SNOWPOCALYPSE II is coming.

[MKSheppard]

It's called a generator.

[Aaron]

Thats not going to do her much good if she doesn't have one.

[FSTargetDrone]

The lights keep flickering...I am a little worried that we are going to lose power. If we do, I have no idea what we will do since all the roads are closed, they haven't plowed our street (and there's about 2 feet on it) and we have no source of back up power. When the power went out to customers in the snow storm last week, many of those people didn't have theirs back when THIS storm hit.

Get your flashlights, batteries or emergency candles together before the lights go out, if they go out. Keep your cell phones charged, especially if you don't have a landline with a wired telephone. Even if the phone lines aren't affected, cordless phones will probably be useless if the lights go out (this is why I have an old wired phone in my home office here). If you have an iPhone or other smart cell phone, turn off all its radios (like the wireless internet connection, especially) other than the basic cell radio.

Also, very important, be careful of avoiding areas where any fallen branches and power lines may be covered with snow. Just stay inside (other than for cooking, as Cpl Kendell points out below!).

[Aaron]

If you have a camping stove, make sure it is fueled and functional, so you can at least cook if need be. Don't use the damn thing inside though.

[Darth Wong]

As long as the gas company can keep pressure up, gas fireplaces should still work for keeping your house heated if you can't run your main furnace. Alternatively, just bundle up and put extra blankets on the bed, or even a sleeping bag. We had our furnace fail in the dead of winter once, and we went like that for several days. Bring all of the kids into the master bedroom and close the doors so that your collective body heat keeps the room warmer. It's not necessarily a death sentence for the house to lose heating.

I think it says something about the utter lack of self-reliance of modern people that they go into a complete panic when they lose power and they start running about like idiots doing things like lighting fires indoors or running camp stoves in their living rooms in order to keep warm. The house has some insulation after all, and it doesn't instantly become an icebox. It gets quite cold, but people camp in weather like this and survive. It's not nearly as deadly as some people make it out to be.

[Aaron]

Yeah it's not, the military operates in it all the time but for Jo Average civvie, I can see why it would be scary. Especially if it's a location that rarely gets it. Hell we dragged dead Canucks out of their homes in the '98 Ice Storm, folks who had lived in Canada their entire lives and decided "hey, I think I'll heat the house with my kerosene heater or charcoal BBQ."

[Cairber]

I am not toooo worried about the immediate future with the power going out because, like was said, we could just huddle together for the night. Beyond that though, our house is pretty horrible on the insulation side (70 years old for one thing- one major reason we are trying to sell and get the hell outta here); I think really though I just worry about the fact that we have no family in this area and it's hard to think of someone willing to take in 5 people if we end up like those 20k homes where it took more than 3 days to get back on line from last week's storm.

We brought the emergency kit upstairs though ready to go...

[Aaron]

I am not toooo worried about the immediate future with the power going out because, like was said, we could just huddle together for the night. Beyond that though, our house is pretty horrible on the insulation side (70 years old for one thing- one major reason we are trying to sell and get the hell outta here); I think really though I just worry about the fact that we have no family in this area and it's hard to think of someone willing to take in 5 people if we end up like those 20k homes where it took more than 3 days to get back on line from last week's storm.

We brought the emergency kit upstairs though ready to go...

If your house is that badly insulated, bring everyone into a small central room (bathroom works for us, dead center) and huddle up there. The less "room" the room has the better your body heat will warm it. Then just huddle up under some blankets, on a mattress and play cards or something till the power comes back.

[Cairber]

Maybe I should pump the heat up we keep the house at 65 because the upstairs becomes a sauna if you do it any higher. Might come in handy now though! But then when you turn it down any more it gets freezing fast. Let's not tell anyone looking to buy our home this though

edit: they lost power across the street; we are on different lines or whatever though obviously. *sigh*

[aerius]

And if you do lose power for a few days and run out of food, don't forget to draw straws to see who gets eaten first.

[CmdrWilkens]

So in the midst of Snowpocalypse followed by Snowmaggedon, followed the last two days by Snowverkill the Baltimore region now has had the snowiest winter in recorded history. Literally since they began measuring snowfall this is the worst winter ever for central Maryland...and not by a slim margin either. The previous record was 62.5" over one winter...through this evening the '09-'10 total was up to 77" and we've got an Alberta Clipper set to hit us with an extra couple of inches Sunday night.

Its one of those things, you can plan for once a decade and you can even have a plan in place for once a century but you just can't stockpile the amount of equipment needed to actually clean out a once a century storm...not even counting that with winds gusting up above 40mph most local jurisdictions had to pull snowplow drivers off the roads due to white-out conditions most of this morning and early afternoon.

Having said that when we've been hit with some smaller batches this winter (we've had I think two storms that only dropped 6" or so) the state and county have usually had everything clear and ready to run the next morning which is about what we normally would expect.

[CaptHawkeye]

And if you do lose power for a few days and run out of food, don't forget to draw straws to see who gets eaten first.

Just setup a pot over a fire in the living room.

"Hurry up and take your bath now John!"

"Why does the bathtub have carrots and celery floating around in it?"

"Don't worry about that."

[Cairber]

The chihuahua..definitely the chihuahua.

[MKSheppard]

A report from the Forward SNOWPOCALYPSE command post that Joe Q. Taxpayer the government has set up Groinstar Lonestar in:

[FSTargetDrone]

Snow is basically blowing sideways now.



