Stay warm this evil night

Whistle
1

As I write this, we and most of our rural neighbors are as effectively isolated as if it were 1903 rather than 2003. A day of snow and high winds have closed even the interstate highways despite the efforts of road workers to keep them open, and rural roads are often 2-4 feet deep, making even pickups and SUVs useless. So far the power’s holding up so it could be a whole lot worse, but still I worry for those who are ill or elderly. The storm has nowhere near spent its fury and portends similar evil for the Mid-Atlantic region by this time tomorrow night.

For anyone caught in it or in its path, it’ll get worse before it gets better. Stay warm, hang tough, and take care of each other.

2

Yikes! Do indeed stay warm, and don’t forget to breath a prayer for those who may be caught out in such cruel weather. Are you stocked up on essentials, Chuck, in case you’re stuck for a while?

El Nino’s sending us a little farewell gift this night, but I’ll take the rains over a snowstorm any day of the week.

Redwolf

3

I hope things go well for y’all up there. You’re in my thoughts.

4

Yeah, we stocked up yesterday and called around to make sure some of the less able neighbors were set, also. As long as the power lines aren’t downed, we should make it though okay. I’m sure glad I’m not driving the snowplow I saw creeping up the highway a while back, but I am truly grateful to that man for what he’s trying to do.

5

It isn’t quite so bad here
in Missouri, but driving
home tonight on the freeway
was eerie. Nobodybut us
and the freeway covered
in snow… Lot’s of
freezing rain…
Gimme shelter!

6

There’s a fine, steady snow falling this morning and we’re threatened to get a foot or more before it’s predicted to stop on Monday.

Yesterday I woke up to about 4 inches and left the car in the garage. I’m praying the power stays on or I’ll need to walk a half-mile to my favorite (but not my nearest) neighbor to huddle up by her living room fireplace. She even has an old wood cookstove to fire up if the modern one can’t be used.

Stay warm and safe, everyone!

M
[problems with fricatives]

Marguerite
Gettysburg

[ This Message was edited by: mvhplank on 2003-02-16 11:37 ]

7

Anybody wanna trade some snow for our rain? The problem is that it’s 28ºF now and not expected to get above 31º. The situation is scary and potentially devastating.

8

I shouldn’t complain. It was 84 degrees F. inside before I realized I needed to turn on the a/c.

Miami gets like that in the winter…

9

Aww, Illinois people get all the fun. We haven’t gotten to use our snowplow yet. :cry:

10

True enough, Jeff. By Minnesota standards 20 degrees with six inches of snow and forty mph winds counts as a balmy early Spring day. I bet you can all but hear the tulips and crocuses popping up.

It wouldn’t even have been much worth noting here back in the Seventies. But a decade plus of short, moderate, and mostly precipitation-free winters have screwed up everyone’s weather sense. We tend to react to Winter much as the folks of Tennessee and DC did back in the Seventies. “Where the HECK did THAT come from?!?”

11

I’m not sure where that came from, but I’m from the DC area, and I’m sure what you’re thinking is still true. I don’t think people in the DC area have gotten any better at handling snow.

If the weather team even so much as hints at a dusting of snow, everybody swamps the local grocery store and all the schools close.

12

Wow… take care, y’all. I had no clue it was that bad out there… but then again, we’re kind of isolated out here where I’m at…

John gael: you’re kidding me! Out here, we have to have at least a foot and a half before anyone will even think of closing school or stocking up on stuff, and it has to be continually snowing hard… wow. Amazing how your region of living affects how you percieve things.

Anyhow y’all, stay warm, and play lots of whistles! :smiley: The storm will be finished before you know it.

~Hypetra
Official Librarian and Recorder of the Rivendell Records & Elvish Music Library.
“Give me your interesting, your beautiful, your dulcet tunes…”

[ This Message was edited by: The Whistling Elf on 2003-02-16 12:28 ]

13

Dang! Can’t you send some of that snow our way. We really need that moisture.

14

These idiot DC-area snow-removal policies. Yesterday, when we got maybe 4", the plows were going by maybe every half hour. A foot and counting today, and I haven’t seen one. Plus, getting onto the main roads from the side roads, there’s a wall of the stuff that they plowed; I had trouble breaking through it in my Outback. I’ve never had trouble with any weather in the Outback before.

