Snowstorm made my Explorer disappear!?

[Exproblems]

Starting around 7pm Monday night, 11-17-14, it began to snow with 40 mph wind gusts. The following photo was taken by me standing inside my garage at approx. 5am the next morning (Tuesday).

The 2nd photo was taken a few hours later after I uncovered my Explorer and removed some of the 4-5 feet deep snow from my driveway.

The 3rd photo is a view to the street in front of my driveway and the neighbors snow drifted roof the morning after the storm started. The snowdrift hanging off of the front of this house fell down the next day on to a lower metal porch canopy and buckled the roof in the middle of the canopy.

The 4th photo is of a deer, taking a rest on a snow drift out behind my home. The local deer are having a hard time moving through the 5-8 foot snow deep drifts. During the height of the snow storm on Wednesday morning, I saw 2 Bucks fighting rack to rack in my backyard, but could not get a picture of that because of the heavy snow fall at the time. The Rut is in full bloom at this time. The snow storm took an 8 hr break on Weds. and the sun came out for a while. By 5pm, the storm was back in full force.

The 5th photo is of another neighbors home draped in a massive snow drift that hangs down nearly half the height of the 2 story home. Hard to believe that snow this heavy could hang like that off of the roof without falling to the ground. This photo was taken on Thurs, 11-20.

The 6th photo is of the snow ending for now and the storm clouds moving south of Buffalo yesterday, 5pm Thursday 11-20-14.

In all, we received 7-8 feet of semi-heavy wet snow from this storm and the snow has compacted in on itself from it's own weight and the high winds, lowering it's original height on the ground. If this was a drier, powder snow fall, we would have had over 10 feet of snow easily. My street has not been plowed yet and has a solid 4 feet of snow or more covering the road and it is Friday, 11-21-14 at 7:20am at the time of this post. I plowed snow in my driveway for 3 straight days and have a path made in the driveway going out to the street in front of my house and can't go any farther. My neighbors and I are stranded in our homes for now. I hope to see the street plowed out some time today or tomorrow and get to a store for food supplies and gasoline for generator and snow removal equipment.
Also, the worst may be coming this weekend when the temps go up into the 40's, 50's and low 60's into early next week with a bunch of rain and add that to all the snow on the ground and roof tops, plus a creek that runs through my backyard, it's has the potential to get even uglier. I've lived in the Buffalo area all of my life (54 years) and this is the most snow fall we have ever received in such a short period of time. The Blizzard of 77' had higher snow drifts (20ft high) and higher wind speed 60+ mph, but only 28 inches of snowfall. The snow laying on top of frozen Lake Erie was blown into the city making that storm worse in the snow drift category. We still have a good 4 1/2 months to go of snowy winter weather threats and Lake Erie doesn't usually freeze over till mid-January where the threat of Lake Effect Snow diminishes. We've had a years worth of snow fall in just 3 days.

 

[Bobmbx]

Since you're not going anywhere, I'd spend the time getting as much snow off the roof as possible. That stuff is super heavy.

 

[Exproblems]

Since you're not going anywhere, I'd spend the time getting as much snow off the roof as possible. That stuff is super heavy.

Yeah I know snow is heavy, I've been dealing with it for 50+ years. The wetter or water laden the snow the heavier and the drier or fluffier, powder snow the lighter. Ours is a combination of both because the temps kept fluctuating between the teens to 31 degrees during the storm. Some "sleet" fell as well. I managed to get most of the snow drifts hanging off of the roof off with a snow-roof rake. The snow is very compacted and hard to break through. One of the larger snow drifts coming off of the roof that I cannot reach is going to rip off my gutter there. Not much I can do about it till it falls off on it's own. FEMA will be getting the bill.

 

[Duranged84]

Wow, do not envy you at all. Hope you are able to get out and get supplies soon.

 

[ROBinGa]

Ok dumb question from southerner not accustomed to snow much less blizzards but why will FEMA get the bill?

 

[Exproblems]

Ok dumb question from southerner not accustomed to snow much less blizzards but why will FEMA get the bill?

Declared State of Emergency, natural disaster relief. Federal relief money.

 

[Exproblems]

Wow, do not envy you at all. Hope you are able to get out and get supplies soon.

Thanks! A neighbor who is a retired streets crew supervisor says our street should be plowed some time tonight. We'll see. It was snowing again an hour ago, but has since stopped. Weather report for tonight says 1-3 inches of new snow, just great, then it gets warmer with rain after that for a few days. Going to be a lot of leaking roof tops soon along with the many that caved in so far from the weight of the snow.

 

[EXPLORER04]

I lucked out. I was at work when my house get hit in Lackawanna. I work at the airport so really wasn't much accumulation there. Couldn't get home for about 3 days though. Best part about working for an airline was the free hotel.

That red light is the plane

 

[Exproblems]

I lucked out. I was at work when my house get hit in Lackawanna. I work at the airport so really wasn't much accumulation there. ]

My nieces husband is a Lieutenant NFTA cop and works at the Buffalo Airport. He works on the over night shift.

