Snowed in?

[Joe-K]

Wow Candace...what'd you do to the weather?

Just heard on the news this morning that Buffalo has 1-2 feet of snow on the ground and most of the schools are closing.

Just 4 days ago on Monday, you were camping in 70 degree Sunshine...now Snow !!!

[Joe-K]

Wow Candace...what'd you do to the weather?

Just heard on the news this morning that Buffalo has 1-2 feet of snow on the ground and most of the schools are closing.

Just 4 days ago on Monday, you were camping in 70 degree Sunshine...now Snow !!!

[ISLAPP]

I just asked her what she thought about the "mild" winter so far in her post that she had started a couple of days ago stating how we are expected to have a mild winter this year!!!

[rebelsbeach]

Having lived up there for seven years and learned to deal with driving in the snow,it's HILARIOUS when Virginia Beach get's not even an inch of snow.....LITERALLY shuts everything down.

[Joe-K]

Still no word from Candace. Maybe no power? I bet they'll have some interesting stories about the early snow.

[Candace]

Hi All...

Sorry to not get back to you. It has been nuts to say the least.

We ended up with about 2 feet of snow....with leaves still on the trees, they were cracking and falling. If you can take a pencil and break it, or better yet, a branch over your knee, then take another and break it, and keep going for hours, that is what is was like Thursday night hearing all the trees snap. Wally and I were up until 4 in the am keeping watch. The snow was wet and heavy. Wally is on afternoons, so I moved the RV down from where we park it up near the garage in anticipation of falling branches..this was at about 5 pm Thursday. The first branch that fell was at about 11 pm, then we lost power. It grazed the motorhome, but we didnt see damage in the morning. I moved the RV back a few more feet cuz there were more branches to fall. But I couldnt go too far back because there is a big tree in front that overhangs the driveway...I thought I was doomed!

Wally got home from work at about 1 am...he said he was not leaving the truck stranded. He encountered falling limbs, down wires, and blocked roads...he said he just "drove over the branches" , and had wires hit the truck to get home. He did stop and help a police officer push his patrol car out of the snow. The temp in the house was dropping, so we warmed up the RV and we all went in there for the nignt. The lightening was amazing...with the snow, it reflected longer and brighter. Then you could see red and blue in the sky as transformers were blowing all over town. I have to describe this storm as surreal. Nothing like our good old fashion snow storms.

Power is still out and wont be expected to be back until Tuesday. We thought we were going to be without water, as our Water Authority did not have back up generators at the pumping stations. They finally got generators before the reserve supply ran out.

Here are a few pictures:



These 2 pictures are looking down either side of our street:






This picture shows our driveway where the motorhome is usually parked:




We have been using the RV generator to power the house (refridgerator, furnace) and to keep the sump pump going...Walt had a chance to see how his 6v batteries and inverter worked...this is how we keep the sump pump going at night after we turn off the genny, since we didnt get a chance to test them out last weekend. We do have another generator that we let the neighbor use, then my brother picked it up to keep his basement dry. With all the rain in September and October, the ground is so saturated, that now the big concern is flooded basements as the snow melts.

We ended up pretty good with no damage other than a few bent gutters from the trees falling. Too many folks have it worse.

[ISLAPP]

Wow, it looks like you guys got a mess there!! Glad everyone is ok, though. The ole RV is coming in handy, huh?

[Candace]

Mike:
It is wonderful knowing we have a "back-up home"...On Thursday we only hooked up the sump pump, it was way tooo late to do anything except pass out. Trees were still falling after we went to bed in the RV. On Friday, Walt finished hooking up the house's furnace so we could stay in the house for the duration of this mess.

The kids are having a blast...playing in snow..except now it is mostly melted...and they are into their flashlights at night!

[Miles]

Glad to hear everone is fairing well. Amazing pics. Keep us posted.

[Joe-K]

WOW Candace!

We've been hearing the news reports on TV but seeing those pictures really puts into perspective how much snow fell. It's easy to understand the snow in the Winter, but that much just a couple days after returning from the weather at Bedford is unreal.

Glad to see you guys are OK. Good thing you have the RV.

[Kiwi]

Don't count on FEMA.... they all left for Hawaii this morning.
Walt

[Candace]

FEMA may be in Hawaii, but we had some FEMA reps here yesterday and today to survey the damage. The City of Buffalo, and its 4 surrounding counties will be getting FEMA assistance. Whether we (individuals) will get any reembursement from FEMA is yet to be determined.



Power is still out tonight, all you hear is the buzzing of generators.

[Joe-K]

Sure is a good thing you have that RV. Hope you guys get power on and back to normal soon.

[Candace]

Good news...power is restored....

Bad news....we let our neighbor, then my brother use our small 2500w generator to see them through, while we ran off our RV generator, and somewhere, someone, ran the oil out (even when Walt told them both to check the oil). Now it is toast. That was our back-up genny when the RV is in storage (can you say snow storm). insert *##sed *ff icon