We Got Hammered!

I still can't get the stupid blogger software to post any pics so I decided to post them on my own web space instead. Here they are: Snow Pictures.

In case you haven't listened to the news lately, we got hammered Thursday in the Tulsa area by a winter storm, something we're not accustomed to, and in November no less. Way too early here in Oklahoma for that kind of storm.

The sleet started coming down early Thursday morning, turning to snow about midday. It continued on into the wee hours of Friday morning, accumulating around ten inches in the Tulsa area before it finally stopped early the same morning. I work for a large hospital in the area and my department (maintenance) was charged with keeping the hospital roads and sidewalks free from the wintery mix. It was a tough and demoralizing job on Thursday because once we had an area clear, it wasn't long before we had to go right back and do the same area again, because the precipitation just wouldn't let up. It seemed like the night just wouldn't end. We had to take frequent breaks because of the fatigue caused by hard physical work in the bitter cold. Tired muscles, long hours and wet clothes were the order of the day.

Early Thursday I told my lead that I was going to try and work until ten-o-clock that night. But as the day wore on, it was clear that the weather was getting worse by the minute, and if I wanted to spend the night at home instead of at the hospital, I needed to leave no later than 7:45 PM. And besides, I just sleep better in my own bed, and good sleep is exactly what I needed that night.

But I soon found out, as I got on the highway, just exactly how bad the weather had indeed deteriorated. It was very difficult to see because the wind was blowing the snow very hard, creating an almost white-out condition. And to make matters worse, my windshield wipers were icing up, making visibility that much poorer. I was beginning to get a little nervous because I came to the realization that what I was actually doing was driving into a blizzard, and a thirty mile stretch of highway still lay between my home and myself. I drive a Jeep Wrangler which of course made me feel better, and I'm no stranger to the operation of 4x4 vehicles, but seeing the high number of vehicles left abandoned along-side the highway made me realize that being stranded on that particular night could be deadly, if one wasn't alert and prepared.

Further down the road I began to encounter some deep ruts, which, if not handled properly, can throw your vehicle into another vehicle if one happens to be beside you. Fortunately I managed to evade that hazard.

A little while later I noticed another potential hazard looming ahead. The tractor-trailer that was slightly ahead and to the right of me began to slow down, way down. "What did he see"? I said to myself. After I traveled another several hundred feet I then saw what he had spotted. There were three vehicles blocking the middle of the highway, completely stopped. I noticed several occupants of one of the vehicles were actually out on the highway pushing an SUV out of a rut and onto the road, which I'm guessing the owner of the SUV had missed because of the blinding conditions. A dangerous situation to say the least, but it soon became apparent that they had the situation under control and needed no further assistance, so I decided to slowly pass them in order to gain access to the road that I needed access to. It was then that I heard a man yelling and knocking on my passenger-side window, telling me I was headed the wrong way and pointing in the direction that I needed to go instead. I then realized that I, too, had almost missed the road because the deep snow had hidden it from view. But because of that alert Samaritan, I managed to avoid the same mistake the owner of the SUV had made.

Whew!! Yet another bullet I dodged that night because of the grace of God.

The next day, Friday, I was able to get to work without much trouble. The plows had come through and I observed very little traffic on the roads.

As I said previously, around 5 AM Friday morning the snow finally stopped falling, so once we cleared an area it was truly done because we didn't have to go back over it as we had done the previous day. This seemed to make the work go by more quickly and made us actually feel like we were accomplishing something. There is nothing more demoralizing than that "Spinning Your Wheels" feeling as what we had experienced the previous day.

After all was said and done, the most rewarding part of my job during this ordeal was being able to help hospital visitors free their stuck vehicles from the parking lots they were in. We must have helped around 60 or so people get free from their snow and ice-bound parking spaces. I say "rewarding" because people are most appreciative when you are able to help them get on their way again. The look of relief in their eyes is particularly satisfying.

The blizzard of 2006 was a memorable one here in Tulsa.