Snow reeks Havoc!

So, I thought living in Boone was bad when it snowed. But, truly, there is no comparison to the panic attacks that Raleighites and Durhamites have when little flakes start to fall. Talk about Hades on Earth!

The Meteorologists completely missed it. It was a sneak attack by some moisture hiding out in our upper atmosphere. It was as if the snow was dying to give a surprise "party" to us central North Carolinians.

I would say it started to snow yesterday as I made my trek across campus at about 11:25am. As I walked, the little flakes and the wind began to annoy me. I thought to myself, "I'm not living in the mountains anymore! It shouldn't be snowing here!" I went in to my office shortly thereafter to only look out the window and see more flakes. Okay, so I was completely underestimating the panic that these flakes would send our part of the state into. I trusted my local weather forecasts. Why did they deceive me?

As the afternoon progressed on, an ESL teacher called in to ask me if I could go let his students know that he was going to be late. He was stuck in traffic. I wasn't prepared for what I would see next. I went outside to trek to the otherside of campus and found a mini-winter wonderland. The snow had been sticking to the roads and Lawson hill became Lawson Nightmare. Cars couldn't make it up our 15 degree incline! It reminded me of Stadium Dr. on a cold, snowy winter's day in Boone. This, however, was just the start of the nightmares.

Durham Tech decided to close early at 4pm (church was cancelled, too). I left at about that time to discover a 1/4 inch of snow on my car that was easily brushed off by my scraper brush. Then, I started to pull out of the parking lot. As it so happened to be, a guy in a white car did not look as he pulled out in front of me. No, he did not hit me nor I him, but I had to slam my breaks and slide to a halt. Needless to say, I laid on my horn (hey, I only honked twice yesterday!).

Luckily, they had scraped Lawson hill when it was time for my adventure home. However, as I approached the stop sign, I noticed that the Durham Freeway was a dead stop, literally. So I made a quick decision to turn right and cut over to Alston St., NC 55. Everything going that way was great until we got within 2 miles of the road that would cut me over to my back route. Thanks be to God that He gave me the foresight, at all, to take an alternate route than I-40. I will explain shortly.

It was stop an roll all the way for that long 2 mile stretch. By the time we made it to the turn, 30 minutes had gone by. Little did I know that it would be another hour and 45 minutes to make it just to Cary (granted, my ride is only 20-25 minutes on a normal day). We picked up for a 1/4 mile on Cornwalis until we stopped, crawled, and rolled all the way to Davis Dr. As we crossed over top the Durham Freeway, I noticed it was still stopped (I had seen it stopped 5 miles back). I knew I-40 was bad.

Once I turned onto Davis Dr. (which happens to cut all the way over to Cary if you didn't already know), it picked up for another 1/4 mile, but I could see the break lights 1/4 mile back. This route allowed me to see the chaos that was I-40. It was dead stop, and yet people were still trying to get on it. Why? Why? Do you not have common-sense and a radio blaring the warnings?

Davis Dr. wasn't a bad drive. Tim, my brother, was in the car, and I felt like a hero. We were definitely moving faster than I-40! He even called me "smart" which is pretty unusual for him to say! At least, all the sliding and speeding idiots weren't behind me anymore (as they were earlier).

Over the radio, they kept asking people to only make calls if they had to because the phone system (all aspects) was overloading and some people couldn't even get through to call 911. Yet, as I drove, the opposite side of traffic had a cell phone user at least every three cars!

I was so excited when I started to drive 25mph and then 35mph. We made it to Cary, turned onto High House Rd and, Lo and Behold, no traffic, clear roads, and two open lanes. It only took us 10-15 minutes from that point home.

Our total trip time: 2 and a half hours.

If we had been on I-40, our total trip time would have been 6 hours (as one of my co-workers found out the hard way). Truly, yesterday was the first day that I ever regretted working in Durham.

The problems extended from the fact that this was a freak snow storm. We didn't even get that much snow, but because they let out all the public schools early and everyone had to get off at the same time to pick up their kids, the volume of traffic and the inability for snow plows and salting trucks to get through caused the worst traffic nightmare that I have ever seen these 22 years of living in this area!

Many children never made it home from school, having a slumber party with their teachers at their school (that stinks because they cancelled school today). People were stranded. Grocery stores were raided. Good Samaritans abounded. Parking Lot highways. Accidents Galore. Jack-knifed trucks everywhere. Sliding cars. Spinning tires. Abandoned cars (I saw at least 20-30 cars on the way to work today along I-40). I'd rather drive in the snow in Boone anyday! At least in Boone, most people are prepared!

Durham Tech opened late today. Who knows if we'll open tomorrow with the impending threat for another bout of snow tonight. As I heard so cleverly this morning, the meteorologists decided to take the "conservative" route in predicting this upcoming storm (maybe another this weekend). At least we know it is coming.

My thought is: if it's going to snow, it should be enough for sleding!