Thursday, February 13, 2014

Snow Part II

Two weeks ago our area braced itself for what we affectionally called Snowstorm 2014. Little did we know, that the weather then was only a tease. A warm up. A practice round. Snowstorm 2014 would really arrive and set in exactly two weeks later. 
Our last weather episode got us an early release, a day off, and a delay from school. And while we all loved seeing and playing in the white stuff, we were ready to bid it farewell and move right into spring. Ha. Not so much. Mother Nature had other plans. And those plans included more white stuff and ICE.
This go round, we had heard the weather reports, but I think many people, or at least me (probably just me), doubted that we would really see anything again. I mean, come on?!? We rarely ever see snow, so to have it twice in the same year, within two weeks - I was highly doubtful.
Tuesday morning, by the time I headed out to work, the precipitation had already started, but it was only rain, maybe a little sleet. By 9:00am or so the snow began. Big, gigantic flakes. Maybe the largest flakes I've seen. Seriously.

The children at school were beside themselves. Snow?!? While at school?!? That's just not how it's supposed to happen. We did have to end up taking a small break so that they could at least run outside and experience it.
By 11:00 or so there was some accumulation, and it wasn't long after that they we got the all call - dismissal at 1:00. More excitement.
Dismissal went pretty smoothly, but it was snowing hard by that point and just the overall excitement/anxiousness of the students, parents and staff, made it interesting.
After all students had been dismissed, we got the go ahead to leave and I headed to grab my little one. The roads were okay at that point. I picked MK up and we headed home to bunker down. Still all the while thinking that we'd most likely have Wednesday off, but surely we'd be back to school by Thursday.
Wednesday morning we woke up to the biggest flakes and our yard was completely white. Schools and businesses everywhere were closed. It snowed for quite some time and then the sleet started. Our area probably got at least two inches of sleet. Roads were awful. Our governor declared a State of Emergency and everyone was encouraged to stay home. We of course took the advice, but did have to take a little ride on the 4wheeler. It was SO cold!
The main roads in front of our neighborhood were terrible. Thankfully we only saw one person out driving.
We got lots of sleet/snow and freezing rain most of the day Wednesday. It wasn't the fun, soft snow you could play in, so that meant a lot of time inside. We made bracelets, we made Valentines, we cut out hearts, we baked cookies, we ate and ate and ate, and some of us even took naps.
 By last night, things had settled down and we all felt like the storm was over.
This morning brought more snow! I'm not sure when South Carolina has last seen three days of snow. It's pretty crazy for us!
As I was typing this earlier today, we lost power. Yikes! We had been fine up until that point. Lights, warmth, food - everything we needed. We did still have warmth (gas logs) though and that's more than a lot of people had/have right now.
The snow/sleet/freezing rain is now over and hopefully life will resume to normal in the South.
Until then, I'm grabbing a warm blanket and enjoying having nothing to do and nowhere to go. 

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