SNOWMAGEDDON – trapped in our own home by Mother Nature
You may have heard the news or even seen the pictures on TV – winter weather came to North Georgia this week in a very big way. It should not have been a surprise for anyone, the weather forecast had been promising this since the start of the weekend. We made all the sensible preparations for a storm, going out on Monday afternoon to the shops to stock up on life’s essentials (and a few comfort luxuries for us, and an extra load of seed for the birdfeeders). We knew that if things got tough, there would be no going out for an extra pint of milk for us.
The weather forecast on Monday night said that there was a 30% risk of light snow starting late afternoon. They got it slightly wrong – since about 1pm on Tuesday we had had a 100% reality of heavy snow and it continued until midnight. The temperature dropped sharply as the day went on, and the fallen snow turned into ice, and there was no thaw at all on Wednesday. Since there is a 1 in 12 slope up the road from the house, and a much steeper ascent to get the cars out of their garage to the road, there is no way we could go anywhere for a while. It was just as well we went shopping for perishables on Monday.
However, our problems were as nothing in comparison to Atlanta, 40 miles away. The snow started falling there a couple of hours before here. TV and radio had been broadcasting weather warnings continuously all day, and schools and businesses all closed early to enable people to get home. A very bad move. Just as a million people headed for home, the roads turned into a skid pan. Lorries were jack-knifing to block roads, cars lost grip on the ice and slid into the crash barriers. Cars could not get off the highways as the exit ramps were blocked by cars which couldn’t move on the ice. CHAOS. The whole city turned into a massive gridlock.
And what did the authorities do about this? They held press conferences. They blamed meteorologists, local and national, for not giving them any warning (to be fair, the predictions one day before said that the worst snow would be twenty miles South of Atlanta – though the exact storm track was well publicised on Tuesday morning). They set up co-ordination committees. The Governor declared a state of emergency. The National Guard was mobilised. But all the snow ploughs and gritting lorries were in the wrong places, and once the authorities woke up to the problem it was too late – the roads were all jammed with stationery traffic, blocking any chance of clearing the way.
Homebound commuters were stranded in their cars for up to 20 hours (yes, twenty). A woman gave birth in her snow-trapped car. Schoolchildren were marooned in their schools, unable to get home, and settled down for the night there. Eventually, people gave up and abandoned their cars on the side of the road and walked for hours to get home.
On Wednesday, Atlanta awoke to blocked roads. The city closed down for two further days until the temperatures rose above freezing and the snow started to melt. And up in Dahlonega, we stayed at home and got on with life. By Friday, we were getting a bit stir crazy and decided it was time to attempt an escape. So, we put salt on the road to hopefully make a track up the ice-covered road, scraped a bit and gave it a try. Amazing – we just made it to the crest of the ridge where we were greeted by a bone dry clear road. It was like going to Narnia where in one step you move from bleak midwinter into spring (or the inside of a wardrobe). All the snow and ice had melted away apart from our section at the end of the road. I assume it was because the road faces in a Northerly direction, so the sun had not had a chance to melt anything by the house. We drove into town and concluded that we were the last people in the area to be snowbound (though we did hear subsequently from some other folk who had only managed to get out on Friday, like us). As we drove through the countryside, we did see sheltered rocky outcrops covered in sheets of ice with icicles dripping down.
On the Building Site
Work on framing the house slowed down a little this week, as can be imagined from the weather. Actually, Milan and the crew were out at work from Wednesday – the roads to the site were apparently open even if it was a bit chilly. There was reasonable progress – by the end of the week the shape of the roof over part of the house is visible – the roof beams are up over the garage and master bedroom, rafters show where the ceiling will be in the dining room. The outside walls are starting to appear. American construction methods are a continuing source of amazement to me. The walls are made of heavy grade plywood secured to a timber framework. When complete, they are covered in a plastic sheet material to provide a waterproof barrier, and then faced with a mixture (in our case) of brick, stone and siding. The roof is similarly made of plywood and covered with a heavy grade waterproofing. It all seems a bit odd to me, but they come with a very long warranty, enough to see me out before anything needs replacing.
Click here to see the house framework taking shape.
We continue the background work, with Lisa tracking down just the right bathroom taps, garage doors and tiles (and then going shopping for them as cheap as maybe on the Internet!). Overall, we are still on schedule and budget, but mainly due to the efforts of Lisa.
Come back next week and find out how the building project is progressing now. There is some rain expected, which might slow things down. But we do need to make steady progress as the immense roof trusses from Accent Trusses in North Carolina are expected in one week’s time. And Sunday is Super Bowl day – the annual American Football championship game. Failure to watch this would probably put my Green Card in jeopardy