Wild stories from snowstorms past, including “one of my plows ate a Volkswagen that was hidden in a drift.” What’s your strangest storm story?
Last week I tried to settle a bet about blizzards. Was Colorado’s 2003 worse than 1997's or vice versa?
The National Weather Service had recorded 7 feet of snow in the Rocky Mountains on March 18-19, 2003 and Denver area recorded almost 22 inches on Oct. 26, 1997. Denver biggie: 45.7 inches which fell over five days in December 1913. Colorado Springs record snowfall over 24 hours: 25.6 inches on March 11, 1909.
Well, I learned a whole lot about Colorado blizzards after the column came out and I’m sure there are other amazing stories out there, too.
Here’s more:
Leslie Jakeman remembered the one in 1997: “The blizzard was in Denver on Oct. 25, 1997 NOT Oct. 26, 1997. I know because my brother Greg got married in Denver on Oct. 25, 1997. It started snowing on the 24th and didn’t stop until the 26th. None of us will ever forget that day. The wedding was at the cathedral in downtown Denver. The ceremony was delayed 2 hours. The musicians, the ring bearer and many of the guests were unable to get there. There were more homeless people in attendance than invited guests. I-25 was closed for three days and we were stranded at the Sheraton Hotel in Lakewood during the Trekkie (“Star Trek”) Convention. The blizzard was a nightmare but the wedding was beautiful.”
Jim Mesite was El Paso County Emergency Program Manager during both the 1997 and 2003 storms.
“The 1997 event put almost the entire county, including most of the City of Colorado Springs, at a standstill for almost 3 days. It began overnight Friday, and turned out to be much bigger than the U.S. Weather Service anticipated. My supervisor at the time could not even reach the County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) downtown, and called me to tell me, in Peaceful Valley, not to even try to get in, as they had already heard of two people buried very close to my house. (In all, 4 fatalities were directly related to the storm).
“When I finally was able to get out to relieve him there was only one lane on Marksheffel Road passable. The snow on both sides of the lane was at least 10 feet high! We got pictures later of drifts estimated to be 12 feet high completely blocking the Big R store entrance east of Falcon. Some roads out east could only be cleared and searched for stranded motorists, with a three-vehicle convoy consisting of a front-end loader in the lead to break down the drift to plowable height, the biggest plow-trucks the county had behind it, and a Humvee of soldiers from Fort Carson behind it, to search for buried cars with long poles to stick in the banks! Reports from multiple sources, including the Weather Service, were that in some areas at least 48 inches of snow had fallen, with many drifts as large as described above.
“The 2003 event was pretty bad, but the worst problems we dealt with were school busses that could not get children home from the Eastern School Districts. Most of them were stuck and taken into private homes for a day or two. The City of Colorado Springs was affected much less. In addition, most roads were able to be opened in about half the time it had taken to dig out after the 1997 storm.”
Gary Dugan, retired from CSPD and the Street Division, said the worst blizzard he remembered was actually March 1977. In a 1991 interview with The Gazette, longtime county public works director Max Rothschildtold the reporter that 1977 was indeed the worst winter he recalled, when five people died. A large number of cattle were killed and the eastern half of the county was buried under drifts.
In the interview Rothschild said, “It was the first time I ever remember driving through cliffs of snow 16 to 18 feet high” created when plows sliced through drifts hiding hundreds of abandoned cars. “One of my plows ate a Volkswagen that was hidden in a drift,” he recalled.
A major problem with this 1977 storm was the wind, 82 mph strong east of the city. Team that with 13.4 inches of snow. The storm hit hardest between Colorado Springs and Limon and there was $4 million in damage and loss.
Another reader remembered a snowstorm when it was “illegal to drive” in Colorado Springs. And then there was the storm that for a time buried a police officer in his cruiser, creating headlines from the 1960s TV sitcom, “Car 54, Where are You?”
Read more: http://www.coloradosprings.com/articles/blizzards-13773-county-tried.html
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