Blizzard 'Calvin'

[gs_silva]

This blizzard has a little of everything: high winds, thick snow, power loss, impassable roads. We still have our power, but unlike when we lived on the Cape, we're not tricked out for extended living without electricity. We had a wood stove there, and once we lost power for 4 days straight, and were able to keep warm and cook hot foods the whole time. Pretty comfy. Here, we have a fireplace that we never bothered to get into working order, and using your fireplace without getting it cleaned and prepped is how house fires happen.

There was a massive, devastating house fire the next town over. The building dated back to 1789 and two of the residents didn't make it. Worse, it was along one of those winding mountain roads where access is difficult. They had to truck water in because there was no water reserve, and they had to go the long way because the emergency vehicles wouldn't fit under the railroad bridge. It makes me extra glad we didn't end up buying that one cute little house up on the mountain, and ended up with this house near the center of town instead.

Plowing the streets will continue to be challenging. My little side street isn't a high priority, but at least it's wide and there aren't many cars parked on the street. So we'll probably get pretty well cleared by this afternoon. Some of the neighborhoods, though, are tightly packed with multifamily homes and inadequate driveways, and they've already been buried in snowbanks from the storm last week. Our massive snowbanks have hardly melted. The town had a bunch of local businesses taking their Bobcats and fitted pickups out to try to continue the snow removal, and the really big mountains of snow that made intersections so dangerous got reduced to something a little safer (though there's one intersection we use a lot that still has lousy visibility) and here we are getting another 12" (30cm) on top of that! Where are the snowplows going to push the snow now?

So, if you're not in the Northeastern US, I hope this was an adequate illustration of how our life is going!

At least we're not in Boston or NYC. When I lived in Boston, after having grown up in points north of there and basically being raised to cope with severe winters, I found it humorous how little snow would shut the whole city down - at least until they could haul all the snow to the harbor and dump it in the ocean. Seriously, there were dump trucks all over the city, empty and heading inland, and full and heading toward the water. I'm sure they still do it that way.

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> This blizzard has a little of everything: high winds, thick snow, power loss, impassable roads. <<

Such beautiful snow pictures! But that much snow can be daunting.

>> Here, we have a fireplace that we never bothered to get into working order <<

Calling a chimney sweep seems like a good idea. Maybe get some oil lamps or camping lanterns. A solar-powered charger is an excellent product. We have an emergency radio that can run on solar or a hand crank.

>>The town had a bunch of local businesses taking their Bobcats and fitted pickups out to try to continue the snow removal, and the really big mountains of snow that made intersections so dangerous got reduced to something a little safer<<

\o/

>>Where are the snowplows going to push the snow now?<<

Often some of it can be stored in parking lots, especially the giant ones for malls or box stores.

>>I found it humorous how little snow would shut the whole city down<<

In Tennessee, a fraction of an inch will do it, because they have neither the experience nor the equipment to cope. It only snows occasionally, so they just stay home until it melts.