Blizzard of '09

Wow. What crazy weather we are having! We were really spoiled when we had one snow storm early October, but then it went away the next day and we were having pretty nice weather until the end of November! However, December is a different story. It started off with a snow storm at the end of November. It was bad, but not that bad.

On Friday night (Nov. 27), Dan and I decided to go out and get a movie and maybe go to the mall. Well, we got the movie, but then we were at a standstill for most of the night. It was nice to be able to talk to each other while we were waiting in traffic. We were sitting for an hour and a half just barely inching along. I guess the route that we were taking had a slight hill, and no one could get up it. We saw an ambulance coming up behind us so we pulled into the shoulder but no one else did. So we drove up the shoulder and were weaving through stuck cars that were scattered all over the road. Don't worry, we let the ambulance weave through the cars first. We had no problem making it anywhere that night. If people we more prepared, then each snowfall wouldn't be so chaotic. Calgarians don't realize where they live so they think that if there's no snow, and it's the end of November, then why should they get winter tires? This is why people! It's drivers like you who cause the majority of the accidents.

Then we were preparing ourselves for the storm that was all over the news this past weekend. It was coming and it was going to hit us hard. Friday morning at about 8:30am we started to see snow falling. Then it seemed that the sky just tipped the clouds over and it all came down so fast! And the wind was so strong it was pretty much snowing horizontally. My work closed early because of the conditions, and it's a good thing because rush hour was horrible!

The roads weren't like skating rinks this time but covered in white stuff. People had to abandon their vehicles because of snow banks and whiteout conditions. On the news they were telling everyone to stay home because there were so many road closures. Good thing we had no where to go!

I can't remember when I saw a blizzard, or even if I ever have seen a blizzard in real life. But I hope to never see one again!

On Saturday morning, there was a house fire in Citadel (NW Calgary) and it ended up burning 5 houses right down to the basement foundation because the wind was so strong that it was hard to keep up with the spreading flames, and because when the firetrucks arrived, they got stuck in the huge snowbanks in the area! Neighbors had to come out and help haul the fire hoses to the hydrants and help push/pull the trucks out. I couldn't even imagine being in that situation.