Snow Storm 2014

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this but if you google it I am sure you can find a ton!

It has been REALLY cold lately (like in the teens to single digits at night and in the upper twenties during the day). We were forecasted to get only a dusting of snow, if any, on Tuesday so life went on like normal in Birmingham. (The city normally shuts down with any mention of snow--I have always made fun of that!)  

By 11:00 it had started snowing a good amount and all schools decided to close at noon. This put a large amount of cars on the road all at the same time. The snow that was coming down was really dry and kind of icy. Not your typical fun snow. The combination of really cold temperature, dry snow, and massive amount of cars on the road equaled a hoffific disaster! The snow melted just enough when it hit the road to form a layer of ice and as the snow continued to fall the cars compacted it even more causing a solid layer of ice to form on ALL the roads. Mix this with hills, cars with no 4 wheel drive, and people not used to driving in icy/snowy conditions.

I left the office at 11:15 to make the 30 minute drive to the daycare to go pick up Brooks. I was excited to go home and take pictures of him playing in the snow! I had heard the the interstate had several wrecks on it so I took the highway. I quickly noticed that the traffic was bad and started to doubt that I was going to make it to the daycare by 12. I tried to call them to let them know but couldn't get a call out. That is when I started to realize something wasn't right. This Florida girl has absolutely no experience driving in icy conditions and this was definitely not the greatest time for me to learn. My car fish tailed several times and almost couldn't make it up a couple of hills. At one point, I was REALLY close to abandoning my car on the side of the road and walking the 5 miles remaining to the daycare because I didn't think my car was going to make it up a hill. It ended up getting just enough traction to get going. People had abandoned cars all over the place and were walking every direction on the highway. I have never seen anything like it. It ended up taking me 4.5 hours to make it the 12 miles to the daycare.

I was so excited when I finally made it to the daycare! Several of the teachers told me not to attempt to drive home. (I still had a 30 minute drive over several hills to get to our house.) I really debated if I should stay or not; it was awkward thinking about staying at the daycare. Mike really didn't feel comfortable with me driving so I decided to stay. Turns out, I was not the only one! The unofficial count was 56 kids without parents and 70 kids with parents plus teachers stayed overnight. 

Brooks was confused. He couldn't figure out why we weren't leaving to go home.

The chef was also snowed in, so he made dinner for all of us!

Brooks is a thief and kept stealing everyone's green beans!

Sleeping did not really happen that night. I think Brooks and I slept for about 3 hours in broken spurts. He was completely thrown off of his routine. (Not the best picture but here is one of those spurts!)

As morning came, we were hoping that the ice would melt enough for everyone to make it home. However, it was not supposed to get above freezing so only places exposed to sunlight started to melt. This meant the hill outside the daycare (where my car was parked) and all of the roads near my house were still going to be iced over. I was basically stuck.

Some amazing friends saw a post on Facebook saying that I was still at the daycare. They had a neighbor with a 4 wheel drive jeep and were able to come rescue us. (They helped 8 people whose cars were stuck or who had had accidents on the way!) They had clean clothes, showers, and real beds for us. It was AMAZING!! 

Brooks didn't like it at all!

Mike had been stuck at the hospital the entire time and finally made it to our house around noon on Thursday. The roads near us were still pretty icy but were starting to melt. By the afternoon, the temperatures had warmed up to 40 so most of the ice that was on the roads had melted. I was able to get my car and finally made it home around 4:00. It was very nice to finally be home and with Mike! We had both missed him a ton!

NEVER AGAIN will I make fun of Birmingham for shutting down when snow is forecasted. This was one of the worst/scariest/craziest/most stressful things I have ever been a part of!