Night Rick..

 

Good morning Alabama, happy Humpeth Day!

 

Good day Alabama, Pat and all who wander in here..

 

Good morning all, from the frozen and iced region of Birmingham. Everything is shut down here. Lots of horror stories about folks being stranded and lots of vehicle damage across the area. I had to go down to Selma yesterday morning myself, prepared to stay the night due to weather, but was sent back to Birmingham at noon. Took a little over the usual hour to get up to Montevallo, but then the normal 45 minute trip from Montevallo to my house took another 5 hours. I was fortunate to not have any damage, but had to leave my truck in a church parking lot 3 miles from the house... walked half a mile in before my next door neighbor caught up with me in his 4WD Jeep to take me the the rest of the way home. My oldest son is still stranded at the Summit, along with his entire maintenance crew for that property, and his wife is stranded at UAB Hospital. Another son could not get onto the highway from where he works, but managed to get to a friends house in that area. My oldest daughter had a 6 hour trip home from Montevallo the same trip is usually 45 minutes) and arrived home about 15 minutes before I did.

We are very fortunate. The entire region is fortunate because there was no issue with any really significant power outages. There were/are lots of good Samaritans out there, too. In fact, my oldest son and his crew were hosted by Panera Bread at the Summit with an endless supply of soup and coffee all night. I even saw some Home Depot guys walking along the side of a hill in Pelham tossing sand onto the road for those of us who were working to make it up the hill. Several in my neighborhood spent the entire afternoon shuttling people from the neighborhood entrances into where they lived due to the distance and extreme hilliness that makes the walk very difficult in snow and ice.

I just WISH I had 4WD in my truck, though, because there are still so many people stranded all over the region. Oh well... I am determined to make it so... either a complete 2 to 4 conversion, or sell my truck and get another with 4WD. I may not need it often, but when you need it, you NEED it.

 

Howdy Pete.. It sounds like you had a bit of winter woes. I am glad that you and yours are faring well. All we got up this way was a skiff of snow and some icy spots.. The county closed school but the city was to start at 10.

 

Well, the forecast was for us to get what you got, so even half of the city/county cold weather equipment we own was sent to the LA regions for the forecasted ice down there... sort of ironic, isn't it. Like I said, though, the real ice problem here was the warm ground combined with the falling snow, so we didn't get any iced trees or power lines from freezing rain. I just really feel for the hundreds of folks who were stranded in their vehicles overnight.

Also, a lot of our vehicle problems were partially due to inexperienced drivers here who have never or don't know how to handle the icy/snowy road conditions. I don't mean to sound belittling, because I know that you really don't have a lot of control on an iced road, but there are some techniques which can be used to minimize risk, but only if you know them and know how to use them.

 

Afternoon Steve and Pete

-The Great

 

Steve, my sister got 2" of snow in Chatanooga and it closed all of SE TN

-The Great

 

Oh and I didn't get to post yesterday so I ended up NOT passing you

-The Great

 

Morning Alabama.

 

Afternoon Alabama!

 

Hey Alabama. Got snow?

 

Good evening Alabama, Clint, Shaun, Rick and Chris.

Just got a skiff of snow Chris.. The roads I traveled were fine when I went out a little after noon.

 

hey steve...

 

Howdy Steve.