The Great Blizzard of 2007

I am sure many of you have heard by now about the blizzard that struck our city on January 10, 2007. The day before, the t.v. and radio were givings us warnings about the blizzard but when you see clear skies, it was hard to imagine that the storm would really show up.

On the morning of the 10th we had gotten up about about 6:00am to the wind blowing in excess of 50km/hour. We looked outside and although it didn't look too bad, you could see the snow swirling making it hard to see. At that moment I decided it wasn't worth sending Kat to school as she would have to walk to the bus stop and I didn't want her doing that.

Cor started his truck around 7:00am and he left the house at 7:10am to go to work. His work is outside of the city and he normally is able to take the back roads to get to work and not have to go through the city at all. He called about 20 minutes later to see that he was stopped on the side of the Dalmeny road because he was unable to see more than a few feet in front of him and any of the other vehicles he saw were all in the ditch. He decided to turn around and come home as it wasn't worth risking his life to try and get to work.

He got home about 10 minutes before 8am and by that time, Boo had decided to stay home and Shorty was ready to go to school. Since Cor was going to wait until it got light out, I knew he could take Shorty to school and therefore I could attempt to get to work earlier. I had the van running and was ready to leave by 8:00am. I drove out of the driveway knowing that I wouldn't be traveling any faster than 40km per hour the whole way. From our house, I was unable to see farther than 2 houses down the street.

I made it to 33rd where it is totally open and was able to keep going down the street. About 3 blocks up, I had to slow right down as it seemed everyone else decided to go to work at the same time and they all decided to take the same street I took. No problem, I had given myself an hour to get to work knowing that if I got to work early, there would be plenty to do as I knew the cancellations for appointments would be coming in right left and center.

About halfway up 33rd street, my windshield wiper blade decided to come undone after I tried to clean it. Not good. So I pulled onto a side street to see if I could fix and luckily I was able to.

I made it to work without too much incident and it only took me 35 minutes instead of my usual 12-15.

I was working the front desk that day and we have a huge window that I can look up from my desk and see all the way to the street, which is the corner of Circle Drive and Miller Ave. That day, there were times when I could see the lights at the intersection, but as the day went on, I wasn't able to see more than 2 feet past the window.

Cor by 9:30am had been able to drop Shorty off at school and make it to work himself.

Things at work were going as expected with the 5 phone lines ringing non stop of people cancelling their appointments. We were able to stay on top of it and by noon almost everyone had cancelled their appointments.

At 1:00pm, I got a call from my best friend D to tell me that they had cancelled school and that her husband would pick up Shorty and bring him home for me. Shorty called me a while later to tell me that he got home safely.

By 2:30pm, the radio was telling people that if they were going to go home they had better try and go now. Our bosses at work conferred and talked to each of us to see if we thought we could make it home and if we could that we were free to leave. One of my coworkers, Ryan, who lives close to me came up and asked what I thought of us going home together. We could either take both vehicles or just one. I offered to take our van as I know how reliable it is and Ryan only has a small car. He said that worked for him and told me to get ready to go. So I command started the van and called the office manager and told her that Ryan and I were going to attempt the drive home together. She very willingly came and relieved me at the front desk. By this time the radio was telling us of all the roads the city police were closing, including some of the bridges.

The ride home was one of the most scary and bizarre rides of my life. I let Ryan drive as I didn't think I was brave enough to attempt it. So off we go. Our first hurdle was at the corner where our work is, Circle Drive and Millar Ave. It was blocked at one side by the police as they were only letting a few cars get onto the freeway going east at a time. Luckily were were headed west. We finally manuvered through all the vehicles in the intersection and made it to circle drive to head west. Driving seemed to be fine as long as we stayed in the middle of the road as there were cars stopped and abandoned on the right side of the road and many cars were in the left hand side trying to turn to side streets to get home. We decided to take the freeway home even though it is totally open and we knew that the drive would be treacherous. Except for stopping so that one lady could get her windshield wiper that had fallen off of her van, we were able to go without too many problems. There were still cars parked along the side of the road that were abandoned but for the most part, we were able to travel without problems. We made it up to Laurier Drive as I decided I wanted to get my friend's husband to come with us so that I wouldn't have to drive alone after dropping off Ryan.

We picked up Dave with little incident and then started off to Ryan's house. He only lives about 1/2 mile away but because of people being stuck in the middle of some of the roads, we had to do some back tracking. We were able to drop off Ryan without any problems and Dave then took the wheel. Again, the main problems were trying to see and make sure we didn't hit another vehicle. At one point, we were trying to go down a fairly main road but due to a school just getting out, there were a lot of people on the road walking, as there were no sidewalks that were travelable (is that a word?). We ended up having to come to a complete stop due to a van that was in the middle of the road, stuck and abandoned. After the cars behind us finally got turned around, we were able to due the same and were then able to make it home safely.

When Dave got my van home, I was very ready for a drink and thank goodness for a strong vodka at that moment. I thanked Dave over and over again for helping me out and he walked home from our house. Corey, in the meantime, was also in the process of making his way home from work, but his start out was much worse due to his workplace being out in the open in the country. Their parking lot had already blown in once and had been cleared out. Corey knew that his truck wouldn't make it through the snow, so he caught a ride with a coworker who also lives close to us and has a 4x4 truck. He was able to make it home about 1 hour after me.

It was not much more fun when we found out that Cor's dad had ended up in a ditch around 2:00pm and was still in the same spot at about 5:00pm. We had no way to get to him and ended up calling a different friend who has a 4x4 to try and get out to rescue him. In the meantime, my f-i-l was finally rescued by some men in a truck only to have that truck go into the ditch as well. They were all finally rescued by people on skidoos. Cor's dad ended up staying the night at a farmhouse on the Dalmeny road that he knew. The cool thing is that Cor's dad was mentioned in the paper.

During the night, the wind tapered down and the city cleaners started to clean. Many of them cleaned without stopping for many hours. Police and fire crews were actually taking these drivers cups of coffees to help keep them warm and awake. Vehicles that were abandoned were all towed to the closest parking lot and left there. People were able to call a certain number and were told from there which parking lot their car was in.

The next day, all the schools in the city were closed. Corey had taken the day off from work to help his dad get his truck and he was able to drive me to work. It was still a busy day at work, but mostly it was all about the the big storm of '07. For a good look at what the storm looked like, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYs7AP8UPic this shows very much what it looked like here.

Well, I wanted to post my story as I am sure many other people will also be doing.