Hope the roof holds up. This is the building across the way.

[Darth Wong]

Snow is basically blowing sideways now.



Hope the roof holds up. This is the building across the way.

That actually looks quite beautiful. I've always loved the way the snow frosts everything up. It makes it all look like a Christmas postcard.

Once you get out of your car and just stomp around in your boots, it's really quite an enchanting moment, to stand in a moonlit snowfall. Especially when it's those big fluffy slow-falling flakes.

[eion]

How often do you get to say, "There was so much snow, you could sit on it!"?




One of our pine trees collapsed into our neighbor's yard. What surprises me the most is they haven't called yet, of course neither has our tree guy, but I'm sure he's busy.

[Artemas]

That actually looks quite beautiful. I've always loved the way the snow frosts everything up. It makes it all look like a Christmas postcard.

Once you get out of your car and just stomp around in your boots, it's really quite an enchanting moment, to stand in a moonlit snowfall. Especially when it's those big fluffy slow-falling flakes.

Yeah, especially when you have low cloud cover, the light from the city diffuses everywhere. Gives the place a beautiful golden twilight.

[CarsonPalmer]

Whee...we just got word that the college is on its second consecutive snow day, which means the second consecutive day of stealing lunch trays from the dining hall and sledding down the steps of academic buildings.

[FSTargetDrone]

Hey Cariber, did you and your family make it though the night without having to eat your neighbors?

That actually looks quite beautiful. I've always loved the way the snow frosts everything up. It makes it all look like a Christmas postcard.

Once you get out of your car and just stomp around in your boots, it's really quite an enchanting moment, to stand in a moonlit snowfall. Especially when it's those big fluffy slow-falling flakes.

Thanks! The snow stopped just around 22:00 EST and the sky rapidly began to clear. The wind had died down earlier, but it's started gusting again.

Tomorrow I'm going to tackle this:



Anyway it looks like there's been no damage around here. We took a walk around about an hour ago and everything seemed okay. Earlier, our little corner tree was really getting laden with snow, so I thought it best to clear it off before it was damaged:



Its branches sprung right up. The lights were in a little disarray, but the tree seems to be okay:



The tree in front is a bit harder to clear off, but I think it'll be alright:

Yeah, especially when you have low cloud cover, the light from the city diffuses everywhere. Gives the place a beautiful golden twilight.

In our case, the glow in the sky is from the nuclear power plant.

How often do you get to say, "There was so much snow, you could sit on it!"?
<pics snipped>
One of our pine trees collapsed into our neighbor's yard. What surprises me the most is they haven't called yet, of course neither has our tree guy, but I'm sure he's busy.

Hah! Looks like a comfortable seat!

Hope damage from the tree falling was minimal. Just remember to keep eyes open for downed and buried power lines if you stroll about!

[eion]

Hope damage from the tree falling was minimal. Just remember to keep eyes open for downed and buried power lines if you stroll about!

Thankfully all our power lines are buried around here, so we haven't had any power outages, yet.

It looks like it only knocked off the top rail of their fence, we can fix that quickly. We have some leftover rails from our last repair of our part of the fence. As for removing the tree, I have no idea how much that'll cost, as it's down a hill on their side, and buried behind two others on ours, plus the 3 feet of snow to walk through to get to it.

[KhyronTheBackstabber]

Anyway it looks like there's been no damage around here. We took a walk around about an hour ago and everything seemed okay. Earlier, our little corner tree was really getting laden with snow, so I thought it best to clear it off before it was damaged:

The first snow storm we had this winter (end of Nov. beginning of Dec.) was real sticky heavy snow. At about 1 am I looked out and our birch trees were bent over the street with tops almost touching the road. I went out and smacked the snow off so they could stand up. I had to do that twice though out the night.
Some of my neighbors (who sleep normal hours) woke up to find their birch trees bent over, with the tops trapped under 1-2 feet of snow. Snow plows usually come through here around 5:30, and the tops were buried from the snow thrown onto the edge of their yards. Some of them are still bent over.

[Cairber]

wow...what a night. We lost two trees in the back yard and it looks like another might come down; there is about 4 feet out there right now. My parents are coming down to help us with the house this weekend and are bringing a roof rake. I was listening to KYW and they said our town and the few surrounded it got the most snow in the immediate region "north of the city." So I guess that explains why I think all your pictures look not so bad in the face of not being able to see my front door from the road

Here's a question: if your neighbor's tree falls and causes a tree on your property to fall, are they liable for the removal? or would that just be a dick move to try and make them pay?

[His Divine Shadow]

Can't you go outside and whack the trees with long sticks or something? I did that at my parents this year since I am minding the place while they are gone, one tree / bush thing broke from the strain, since then I have been whacking the branches worst looking to get the snow off when it gets bad. Worked so far.

[Liberty]

wow...what a night. We lost two trees in the back yard and it looks like another might come down; there is about 4 feet out there right now. My parents are coming down to help us with the house this weekend and are bringing a roof rake. I was listening to KYW and they said our town and the few surrounded it got the most snow in the immediate region "north of the city." So I guess that explains why I think all your pictures look not so bad in the face of not being able to see my front door from the road

Here's a question: if your neighbor's tree falls and causes a tree on your property to fall, are they liable for the removal? or would that just be a dick move to try and make them pay?

Lucky. We've got maybe 15 inches and that's it... It's a lot, but not apocalyptic.