost study time for the CATS test (the statewide test), and they will have to make up a lot of time at the end of the school year.
The weather has been much colder than what we are used to and I can’t help but wonder if it has killed some of the not so cold tolerant trees and shrubs.
2 years ago we had a blizzard hit us for Thanksgiving. My daughter’s boyfriend (now husband) was visiting and ended up staying with us for 5 days. I live in a small town 25 miles NE of Denver, CO, and the city did not budget enough for plowing all that snow. When the plows finally did come, they pushed the snow (now ice) to the side of the road, and effectively obstructed all our plowed driveways, so that only the SUVs could get out, which meant all our cars were stuck at home. Our neighbors were using their snow mobiles to get around. Lucky thing was I had just filled my larder and freezer with food, so we had good meals, just too much togetherness. When Bryan finally attempted to go home, we ended up walking half a block down our street to push his car out of the ice ruts formed by the SUVs. New snow fell on the weekends for the next 5 weeks. That is the worst I’ve seen it here in Denver in the 16 years I’ve lived here.
Wyoming was much worse because of the wind chill. That was COLD. The fFirst snow would come at about Halloween, then lots more snow and wind until late April, when it would finally melt away. They would push the snow up against the lampposts in the Supermaket parking lot until all you could see was the light on top of a pyramid of dirty snow/ice. We only lasted 2 years living in Wyoming. Brrr.
The problem for people living in areas that don’t normally get a lot of snow is the fact that those areas aren’t equipped to handle such a massive amount. My husband is from Buffalo, NY, and they could get two feet of snow overnight but the roads would be cleared and running smoothly by rush hour the next morning because they had the infrastructure established to deal with it. Everyone owns a snowblower to be able to (relatively) easily clear off sidewalks, etc. It’s a lot like that here in Chicago. It takes a lot of snow to shut us down completely. Things might be slow for a day or two, but the roads get cleared up very quickly so it’s only the normal bad traffic of any big city.
When I lived in St. Louis, people would panic at even the suggestion that it might possibly snow. I’d have employees call in to tell me they wouldn’t be coming to work because the weather wo/men were predicting an inch of snow might fall. And heaven forbid there actually was a snow-fall – the entire city would shut down. But in St. Louis they got something I think is much worse than a lot of snow – they got ice-rain storms. I’d much rather drive on six inches of packed snow than a sheet of solid ice. And don’t get me started on the job of chipping an inch-thick layer of ice off your car!
Here in Southern NJ we got snow-hammered also, and our schools were closed for several days. The worst part in my little corner of the snow covered world is two-fold. First are the potholes left by the snow plows digging up asphalt along with snow. There are several that have swallowed small cars (Mini owners beware), and due to the size will suddenly turn a two lane road into one. The second problem we have is downed tree branches. Look along ALL our roads and in any one’s yard, and if you have an evergreen tree, it took a beating. There is enough fire wood laying on the ground now to keep an Alpine Ski Chalet in wood all winter :-). And now our cheery weather weenies say it’s gonna do it again on Monday or Tuesday. How many days until spring?
Jane: I grew up in Chicago and know exactly what you are going through. I don’t live in Chicago anymore. Just couldn’t take the snow and cold any more.
Trees and flowers are blooming here in Seattle. :)
No, I don’t have any current snowstorm aftermath stories at this time, Jane. However, all I can say is, welcome to what we in the north usually experience following one of them. When everything is still white and fluffy, it can be pretty. But it doesn’t take long for the honeymoon to end and the snow becomes black and muddy and solid and unmoving and icy and all of that stuff. It does get old very quickly and we’re all ready to say goodbye to it rather quickly. No more than one inch at a time, several weeks apart—that’s my quota these days. I can handle that. I don’t want anymore than that at one time and may do harm to the next person I find singing the song, “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.”