 

[Duranged84]

Did ya make it out to get supplies yet?

 

[Exproblems]

Did ya make it out to get supplies yet?

Yes, thanks for asking. MY street was plowed by a front end loader last night finally around 1:30am. He cut a one lane path out of my neighborhood and I also got him to "not plow in" the entrance of my driveway. Luckily I went out there and met him at the end of my driveway. Other people who didn't talk to him when he went by their driveways, got plowed in by huge snow chunks. I then took off for a gas station and found one open with gas about 20 minutes after my driveway was opened. I topped off the Explorer gas and filled (2) 5 gallon jugs of gas. I then went to a supermarket (Tops) and bought $130 worth of food. The store was a ghost town, just me and 2 other people in the store shopping which worked out great for me, no check out lines. As I drove around, the streets looked like a bomb went off on them. Huge piles of snow and stranded cars and trucks all over the place. Many of which were buried by the snow plows that have driven by them. I drove around with the Explorer in 4x4 high and had no problems getting thru the really rough spots. 13 people have died from this storm so far.
This morning, the front end loader came back to open the street some more and I was lucky enough to find a guy with a Bobcat machine who was looking for driveways to plow out. My driveway is fairly long and wide 80 ft long by 25 ft wide and he charged my $150 to clear it out. I said "hell yes"! It was a fair price considering the emergency state of things here. Many of my neighbors hired him as well. I took a few more pictures and I'll post them when I can.
I didn't come out of the storm unscathed. I slipped and fell hard, face first on some ice in the street and landed on the backs of both of my arms from the elbow to shoulder and both of my Triceps muscles and area had intense pain and cramping afterwards. I needed help to get up off of the street, I couldn't put any weight on my triceps muscles. Not sure what I may have torn or just severely bruised, but both of the backs of my arms just above the elbows has swollen up, but no black and blue bruising in the skin just bad swelling. I would think if I tore the muscle I would have some kind of black and blue bruising in that area from the blood vessels popping. My arms are really stiff and sore and I'm having a hard time raising my arms up to my head. I've been putting ice packs on them for now, but will go to the hospital late tonight or tomorrow depending on how I feel then. Just hope it's a bad bruise and not something torn like a tendon, muscle or ligament. This sucks! The storm was bad enough and now this. I'm getting too old for this crap

11-24-14: Update on the injury to my Elbows/upper arms: I was seen by an Orthopedic surgeon today and he said I broke off a bone spur on my elbow bone that was formed as a result of Tendonitis. I've lifted weights for years, most likely the cause of the Tendonitis. He said it is nothing too serious to worry about, no surgery or even a cast on my arm as the PA at the hospital said I would need. Whew, thank God, I was dreading wearing a cast on my arm. The doc said I had good resistance in my tendons and muscles, so he doesn't think I tore any tendons, but still wants me to get an MRI on my left arm/elbow. ON Weds. the 26th, I get the MRI done and on Dec 1st, I see the Doc again for the MRI results. I do have some seriously large, nasty purple/black and blue marks under both of my arms that run from my elbows to my arm pits. My arms do feel a little better today, not as painful or sore and getting more motion out of them. The swelling is going down as well.

 

[Duranged84]

Thats sucks, good to hear you got around and got supplies at least. Wishing a speedy recovery your way. Luckily we dont get that much snow here in Ok, and even when I grew up in Ks and Northern Mo we never got that much, but the slip and falls were still there. Our big pita here is ice, when we have a bad winter, its usually the major ice and then a foot or two of snow. Enough to shut everybody down here. Even still, Oklahoma is pretty slow at getting stuff cleared off and opened back up. But at the same time, the stuff we get here, Everybody would be out and about it back in Ks and Mo, save the foot + of snow, until all the bigger vehicles and 4wds would knock some of it down. I started driving in winter there in a 77 Cadillac at 15. Im a firm believer that everyone should learn to drive in the stuff at a young age, maybe not the severe ice and over foot of snow, but get some experience and use common sense.... Most people here are so scared of the slightest bit of ice and 1/2 inch of snow, except the 4wd people who think its time to play on all the major roads while everyone else is creeping just trying to make it in one piece.

Dont get me wrong, I love playing in it, but not in traffic, come on. These idiots run 10-20 over the normal speed limits in it just because they know the cops cant catch them and usually end up hitting something or someone. nobody seems to understand 4wd doesnt help you stop (Ok, to a point it can) but still not acceptable for running 40 mph on ice and snow in town/traffic.

Alright end hijack/rant just gets me every year, all these no driving fools around here. Time and place for everything. If you can, go ahead and go get checked out at the er before it gets much worse and colder, more snow drifts, etc. Let us know how you're doin.

 

[section525]

Thanks for sharing the photos and story. Pretty amazing show from Mother Nature!

