Now that the East Coast has mostly dug itself out of a snowbank and I am not busy on the job attempting to keep (or restore as the case was for several days) minimal capability at a customer site, the pictorial tale of the Blizzard of ’10 can be told.
I have been working for one of my usual customers in the DC area who has a large house that doubles as office and ISP. In normal circumstances this is a comfortable arrangement. Last week, however, was not so comfortable. We lost power by 22:00 on Friday; the emergency generator had a carburetor problem and we could not get it to run very long. When it did run, we got the ‘Doom lighting effect” as power to the lights and the UPS’s faded in and out. It was still snowing the next morning.
This shows the depth of the snow on the rear deck before the first blizzard was even finished. We got another ten inches or more in the second storm.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
An entire line of trees came down due to the heavy snow load. One could almost hear these poor enbarked-southerners crying out “But we’re not evolved for this!”
The railing and snow softened the blow so the car was luckily undamaged.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
The entire row but one beside the next house.came down.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
After a lot of shoveling, I went walking through the snowdrifts down by the canal with the owner’s wife. This turned out to be a bit more of an adventure than either of us had expected and I heartily concur with those who tell you to stay with your car if you are caught in a blizzard outside of town. Our one mile hike felt like ten.
It really was beautiful though!
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
I heard a crackling sound behind us and got my camera up just fast enough to catch the cloud of ice particles, snow and water as a tree fell into the canal.
This tree fall had someone to hear it and it definitely made a sound!
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
The sun came out the next day and with blue sky it was a magical sight, despite the fact we were still without heat and still had the problem of the failed emergency generator to deal with.
The woods around the house were almost magical looking.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
No, we were not attacked by Ent’s, but it was a damn near thing when the row of trees fell the other night!
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
This is just a random house we passed while looking for a new generator.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
This is the ‘tent’ we built to protect the new emergency generator.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
This is the 200 foot driveway two of us shoveled after the second storm. The snowblower made it through the first one and then croaked.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
I had a bit of fun with camera angles and the 7-8 foot high mounds of snow in a shopping centre parking lot. Perhaps it shows the area’s future. The glaciers will come again after all…
Is this the future of the DC area in a world of Global Cooling? Is it George Bush’s fault?
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
I got into DC on tuesday morning, Its been pretty bad in the Adams Morgan neighborhood.
The city is actually better prepared than it was in the 1980s when our old friend Marion Barry was Mayor. Aside from getting caught smoking crack on camera, he is probably best remember for flying in a helicopter above the snowbound streets of the city saying something like. “I don’t see what you people are complaining about, it looks fine from up here.”
The msm are saying the hard winter proves globel warming (yes the same “mainstream” media that say “weather is not climate”) – and, of course, when there is a mild winter the msm say that “proves globel warming” also.
I am an agnostic on the man made globel warming stuff – but the dishonesty of the establishment is obvious.
As is their hypocrisy – for example they are now pretending to be pro nuclear power (stung by the repeated question “if C02 is such a threat why are you anti nuclear?”), but the budget last week proposed to defund the main nuclear waste centre in the United States – in order to support Harry Reid’s fading reelection chances.
In short the establisment do not really believe in man made globel warming, it is just an excuse for them to pass taxes and regulations to control people’s lives – stuff they want to do anyway.
So it would be “funny” (in a nasty way) if man made globel warming turned out to be real.
Sta-Bil. And run any stored gasoline engine at least once a month in the cold weather.
That’s what you get for letting them reduce the vapour pressure, add politically-favoured oxygenates, and generally mess around with your gasoline. This seldom happened in the days of Ethylated Hi-Test.
llater,
llamas
Don’t put away your shovels yet. It looks like we’re getting more on Monday and Tuesday.
Your one of my heros you know Dale.
Rock n roller, Rocket Scientist, and now ace photographer.
Thanks for the Pics, they are brill!
Those are truly brilliant photographs, and very interesting description.
Our own suffering here in SE England, very modest by comparison with 6.5″ plus two subsequent falls of around 2″, were a serious reminder of what has been forgotten over the last 35 or so years in how to cope – no thanks to government belief in the CAGW narrative.
Overall, I think it reminds us that even the most sophisticated human civilisation ever is totally subordinated by the flings of nature.
Best regards
Ha ! You call that a storm?
When I was a young ‘n, we had to look up the chimmney just to see the sky. The only way we could reach the street was to take our sleds up to the second floor, open a winda, and slide down the snow mountain on the front lawn.
Generators? In my day, we broke up an old baby crib and burned it in the living room. The only food were frozen ‘possums and skunks we found in the back yard. We cooked ’em from the inside out, driving large nails into their carcasses and hookin’ ’em up to the car battery.
You guys have gone soft. I could tell ya stories…
Well, now we know why you have been off-line, Dale!
Seriously, when you get a chance, please share your views on the Obama Adminstration’s “Moon No More” space plans. Good? Bad? Irrelevant?
An eager public waits!
I think Vancouver stole our global warming…
See photos:
http://vulgarmorality.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/reflections-for-an-indoors-day/
Thanks, I have just today resurrected my exploded desktop with the application of a second-hand hard drive and a free installation of Ubuntu, and your delightful pictures now finish my appearance-fiddling afternoon! 🙂
Now how to learn how the damn thing works…