SNOWPOCALYPSE 2017

This has been the craziest winter ever.  As in, ever.  We've had so much snow, this winter has lovingly (or not so lovingly) been dubbed Snowpocalypse and Snowmeggdon.  Both seem appropriate.  

    Before Christmas break we'd had 2 snow days.  Super fun, and exciting snow days.  Then we got off on December 20th for Christmas break.  Still snowed gobs, and super cold.  Single digits and below zero temps.  

     Then last week, our last full week before going back it just snowed and snowed and snowed.  All of the districts around us that had gone back already had to have 3 snow days.  I was loving that my kids were supposed to be out, and we weren't missing days that would have to be made up later.  

   Then this weekend it all hit the fan.  The forecast called for inches and inches of snow.   Then freezing rain.  Then warmer temperatures and rain and rain.  The news was in full on panic mode.  They warned of all the snow piling up on tree branches.  Then when the freezing rain starts, heavy tree limbs are going to break off, take down power lines and we're all going to be out of power for days.  So we were warned to stock up on food, water, flashlights, blankets, the whole 9 yards.  We were also warned about ice dams that could occur on our roofs.  Basically ice forms on your roof, or in your gutters, and then all of the snow melts as it's raining and the water has nowhere to go, so now your ceiling is leaking.  It was quite a dire forecast. 

   Unfortunately, this all happened the day after Derek left town to go visit his parents (John started chemo for bone marrow cancer earlier that week, and a visit was important to all of us).  So it was just me and the kids holding down the fort.  The whole city was abuzz with all of this excitement.  It dominated my Facebook feed, my conversations, and the news.  The whole city began preparing for this massive storm. Stores everywhere ran out of water, bread, eggs and milk.  Kim said Costco was worse than the day before Thanksgiving.  Someone on Facebook said Walmart looked like World War Z. 

    The 5 of us went to work too.  I had been to grocery store the day before so were well stocked on food.  We put new batteries in all of our flashlights.  We filled up our 5 gallon jug with water.  We filled up a cooler of water for flushing toilets.  We filled up both cars with gas in case we needed a warm place. We went to the library and stocked up on books and movies since we were about to be snowed in.  We kept every device fully charged in case power went out. We did everything I could think of to do. And then we waited. 

And played game after game

And read and read
 

    The storm hit just as planned - snow, freezing rain, and then rain and rain. 

This shows the snow at its highest 

 

  Power outages luckily were on quite a small scale.  The worst of this storm has definitely been the ice dams on roofs.  I know of several friends who have had leaks in their roofs. 

    The next big worry has been the flooding. Because the storm drains were completely covered in snow, the worry was that with all of this snow melting so fast, there was nowhere for the water to go. Our neighborhood emailed out a map with the location of the storm drains and told us to locate ours, and unbury it so that the water could drain.  All week I have seen considerate neighbors keeping a careful watch on our storm drains. 

    These storms have cancelled things like crazy - mutual last week, church (which never happens!), volleyball, cheer, and basketball for our kids have all been cancelled.  It's been so weird to hunker down like this.  

    Then there's school ... we were supposed to go back to school Monday.  That didn't happen because of the deep snow.  Then on Monday night I got an email saying we had pipes burst at both campuses so school was cancelled Tuesday and Wednesday.  Now tonight I got the next email - school cancelled for the rest of the week. Un. Believable.  They're off an entire extra week.  We have to go back Monday (which we should have off for MLK day, but now we get to go to school instead).  Our Christmas break will end up being 26 days. 

   This has been a winter for the books!