 

[Exproblems]

Thats sucks, good to hear you got around and got supplies at least. Wishing a speedy recovery your way. Luckily we dont get that much snow here in Ok, and even when I grew up in Ks and Northern Mo we never got that much, but the slip and falls were still there. Our big pita here is ice, when we have a bad winter, its usually the major ice and then a foot or two of snow. Enough to shut everybody down here. Even still, Oklahoma is pretty slow at getting stuff cleared off and opened back up. But at the same time, the stuff we get here, Everybody would be out and about it back in Ks and Mo, save the foot + of snow, until all the bigger vehicles and 4wds would knock some of it down. I started driving in winter there in a 77 Cadillac at 15. Im a firm believer that everyone should learn to drive in the stuff at a young age, maybe not the severe ice and over foot of snow, but get some experience and use common sense.... Most people here are so scared of the slightest bit of ice and 1/2 inch of snow, except the 4wd people who think its time to play on all the major roads while everyone else is creeping just trying to make it in one piece.

Dont get me wrong, I love playing in it, but not in traffic, come on. These idiots run 10-20 over the normal speed limits in it just because they know the cops cant catch them and usually end up hitting something or someone. nobody seems to understand 4wd doesnt help you stop (Ok, to a point it can) but still not acceptable for running 40 mph on ice and snow in town/traffic.

Alright end hijack/rant just gets me every year, all these no driving fools around here. Time and place for everything. If you can, go ahead and go get checked out at the er before it gets much worse and colder, more snow drifts, etc. Let us know how you're doin.

Thanks on the speedy recovery. I just tried to do some online research on what I did to myself. Could be anything from a elbow bursa sac injury to tendon ligament injury. I know it's real sensitive/tender just above the back side of my elbow points on the back of my arm. The elbow bends okay, but gets tight and painful the farther I bend them inward. The swelling is kind of freakish in size, left arm worst than the right.
Yeah, ice is tricky to drive in, especially "Black" ice. In my younger years in the 70's driving around in my rear wheel drive cars, we would "fish tale" all over the place, doing doughnuts and having a blast. We also would play in the street as a kid and when a car came down the street towards us, we would have a fake fight to get the car to stop. Then we would grab on to the rear bumper or rear fender well and "hitch" a ride with our feet/boots sliding along the snow. We called it "Hitchin" back in the day. Those were the days!
It takes an awful lot of snow here to shut things down and keep people inside. 2 feet of snow is nothing here, business as usual. Even the little old ladies drive in it to get to the store for their lottery tickets. LOL
We have those "no driving fools" around here as well, even though everyone around here grew up driving in snow each winter. Some people just don't know how to drive in the stuff or they panic and drive too slow tying up traffic.
Thanks again and I'll get my arms checked out soon if it doesn't get better or gets worse by tomorrow and I'll post it up when I know more as to what I did to myself in the fall. I know I didn't hear any pops of cracks when I hit the ground, that's a good thing I guess, just the severe nerve pain and muscle cramping. I was flopping around on the ground like a fish out of water for a few moments.

 

[Exproblems]

Thanks for sharing the photos and story. Pretty amazing show from Mother Nature!

No problem and yes, it was quite the snow storm and I've been through many of them over the years.

 

[Duranged84]

Did that flopping around include some unfriendly-non allowable on this site language as well? lol not funny but the way you described it...

 

[tubeless]

Hope you come out of this OK.
If we got that much snow down here I don't know what we would do.
When we lived in a trailer 6" of snow would make the roof sag, but it would be gone the next day.
An inch of snow shuts every thing down around here.

 

[Exproblems]

Did that flopping around include some unfriendly-non allowable on this site language as well? lol not funny but the way you described it...

Like "Kramer" from "Seinfeld" said after the dentist shot him up with too much Novocain, " I let the expletives fly"! LOL, that was a funny Seinfeld Episode, where "Jimmy" spoke in the 3rd person when referring to himself. Yeah, I let the F-bombs fly for a few minutes while on the ground and just about every time I roll over in bed and move my arms. They get real stiff and are sore as all hell. Can't even raise my arms high enough to pick my nose. LOL I went to the hospital ER today after a baseball sized black and blue bruise appeared on my left elbow and the swelling was bad. Turns out I fractured the Ulnar bone on my left elbow and need to see an Orthopedic surgeon Monday or so to have my arm wrapped in a cast. They said the bone is where it should be, didn't move out of place. Both elbows had contusions and were bruised badly. The right arm should be okay as far as I know now, just bruised badly. The ER just did an x-ray of the elbows and they gave me this POS, cheap a$$ sling to hang my left arm in. They also gave me some Anaprox DS pills to take. It just keeps getting better.

 

[Exproblems]

Hope you come out of this OK.
If we got that much snow down here I don't know what we would do.
When we lived in a trailer 6" of snow would make the roof sag, but it would be gone the next day.
An inch of snow shuts every thing down around here.

Thanks a lot! There are a lot of homes and mobile homes with roofs that caved in around here from the snow. During the night last night, I heard a huge snow drift slide off of the roof and it shook the wall of the house for a second as it let go. Most of the snow on the roof tops has melted by now with temps in the upper 40's and going up to near 60 tomorrow, but with 60 mph winds and turning colder by Thanksgiving with more snow.

 

[Duranged84]

Damn that sucks man. Hope the rest of the storm and crap is uneventful for ya.