The Blizzard of 2010

On Friday, it started snowing very hard. It didn't even look like it was snowing. It honestly looked like a solid sheet of white coming down past the window, and it lasted until Saturday afternoon. It was around two feet deep, and it was the fourth largest snowfall in a twenty-four hour period that our area has had, the last one being in 1950. Now, I normally love snow, but this time, not so much. It got so bad, our govenor even declared it a national state of emergency and called in the National Guard!

The power lines didn't like all that weight on them and a lot of them came down. The last I heard, there were 180,000 homes without power in my state. Our power was out from Friday evening to Monday afternoon. This is the longest I've ever gone without power in my life. The longest it was ever out before was about twelve hours, and it was always on by the next morning. Not long after my parents got married and had my sister, they had a similar snowstorm and the power was out for five days. My dad kept telling me that story over the last few days, and I was hoping to god that it wouldn't be out for that long! Three days was plenty.

It was INSANE, and it was FREEZING. It was in the single digits Farenheit outside, and it stayed around forty degrees inside. It was so horrible. I did nothing for three days, because it was so cold. I tried multiple times to read or write (or even plot), but I just couldn't concentrate. All I wanted to do was curl up under a mountain of blankets (and even then, I shivered anyway!) and wait for the power to come on.

It was hard to even sleep. I'd fall asleep for a little while, but then I'd wake up again, because I was so cold. I think the longest I slept at one time was about an hour. Then I'd wake up and lie there shivering until I passed out from exhaustion again. My dad said it was the same for him.

My cats weren't very happy. They spent pretty much the entire three days curled up together on the couch, usually with both me and my dad. Beethoven and Luna normally love to cuddle with each other, but Mr. Chips usually gets mad and growls if the others attempt to crowd into his sleeping space. He's like the big, grouchy old cat :P But even he was joining in on the cuddling for the last three days! The cats left the couch to eat and use the litter box, and then they came right back and curled up with the others again. It was very adorable, and I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures of them.

We have a fireplace, but it's been closed and we haven't used it in years. It's dangerous to light a fire for the first time in so long without having it cleaned first; animals make their homes in the chimneys, and the things they bring in could be dangerous if they caught fire (then again, so would be pneumonia :P) Besides, who wants to go out in two feet of snow and cut wood?

Thank goodness we have a gas water heater, so we could at least have hot showers. Except since the water company didn't have power either, they couldn't pump water, and our town was confined to the water they already had in the water tower. They asked everyone to conserve as much as possible. I took two minute showers, because I'm one of those people that has to have a shower. I feel absolutely gross if I don't, but two minutes is hardly enough to get everything satisfactorily clean :P I still felt gross anyway. I just took a half hour long shower, and it was nice :D

We have a gas stove as well, so we could at least cook, but we were running out of food that we could cook. Since the temperature was in the forties inside, pretty much everything in our refrigerator and freezer is spoiled. It smells absolutely raunchy :P We're going to have to go through and throw pretty much everything out. About all we had left was cereal (no milk, because it was spoiled), bread, bagels, and muffins.

Our phones weren't even working. They go through the modem for the internet which needs electricity to work! It has twenty-four hours of emergency battery back-up power, which actually only lasted for about twelve hours. I wonder whose brilliant idea that was? *glares at Comcast*

The roads are a mess still. If you don't work for the power company, or else an emergency service like the police, you're supposed to stay at home if at all possible. Most businesses are still closed; even if they have power now, most are still buried under a mountain of snow. Some poor people are still unable to get out, most of them elderly, because they can't shovel snow! There were even some emergencies where ambulances weren't even able to get to people's houses, because the roads are so bad. It's very sad.

The Red Cross set up warming stations that you could go to if you needed to get warm. There was one at the fire station just three blocks from us, but my dad and I are stubborn about leaving our house and admitting we need help of any sort. That and we didn't want to leave the cats alone. I know animals can handle more extreme temperatures than us, but these have been housecats all their lives. They've never been in temperatures like this for such a long period (they go out on our screened-in porch all year around, but only for a little bit at a time in the winter). I was so worried about them, but they were fine :D I'm not sure how we would have made it to the warming center anyway. We couldn't get our car out, not until today when the power finally came on. You can't walk in two feet of snow! They said you could call an ambulance or the police to come and get you, but they wouldn't have had any luck getting here either! They would have had to call the National Guard to come and get us, and my dad would have froze to death before he caused that much trouble :P

My dad dug his truck out today and was able to get to the store, because we desperately needed food. The only reason he was able to get his truck out at all was because our neighbor owns a tractor with a plow and a bucket on it, and he was generous enough to plow the street and help dig out everyone's driveways. We live on a back road, so the city can't be bothered to plow our street yet. They come after the main roads are clear, which are still in horrible condition. My dad went to the store ten minutes away, and he said he's never seen roads that bad in all his sixty-seven years. The city said that best case scenario, all roads will be clear by Friday. Worst case scenario, next Tuesday.

I was waiting for there to be a riot yesterday when people couldn't watch the Super Bowl. I hate football, so I didn't miss anything, but I'm surpised that I didn't hear anything about people causing issues over it. Since I don't like football, I was planning on having an all-day Sims marathon yesterday, but that obviously didn't happen. Maybe tomorrow while everything is still shut down!

The house is just now getting up to its normal temperature, and the power came on over four hours ago. It's very nice, but my dad just said to me, "It's kind of hot in here now, isn't it?" Yes, after living in forty degrees for the last three days, it really is!

Pictures of our yard and house (image heavy)

It's supposed to snow again tomorrow, another five to nine inches. The power just better not go out again, that's all I have to say. That and I'm sick of snow. I like electricity better. And television and the internet! And talking to TGBTA everyday :D

Current mood: chipper

Monday, Feb. 08, 2010 | 6:45 p.m.

Y Over the Moon Y

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moon phases

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