The blizzard of 2011 occurred on Feb 2. Actually it really started the afternoon of Feb 1 which was a Tuesday. By the time I left work around 2:30 the snow was starting to come down and the streets were getting messy. The weather forecasters were all about hyping this thing up to be huge so I had no plans of trying to come into work on Wed if it was as bad as they were predicting.
Before I went to bed on Tuesday night I made the decision that I was not coming into work early like I usually do so I didn't set my alarm. I figured I'll go in late or worse case I'll work from home. I woke up around 5:30 Wed morning, looked out the front window and had to give the forecasters credit, it was turning into a mother of a storm. The winds were gusting around 50 miles per hour and the snow was coming down around 2" per hour. Around 10am the snow really started coming down and it was a pure whiteout outside. Yep, definitely not going into work. The state issued an emergency so nobody was to be driving unless you were police or emergency crews.
So I jumped online to work from home. And so did just about EVERYBODY in the company because the network was painfully slow. I got as much as I could done and cuddled up on the couch to watch some of my dvr shows.
By 2:30 the snow and wind had stopped and the sun was actually coming out! I opened my front door and there was like 4 feet of snow against my door and garage door. I figured I'd better start digging my way out. The forecast was for the temps to drop to below zero that night into the next day and who knew when the HOA would have our driveways plowed. I took the shovel and started digging. The snow was light and fluffy on top but very dense and heavy as I dug deeper. Luckily my wonderful neighbors saw me and came over to help. The husband had a snow blower and managed to get the front of my garage door cleared out. I was soooo grateful. I didn't expect him to do the whole driveway so I started the long process of shoveling the rest myself.
Now my driveway is probably 4 times the length of an average driveway. It's nice to be further back from the street but it's absolutely hell when having to shovel 3 feet of snow by yourself. I managed to get about a few feet from the end of the street when I completely lost energy. The town plows pushed everything from the street to the end of my driveway so on top of the normal 2 feet of snow there was about 2 more feet of street snow. I couldn't do anymore. My arms and back were so sore at this point so I left it, hoping the HOA would get me plowed out before the next day...and they did.
So I survived! It was an awesome sight to see from the comfort of my 72 degree house snuggled on the couch looking out of my sliding glass doors. I couldn't image being stuck in it. I watched hours of news footage on Wed morning and the sights on Lake Shore Drive were astonishing. Hundreds of cars just abandoned buried in 20" of snow was like witnessing armageddon.
What I found more amazing was that by Thursday it was business as usual. Grant it the streets were still snow covered but definitely clear enough for traffic to get by. I give the state some credit. They did not waste any time trying to keep this disaster under control. Although I'd hate to know how much it cost!
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