Wednesday through Friday, where I live, we got hammered with a massive freak winter storm. Over 2 feet of snow in places, large drifts and strong winds. Millions of downed trees from the heavy snow. Too brittle from long hot and dry weather. I have over 30 down on my property alone and I couldn't drive out due to too much snow, a power line hanging 3ft across my driveway and many downed trees. My power was out for 3 days and some people still do not have power. Hydro crews are working frantically to get things restored but it is a HUGE undertaking considering hundreds of poles are down and almost all the wires between every pole are down or sagging due to fallen trees. At least my land line was working and have a wood stove to keep the house warm. No cell service where I live either. Now that I have had a couple of times to drive around to see some of the damage I am quite shocked! It looks like thousands of tornadoes ripped through the whole area. I cant describe how widespread the damage is and how many years this will create problems when trees that didn't fall will fall at a later date. I'd say around 50-70% of the trees are down or split but not yet fallen. I am pretty sure the next big winter storm will cause many more to fall and more power outages. It will take years to clean up the trees all around.

Thursday morning when I woke up to the sound of my UPS power backup beeping after I lost power I quickly realized I needed to get out here. Frantically I packed up my external hard drives, grabbed a guitar and my dog and loaded up the car. I was just about ready to leave when 2 large trees snapped and blocked my driveway. Sounds of the trees snapping in the around my yard as I raced to unload the car back in to the house. The sound is simply indescribable! If you were to be under one of these trees when it snapped and came down you would surely be killed. Many homes, cottages and structures got damaged. It will take me a few weeks to clean my yard and will never look the same!!

This photo is of my driveway taken on day 2 of the storm when I decided to take a walk with the camera.

Hey Scott,

Wow! What a massive snow! Was that the same storm that dumped a bunch of snow in Minesota? I am glad you are safe, but how crazy? Do you have a generator?

Nice shot by the way.

Jim

Wow thats awful Scott! I hope the clean up goes smoothly for you Scott. At least you're ok and your house seems fine.

Are you out in the Ontario area?

Jason

I'm glad you were not hurt! Good luck clearing those trees - great shot despite the conditions.

That is some serious damage to the trees. To me, it has a surreal look.

Back in 1989, we had a large ice storm, and since I work for the Alabama Dept. of Transportation, we got to travel the area with FEMA officials so that they could see the damage. One of them was from Miami, and he thought that all of the trees were dead, just because they had no leaves on them. I guess he had never seen a living tree with no leaves in Miami, so I guess I can understand his viewpoint.

I hope that the recovery efforts get things back to as normal as they can be in a speedy manner, however personal safety rules in how fast that goes.

Regards, Colin

Most importantly you are okay! Sorry to hear of you losing so many mature trees. Just another freakish curveball that Mother Nature can throw our way.

Wow... that is incredible. I am glad you are safe.

Ute

Glad you're OK Scott. I can certainly understand the extent of the damage as we had a similar "freak storm" last October. It took months to get things cleaned up.
Good luck with your cleanup and hopefully the next storm will hold off for a couple of months.

Mike

Glad to hear that you are OK. You still managed to capture a great shot..
harsha

Whoah Scott!

An amazing eaely winter storm! Glad you are OK!

Nice dramatic image though.

Glad you are okay! We had an Oct. storm last year with very similar results to what you are experiencing. The creepiest part was the popping and cracking of the trees and limbs as they broke under the pressure of the heavy snow.

Be safe!

C

Thank you all so much!

Thankfully by tomorrow I am confident I will be mobile with my own vehicle. Been using my parent's 4x4 Ranger to get around. Pig on gas compared to my Elantra. Other then clearing the trees on my actually driveway I haven't started cleaning up. I will wait til the snow is gone. Hopefully by the weekend. Still can't believe how much damage has been done to the forest. Simply incredible. I am hoping to get out to some areas I haven't seen but heard was much worse them my town. Not sure what to expect.


JimFox wrote:
Hey Scott,

Wow! What a massive snow! Was that the same storm that dumped a bunch of snow in Minesota? I am glad you are safe, but how crazy? Do you have a generator?

Nice shot by the way.

Jim

Thank you Jim. It is. Blew in from the south. I live an hour from the Canada/US border near Warroad MN. No generator but am seriously thinking about getting one.

roguecoolman wrote:
Wow thats awful Scott! I hope the clean up goes smoothly for you Scott. At least you're ok and your house seems fine.

Are you out in the Ontario area?

Jason

Thank you. House seems to have made it through unscathed. That is good! I am in SE Manitoba. The hardest hit from the storm.

Though almost all of my photos taken during the past few days have been taken with news paper in mind I did get a couple for myself. The one in this thread and this one of an old house on the main street through town. I've only driven by it no less then 3000 times but never stopped for a photo. Til now!

Good to hear that you and home are okay, Scott. Sorry to hear about your trees. I know what you mean about the sound when they crack. I've heard plenty of them go during various hurricanes... none from snow though!

Love the 2nd shot of the old house. It has a somewhat European feel. Looks lonely.

I wish the snow was a bit lighter in #1. The scene is indeed chaotic and the snow looks very heavy, like a thick frosting ading to the drama. Very nice.

Wow that is quite a storm, glad to hear you are riding it out. That second shot is wonderful, the first does show that nature doesn't care that much. Hope the clean up goes well.

Rob

Wonderful image and glad you are OK too. Looks like it may be a long winter.

Glad you're OK - I'm surprised I didn't see more about this on the news. That second shot is great!

Thank you all once again!

Still got snow but I am mobile again! Hoping the snow will melt in the next few days so I can start tackling the mess!

Many people were commenting about the lack of news coverage. The news paper for the area used 2 of my photos in today's paper. Front page feature and second page feature. So hopefully people will get a better understanding how it was here. How some people were with out power, phone or heat. This is a dead cell service area. Some people were completely cut off from the world for a few days. I have wood heat and luckily my land line still worked even though 2 trees were leaning on the line.