15

Sunday, 2:42 p.m. Wind’s really picking up. Snow’s blowing up, down and sideways.

Ick. No telling when Mr. Green will be able to come plow out my lane. Monday afternoon? Tuesday morning?

M

16

No snow here…just sleet and freezing rain. 2 inches on top of a glaze of ice. Car is inside a block of ice. BRRRRRRRR!
At least we have electricity!

17

About midmorning today, once the snow stopped, we got a good demonsration of country neighborliness. The rural road was a mix of (thin) bare ice and 4 foot drifts. Knowing some folks were pretty much isolated and that the County plows wouldn’t get around to our little road for many hours, two local farmers with plow blades on their big John Deeres attacked the drifts and opened the road, while another used his compact endloader to go around and open the more badly drifted driveways. The roads are still icy and nasty, but at least now emergency vehicles and necessary trips can pass.

It seems like farmers are often folks who want mostly to be left alone, but refuse to take their own advice when others have problems.

18

A winter storm warning has been issued for much of the tri-state area. It’s snowing at a good clip here in Central New Jersey. Quite a different winter than last year’s.
The problem in New Jersey isn’t moderate to heavy snow fall, it’s the inability to clear the roads. Pennsylvania, for example, is much better, they seem to get the plows out right away.
Hope that everyone who’s affected uses good sense and gets home safely!

19

I spent 10 years in NW PA, in a town noted for the intersection of 3 snow belts and 90" to 120" of snow a year; so today was nostalgic. Reminds me of the 30+ inches snows that dropped from time to time along the coast of Lake Erie.

My round picnic table has disappeared, replaced by a lovely sculpted dome that rises from the background of white modern art covering the rest of the deck. Only the pyramid curtesy of Char-grill rises higher.

The current predictions are for 24-36" by mid-day Monday. The DC-Baltimore area averages around 12-14" of snow a year, our average snow storms are in the 4-8 inch range. Our official record snow storm is 26.5" back in 1922. Even the un-official record of 36" back in the late 1700’s might fall tomorrow. (Un-official because they didn’t keep records but both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson’s journals record the big snow of 1780-something as 3 foot.) This storm is giving us 2 years worth of snow in a single pass. It’s kind of like dropping 10-20 foot of snow on Cleveland, Oh.; Erie, Pa; or Buffalo, NY.

2-3 Foot is BIG News south of the Mason Dixon. The MD Governer has not only declared a state of emergency; but has also ordered that all non-emergency travel on state highways is prohibitted until 4 a.m. Monday under penalties of up to $1000.

My really bad news was I wasn’t able to go to this afternoon’s session at O’Leary’s Restaurant and Pub. I only discovered this semi-monthly session in the beginning of this month. I had been anxiously anticipating it throughout the past week with its 12 hour work-days. Project completed, I’d been looking forward to shared heart sounds instead of the whir of computer hard drives. A couple of hours spent in my practice room with Hobart’s Tranformation, Culloden’s Harvest, Ghostwood and other new tunes has helped; but, playing alone is not the same as playing with new found friends.

I’m keeping Marguerite, our lady of the creek, at heart playing An Feochan, a dry warm tune for her and her’s. She has a lovely mountain home and music center … at the end of a quarter-mile or so, one lane drive-way shared with a couple of neighbors. One of our reporters here in Baltimore has reported that her mountain has seen 36" already. She’s about 10 miles north of Camp David which was evacuated early this morning.

I am hoping the rest of you folks are doing well, taking this weather enforced break to …

\

Enjoy Your Music,

Lee Marsh

From Harper’s Mill, MD.

[ This Message was edited by: LeeMarsh on 2003-02-16 21:26 ]

20

On 2003-02-16 21:25, LeeMarsh wrote:
I spent 10 years in NW PA, in a town noted for the intersection of 3 snow belts and 90" to 120" of snow a year; so today was nostalgic. Reminds me of the 30+ inches snows that dropped from time to time along the coast of Lake Erie.


[ This Message was edited by: LeeMarsh on 2003-02-16 21:26 ]

That wouldn’t have been near Bradford, would it? I lived there for 3 years as a kid, and it got some incredible weather!

Robin