Snowstorm Hits Western North Carolina

A snowstorm hit Western North Carolina this past Friday snarling traffic and hampering people from getting to the stores for their last minute Christmas shopping. Luckily I had already made the traditional milk and bread run that everyone has to do whenever bad weather is predicted in the south!

Now we typically don't have days and days of snow...but we did have a couple of days this time around...nor will most of us starve to death if we didn't make the trek to the grocery store. The biggest obstacle to overcome is power outages. We usually lose power for a few hours at the most but some up to 10 days during the Blizzard of '93, so we have a generator and backup heat. This time is no different for thousands of folks in the area and surrounding counties. About 15,000 are still without power today...Monday 12/21/09...as I write this.

The power crews are diligently trying to restore power, but the trees just keep toppling over from the weight of the snow and the ungodly amount of rainfall that we have had this year...well over a foot over the norm. Temperatures in the 20's at night make it difficult to work as well as the icing that occurs overnight. Road crews are still not on the secondary roads and when they do make to them, they find downed power lines and trees to impede their progress.

So while it looks pretty, we are glad that it is a rare occurrence to have a Winter Wonderland even if we are in the mountains. If we had them more often, then maybe we would learn to cope better.